Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/01/22

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Subject: [Leica] Doomed: Leica MP 0.58x
From: scott at adrenaline.com (Scott McLoughlin)
Date: Sat Jan 22 23:52:14 2005
References: <018a01c4ffe2$f0eb22d0$6401a8c0@ccapr.com> <1D366FDA-6BDD-11D9-90AC-000D933F4332@earthlink.net>

This is on target.

-1- Leica has a great product and a great brand. Folks want them. P&S 
scale market?
No way. But lots of serious amateurs sitting on the sidelines of the 
Leica shooting
experience.

-2- The product price is just too high. Too high for what? Too high for 
contemporary
customer expectations of camera and lens prices.

-3- If Leica can make a good product at a lower price, their customer 
base will
expand. They have the potential to move more product. What are those 
prices?  Don't
know, needs research.  Maybe a $1.5K new body.  $750 - $1.5K lenses.  At
customer-perceived reasonable (but still premium) prices, Leica will 
move bodies and
glass.

-4- Zeiss will be hitting roughly the right price point IMHO. If Zeiss 
can show their
commitment to the product line, that they're in it for the long haul, 
that they'll deliver
upgraded product over time - then Zeiss will capture many folks waiting 
on the
sidelines for an affordable RF experience.

-5- Leica's job is to deliver truly quality product at a lower price.  
They can deliver
quality without virtually hand manufacturing the things in 
Portugal/Germany. They need
to do whatever it takes.

-6- Leica needs to deliver a more than credible RF, exchangable lens 
digital camera.
Should be M mount, but IMHO, doesn't have to be (I'd like it to be).  A 
$5K digital
M body will be DOA.  The point of a digital body is to catch up, grow 
the customer
base and start moving more glass.

-7- Again, Leica has a great product and brand. There is demand. But the 
prices are
skyrocketing out of control, and Leica reeks of imminent morbidity. 

-8- I love Leica stuff. I've been buying near mint chrome M6TTL's and used
recent lenses for reasonable prices and feeling somewhat guilty for not 
buying new
gear from Leica/dealers.  Leica needs to bring Leica buyers back into a 
relationship
with the company.

Scott


Feli wrote:

> You're right. They need to do something and when it comes to glass 
> they are king.
> If they could manage to make their lenses in Canon mount with automatic
> stop down metering, they would sell a bundle. But I doubt that their 
> pride would allow them
> to do so.
>
> The other problem i see is that Leica gear is simply too expensive. I 
> have friends who
> were interested in buying an M, but when they saw the price tag they 
> dropped the idea.
> But I am not sure how to solve that. Move production out of Germany?
>
> Whatever they do, they need a digital M camera asap and it needs to be 
> a killer piece of gear. Full frame, minimum of 12MP, weather sealed, 
> aimed at professionals.. I don't care of it doesn't use all, or none 
> of the current lenses. Canon screwed everyone when they changed mounts 
> and after the riots died down everything was ok. People who make a 
> living with their gear will drop the money on it if it's the right 
> tool for the job at hand. I've talked to several production 
> photographers, and almost all of them would buy one, because they need 
> a compact, quiet camera, with fast lenses that works well in the dark.
>
> I also think they should team up with someone and license the guts of 
> a good 8MP
> SLR and produce it with an R-mount. Make two models, one for $1500 and 
> a sturdier one for more.
>
> 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...
>
>
> feli
>
>
>
>
> On Jan 21, 2005, at 9:59 AM, B. D. Colen wrote:
>
>> Ah, but wouldn't Leica be ahead of the game working out a deal with
>> Canon, where by Canon would get some sort of licensing fee for each lens
>> sold in a working Canon mount?
>>
>> The point is that Leica needs to do SOMETHING if it's going to survive.
>> Producing an extremely expensive digital backs for an R line that is
>> already losing money - as wonderful as the cameras may be - isn't going
>> to be the thing that saves Leica. And, as Frank pointed out, Leica's
>> reputation lays with it's glass. There has to be a way for them to
>> capitalize on that.
>>
>> Why don't they start advertising the glass for use with adapters on
>> Canon EOS bodies? Use photos and endorsements from life-long Leica
>> shooters...
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________________
> feli2@earthlink.net                 2 + 2 = 4               
> www.elanphotos.com
>
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Replies: Reply from bdcolen at earthlink.net (B. D. Colen) ([Leica] Doomed: Leica MP 0.58x)
Reply from feli2 at earthlink.net (Feli) ([Leica] PAW Feb22, 2005)
In reply to: Message from bdcolen at earthlink.net (B. D. Colen) ([Leica] Doomed: Leica MP 0.58x)
Message from feli2 at earthlink.net (Feli) ([Leica] Doomed: Leica MP 0.58x)