[Leica] LHSA meeting in Wetzlar; Leica Camera AG

[firkin at ncable.net.au (Alastair Firkin)]

Thanks for this report. Makes me think a few shares in Leica might prove a
good investment afterall ;-)

Cheers

> Hi LUG friends!
>
> I have resubscribed after a fairly lengthy absence to bring you all up to
> date on what I have learned about Leica Camera AG and its future at the
> LHSA
> meeting in Wetzlar ten days ago. Had an opportunity to visit at some
> length
> with Andreas Kaufmann whose Company has bought full control of Leica
> Camera
> and also with Steven Lee, an American who has assumed a senior management
> role with the Company. Both are photography and Leica enthusiasts and have
> a
> shared vision of where they hope to take the Company. As you doubtless
> have
> read, Leica introduced not only the M-8 but also three other digital
> cameras. The Leica booths at Photokina were mobbed, especially, naturally,
> that of the M-8.
>
> What is most impressive is the enthusiasm at the factory. All of the
> feedback from our friends at the Company made clear that there is a new
> sense of excitement at Solms, that the tacit concern amongst employees for
> the Company's survival is gone. A truly great sense of optimism invests
> the
> place. As several staff members put it, everyone is eager to come to work
> again.  Evidence of this is that despite the fact that Tuesday 3 October
> was
> a national holiday and almost everyone takes off the Monday (2 October) to
> make a long weekend, production workers on the M-8 came to work
> voluntarily
> to ensure that the Company continues to produce enough cameras to meet
> demand.
>
> I had a chance to read only a very few M-8 comments in the LUG archive and
> will comment on just one issue, the coding of older lenses for the M-8. I
> am
> ill-equipped to answer this technically but as I understand it,  because
> of
> the oblique angle at which light rays from shorter focal length lenses
> reach
> the sensor, Leica has placed before the sensor a device that adjusts the
> rays to reduce or elminate that effect. The code on older lenses tells the
> camera what adjustment is indicated for that focal length. I have been
> told
> that this is more important for lenses under 50mm, that the deleterious
> effect at 50mm is not too great and at the longer focal lengths, the
> lenses
> probably do not really need the coding.
>
> The LHSA meeting really was pretty wonderful, on Friday a good day of
> programs and projection presentations and the banquet at which both Mr.
> Kaufmann and Steven Lee spoke about their enthusiasm for Leica and briefly
> about their plans for the future. Saturday visit to Photokina in Cologne,
> Sunday back to Photoboerse, a massive trade fair, Monday factory visit and
> visit to Braunfels and the castle, Tuesday a luncheon cruise on the Rhine
> and a medieval banquet and departure Wednesday. Twenty members stayed on
> through Wednesday for a Leica Akademie program with the M-8.
>
> Surprising number of our members attended carrying..........digital
> cameras!
> We're not all old f-rts stroking our - you will pardon the expression -
> Thambars!
>
> Cheerio all,
>
> Seth
>
>
>
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