Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/02/17
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]There must be several thousand MUG LUG CVUG folks here along with many thousand others in LHSA Leica Historica and the various other international/national collectors orginizations...demographically speaking Leica owners, as an aggrate, are not poor... Based on 50% loss from the last reported financials (see Leica website) and nothing promising in the pipeline (portending massive future losses) what would it take to buy Leica Camera? Could a US based non-profit buy a French German Swiss company? Could LHSA aqquire Leica USA which would in turn acquire Leica Camera... Be they made in Solms, Wetzlar, Midland or Portugal, I think that the majority of Leica users would rather have a place to turn for another M4 M6 MP body, perhaps an R body, lenses and common accessories... How many tens of millions could we raise by selling the spare items from the Leica museum...(last I heard they had 6 or 8 110 Leicas there...what would the harm be of three or four would end up being sold through LHSA Christies Tamarkin or even ebay...) Somewhere in a dusty box moved from Wetzlar there are 144 M3 base plates and tops...someone was offering mint M3 base plates for $500 each in the last LHSA Viewfinder Catalog... etc etc etc... If the company is going to go away and be a fire sale why not hold the fire sale now and save what we determine as the owners should be saved... And while we are on this soap box what the hell is keeping someone from making a replacement digital back for Leica M cameras? I hacked one together out of a 2MP Kodak Easy Share...tiny tiny CCD crappy images but I am neither an engineer nor a optical expert nor a programmer... hmm $500 $1000 4/3 or APS sensor plate replaces flip up rear panel and baseplate (electronics and power go here also "film" advance sensor triggered by motor pin to write CCD to buffer to card...) Sign me up to help Mark K in Portland