[Leica] Are we no longer wanted?

[jayanand at gmail.com (Jayanand Govindaraj)]

Mark,
In my last post, I was talking largely about Leica, the company, and not
Leica, the product - why does everyone think that those terms are synonymous
when they are not? Anyway, when was the last time you bought something new
in their product range? I have only bought 2 lenses new from Leica - a 50mm
Summicron, and a 35mm Summarit from Hoppy's Aussie dealer last year.
Everything else has been either given to me, or purchased second hand.

Again, I have used Leica for many years, probably longer than you have - the
first time I used an M2 (my uncle's) was in 1966 - but I am not a fanboy of
any brand - I see both the positives and negatives relative to my use, and
decide accordingly. If the M8 was central to my photography, I would buy it
like a shot, but it isn't. I would also like to point out that what was true
40-50 years ago is not true today, and it serves Leica no good pretending
that nothing has changed in pro use or whatever.

I also disagree on your reading of what the rich want - they dont want
gizmos, or mechanical quality, they want exclusivity. Thats why they buy
things which are manufactured in limited quantities, whether it is Leica, or
Patek or Rolls, etc.

Cheers
Jayanand


On Sun, Jun 21, 2009 at 11:31 AM, Mark Rabiner <mark at 
rabinergroup.com>wrote:

> People who have not cared to use Leica's have called them fashion
> accessories for rich people for many decades.
> It just haven't explained the amount of serious and Pro shooters using them
> all this time.
> And often at used prices getting them cheap.
> And brassy not making them look like crime lords.
>
> Other than the fact that for decades a new M6 cost the same as a new F5 or
> EOS. This was impossible for these people to absorb.
> because:
> The real issues is that for so many decades dilatants have wanted micro
> moters and CPU's for their money. Not German clock work like mechanisms
> with
> full manual everything. Without the gizmo's it just seemed very expensive
> or
> just seemed like a waste of money to these people.
> Why have to work for an endeavour (photography) one has little interest in
> in the first place?
> Just put it on P and upload it.
> Jpegs please only.
>
>
> Mark William Rabiner
>
>
>
> > From: Jayanand Govindaraj <jayanand at gmail.com>
> > Reply-To: Leica Users Group <lug at leica-users.org>
> > Date: Sun, 21 Jun 2009 08:09:13 +0530
> > To: Leica Users Group <lug at leica-users.org>
> > Subject: Re: [Leica] Are we no longer wanted?
> >
> > Douglas,
> > This has been evident for years now. They have been targeting rich
> > investment bankers and their ilk, not you and me. It became quite obvious
> > with the M8 advertising campaign, which was far more prominent in the
> > GQ/Esquire type magazines rather than hardcore photography magazines. It
> was
> > also heavily featured in the "fashion tech" pages (alongside the
> Ipod,etc)
> > of those magazines. But if truth be told, the bankers would buy new, and
> we
> > would buy second hand...
> > Cheers
> > Jayanand
>
>
>
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