[Leica] Leica future and diehard fans

[imagist at imagist.cnc.net (george lottermoser)]

> That brings us back once again to the suggestion that if Leica is to have a
> future, that future probably lies in producing lenses in Canon and Nikon
> mounts, or selling Leica lenses with red dotted Canon and Nikon adapters,
> rather than wasting money on trying to produce digital backs for a tiny
> handful of diehard fans.

B.D. - I have no idea what the future of Leica, Leaf, Imacon, Sinar, or any 
other 'high-end' camera/digital/back mfg's may be. Apparently they're all 
shuffling to figure it out. They all have small niche markets to figure out. 
Comparing them with Nikon and Canon makes very little sense. The Sinar M 
camera can take lenses from anyone. Sinar doesn't make lenses. Sinar used to 
make view cameras. Then digital backs (sort of) and now a multiformat camera 
body. Leaf back folks freaked out last week because Kodak bought a bunch of 
Scitex and the 'Leaf niche' wants nothing to do with Kodak tech support. and 
on and on and on. I, for one, love the idea of 'digital backs' - rentable, 
upgradeable and adaptable to existing systems. So do medium format shooters. 
Leaf, Imacon, PhaseOne, Sinar, and Mega-Vision backs all cost 2 to 5 times 
more than Leica's back. They're all 'pro niche market' items. They're tools 
that may or may not work for you. They have nothing to do with 'die-hard' 
brand loyalty. Your constant background drone of what sounds like anti-leica 
mantras really does little to help our understanding of what is going on 
technically - be it optical, digital, mechanical, electronic or otherwise. 
-- 
regards,
George Lottermoser, imagist