Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/01/22
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]You are right, I think Leica have completely misjudged the potential market with a la carte. The market was flooded by special editions. A dealer here was selling the ein stuck for less than he was selling a standard M6 with 35 f1.4 asph! The real collectors items are the real old ones and prototypes. Ideal users can be chosen from the multitude of real Leicas already made. This should fulfil the requirements of every person who will ever want to use one in the digital future. Only the few who don't buy second hand (I pretty well -only- buy second hand) will miss the demise of the M. Mine still does everything I need from it and will not need replacing in my lifetime. The R is a more complicated story. Frank On 22 Jan, 2005, at 05:04, Daniel Ridings wrote: >> I think Hasselblad is being a lot smarter about the future than Leica >> and if they don't do something soon they are going to be finished. But >> I would also bet that at that point ,they get bought by a big Japanese >> firm... > > Hasselblad is as far, or further, down the road of financial problems > than > Leica. It's hard to guess who will go down first, Leica or Hasselblad. > Leica has already started taking some of the same measures: stopping > production, for example. > > But Hasselblad has gotten a raw deal. The company was bought up (by the > Swiss) in the 90's. At that time Hasselblad had an advanced R&D group > working on digital. > > The new owners said "No. Stick to film." and dismantled all R&D. Yet > new > owners (Honk Kong) have now decided digital it the thing. Day late and > a > dollar short. > > So in Hasselblad's case it wasn't management so much as greedy capital > that ruined them. > > Same process is going on with Kodak, Ilford, but not Agfa (as much). > "Forget new products, new directions, milk the cow you have as long as > you > can and then liquidate." > > Leica's cow is people with too much money in their pocket. Leica's > business idea is to lighten their load. Photography doesn't have > anything > to do with it. There's nothing a new Leica can do that my M2 can't do. > Nothing. You push the shutter and it takes a picture. I like that. > Thank-you Leica. We're both old fogies, Leica with their technology and > film users. Our days are numbered. Soon some of us relics will be > figuring > in glossy b/w magazines for fine art. Most of us won't. > > Daniel > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >