[Leica] Doomed: Leica MP 0.58x

[bdcolen at earthlink.net (B. D. Colen)]

The market is indeed in turmoil. But keep in mind that companies such as
Leica, and even Hasselblad, with - in real world terms - niche markets
to start with, have far less cushion than companies such as Pentax,
Olympus, etc., which are much more 'consumer' companies. In the case of
Olympus, the photo products have always been the tip of the tail for
which the dog is known - Olympus is really a medical equipment/optical
company, with enormous shares of some U.S. and international product
markets. Even in terms of the digital cameras, in gauging the long-term
outlook, I think you have to make separate assessments of the pro-line
and the consumer cameras. I'd bet on consumer being with us for a long
time, while the survival of the pro-line will very much depend upon how
and to whom the cameras are marketed, and how quickly Olympus can expand
the lens line and upgrade the current body. When you consider that the
E-1, with a new format, in essence came out of nowhere not much more
than a year ago, and the company has since the introduction with four
lenses already introduce three new lenses - two pro and one consumer, a
prosumer body, has another new zoom close to release, and other lenses
slated for this year, I'd say any predictions of the line's demise are
extremely premature. 
(And NO, this is not an official line I'm provided by the company along
with equipment. ;-))

-----Original Message-----
From: lug-bounces+bdcolen=earthlink.net@leica-users.org
[mailto:lug-bounces+bdcolen=earthlink.net@leica-users.org] On Behalf Of
Feli
Sent: Saturday, January 22, 2005 4:12 AM
To: Leica Users Group
Subject: Re: [Leica] Doomed: Leica MP 0.58x


The point was that Hasselblad seems to finally gotten the message and 
is trying to
do something about it, even if it's late in the game.  Meanwhile over 
in Solms they still appear to be pretty clueless.

Obviously both companies in trouble and there is a good chance that 
they will not make it.

But in general I think we seem to be on the verge of a shakeout in the 
market as a whole.

How long do you think Minolta/Konica or Pentax is going to be able to 
hang in there?
Is Olympus far behind? From a distance it appears that really only 
Canon and maybe Sony in the consumer market are really secure. For the 
past few years Nikon has been looking like it's one serious screw up 
away from being a footnote in photographic history. If they drop the 
ball with the D2x, they are done for in anything but the prosumer 
market. The D2H was a big misstep; the 1d II pretty much annihilated it 
the day it came out.

So, I think it's safe to say that the entire market is in turmoil.

feli

On Jan 21, 2005, at 9:04 PM, Daniel Ridings wrote:
>
> 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
>
>
________________________________________________________
feli2@earthlink.net                     2 + 2 = 4
www.elanphotos.com

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