[Leica] Re: LEICA could be clever

[jean.louchet at inria.fr (Jean Louchet)]

Thanks Mark, good to hear from you. We have to support Leica people with
constructive ideas. Maybe even more importantly, we have to show that we
as a (small) part of Leica's niche, are faithful to the company's
philosophy and product quality. Leica needs financial partners to get out
of their crisis, and I feel that potential financial partners may well
cast an eye of what is said inside the users' community to have an idea of
whether leica's sales are more likely to fall to zero or if there is a
real motivated users community which will remain the "strong kernel" of
Leica's market.

To say it in another way, we are one of the visible faces of the leica
users' community, and have to show we are actual (not former) leica users,
even if not exclusively.

Personnally I have observed, in 35 years of photography, a huge
improvement of the quality of my pictures since I shifted first to a CLE
in 1990 then to my first Leica (M2) in 1996 and M6 in 2002. As a
non-professional photographer, about 40% of my picture production (40 - 50
rolls / year) is for documentary purposes (documenting early musical
instruments), the rest is family events, concerts/theatre, travel,
mountain. I am not ready to trade my Leica system for anything
heavier/bigger or anything subject to battery failure (mountain is cold
and no battery shops there).  I am not ready to trade it for lesser image
quality. Digital or not digital is not a serious issue for me, as long as
the resulting camera fulfils my needs in image quality, weight and
reliability. That's it. Price won't make any difference as the main part
of the cost is making prints, and is about the same when using a digital
or a chemical sensor.

None of the equipment available today is as well adapted to my own needs
as the Leicas. An Xpan would be a nice alternative but the format is not
my cup of tea.
The Bessa is way too noisy and unrefined, but a low cost, great prelude to
real leicaing (just like the CLE was for me). If I was a _good_ design
engineer and had to devise from scratch a new camera for my own use, it
would certainly be very, very close to a MP, or a M-mount IIIg. Not an
overengineered thing just to show my social status (like those who use a
Porsche Cayenne for commuting) but a simple, extremely simple and
extremely high quality camera, not aiming at camera performance (who
cares?) but at utmost picture quality. In other terms, a MP or a M6.

This users' niche EXISTS and if we don't want to be doomed to use
worn-out, binged, unreliable and exhausted cameras in 10 or 20 years from
now WE NEED THAT LEICA SURVIVES and have to show it, using any form of
expression, rather than criticising leica for not making cameras just like
other makes. Leica must keep their specificity: if they were making Canon
copies, I would certainly buy an original Canon rather than an expensive
copy. Canons are very good cameras, perfectly fitted to many users, but
for my own use Leicas are the best, by far.

Again, film vs. digital is not an issue, it is the result that counts. To
get good results I need: quiet, vibrationless, compact body with accurate
RF, and high quality distorsion-free optics with a choice of compact or
high aperture glass and some very wide angles. I can't see anything close
to the Leicas except some of the CV lenses.

Jean
 -- 
 ------------------------------------------------------------
 Dr Jean Louchet       COMPLEX Project     INRIA Rocquencourt
                       BP105   78153 Le Chesnay cedex, France
 Jean.Louchet<at>inria.fr  http://fractales.inria.fr/~louchet
 mobile: +33 6 7347 7707
 ------------------------------------------------------------