Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/03/03

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Subject: [Leica] OT: Contax ceased production of 35mm cameras, digital tofollow
From: bdcolen at earthlink.net (B. D. Colen)
Date: Thu Mar 3 16:03:30 2005

Excellent analysis.

-----Original Message-----
From: lug-bounces+bdcolen=earthlink.net@leica-users.org
[mailto:lug-bounces+bdcolen=earthlink.net@leica-users.org] On Behalf Of
Tim Atherton
Sent: Thursday, March 03, 2005 3:11 PM
To: Leica Users Group
Subject: RE: [Leica] OT: Contax ceased production of 35mm
cameras,digital tofollow



> How come?  Is every premium lens and camera brand
> up the proverbial creek without a paddle?  I'm a newbie.
> How did this come to be?

How? Simple - most of them have become victims of their own hubris.

About two years ago or so, most of these companies (in addition to some
of the film companies) seemed to feel they had maybe 5-8 years before
digital photography made really serious inroads into their markets. And
either because they truly were caught by surprise, or from wilful denial
(probably a combination of both in varying degrees) they failed to
predict how very fast digital was changing things. Even when the
evidence was there for those with eyes to see. That point, which they
thought was 5-8 years away arrived in about two years.

As a result they failed to adapt - either by partnering with someone who
was in tune with the coming changes or doing the (radical) work needed
to adapt themselves. In fact it isn't so much a change as a revolution
in the way photography is done in both consumer and professional work. I
forget the exact figures, but Kodak for example, was caught out last
year by something like a 40% change in film use when they had been
predicting 5-10%. Ilford all but went under because they were still
massively overproducing film products.

Leica clearly failed to adapt fast enough and isntead seems to have
relied on a "we've weathered these things before - SLR's, autofocus etc
etc - we'll weather it again. Which is a bit like typewriter
manufacturers in the late 80's early 90's believing their will still be
a worldwide market for typewriters by the mid 90's. And even that
analogy is out, because the revolution has taken place far faster than
that changeover.

Leica is still stuck trying to produce what can only be characterised as
"the last digital SLR in the world" which has still yet to really see
the light of day. Never mind the digital M. Whereas anyone who has been
in tune with the rapid change in the market has been producing their
digi SLR's for a few years now. And even the alternate digital M is out
there.

Simply put, you snooze you lose. And these manufacturers who are now in
trouble or closing down their camera production lines were asleep at the
wheel (or such cameras weren't the main focus of their business by that
point anyway - like Contax).


tim a

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Replies: Reply from feli2 at earthlink.net (Feli) ([Leica] OT: Contax ceased production of 35mm cameras, digital tofollow)
In reply to: Message from tim at KairosPhoto.com (Tim Atherton) ([Leica] OT: Contax ceased production of 35mm cameras,digital to follow)