Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/06/13
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Frank, Actually, Leica being a small fish might make it more likely that it's products will be around. Stay with me on this. If you are a large manufacturer making hundreds of thousand of widgets, then you will custom design circuit boards and chips to your exact specs. When the manufacturer moves on, that design dies and except for spare parts specifically built for an estimated MTBF rate will be unavailable. I suspect that the expense of repairing current digital devices is precisely because the manufacturers don't especially want to stock pile a bunch of parts that change every eight months or so. Now Leica, expecting to build maybe twenty thousand if it is luck, will design around known components, standard parts that are readily available. Cost will be higher because a generic flash chip will be more expensive than a custom chip in the quantities that the majors build. A classic apples to pears situation. But for the intermediate term, this is good for users. The parts are used for lots of things besides cameras so there is some hope of fixing. My analogy comes from the military. As chips became more complicated they started to design around readily available devices rather than custom designs. Milspec does mean something as many military devices are expected to remain in service for decades serviced be ninety day wonders. So designs are engineered around chips that will be around for awhile. Don don.dory@gmail.com On 6/13/06, Frank Filippone <red735i@earthlink.net> wrote: > > I think the realities of consumer ELECTRONICS, is not quite in the > public's eye..... Replacement is the way to go, not repair. And > manufacturers' like it that way..... > > The problem with Leica is that it is a small volume business. Parts are > therefore also made in small volumes. When a custom ( or > customized) IC goes dead or a custom motor has a problem, and the repair > part is no longer available, you have a door stop. There > is no other choice. Scavenging parts only works for a while. > > I had a friend who had a big screen TV.... it cost him $4K, he had it for > a year, then threw it out when it went bad. His new > replacement was less costly ($2700) and bigger. Made sense to him...... > > Obviously not me. I like mechanical cameras. > > Frank Filippone > red735i@earthlink.net > > > Gee, I wonder how many people are getting ready to sink $5K into a Leica > DM > thinking that it won't be serviceable 3-5 years after they buy it... > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >