Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2011/06/14

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Subject: [Leica] Another R option (now M9)
From: Frank.Dernie at btinternet.com (Frank Dernie)
Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2011 09:56:40 +0100
References: <BANLkTi=AN3Voe46p_kWSW5h5eh9h8rAnEg@mail.gmail.com>

Leica is a premium brand making a hand made slightly old-fashioned product. 
They don't tool for vast quantities and if they had followed the sort of 
advice frequently seen on the web they would not exist now IMHO.
Rolls-Royce followed the advice of a business consultant, increased 
production and reduced prices. Within a fairly short time their market was 
gone. As soon as supply exceeded demand the secondhand prices dropped. Once 
that happened the cost of annual ownership went up and few bought them any 
more. They were, after all, really just a nicely built Detroit dinosaur.
Morgan Car Company had the same advice, from the same adviser IIRC, and they 
saw that their product was a niche product which would lose some of its 
appeal and most of its market were they to follow this advice.
And where are they now? Rolls-Royce cars foundered and are now part of the 
BMW group. Morgan are still going strong.
It is unfortunate but Leicas are expensive, always have been. It is an even 
bigger shame in the digital era since the urge (not need) to upgrade comes 
more often but the fact that lots of people would like Leicas to be cheaper 
is not new and will never happen for, IMO, easy to understand reasons.
Frank Dernie

On 14 Jun, 2011, at 02:08, Jan Decher wrote:

> Frank,
> I am with, 7K for a RF camera is definitely out of the question for me.  I
> will hold on to my used M6 ($1100 with 3.5/50mm Elmar, case & lots of film)
> and hope for someone like Fuji or Cosina to give us an affordable digital M
> body down the road. Fujifilm may be only just flexing its muscle with the
> X100.
> 
> I was reasonably interested in getting into the R system after the 
> ingenious
> Kyocera Contax N / 645  systems went under.  With the supersonically priced
> S2 system Leica has definitely lost me (and I am sure many others) as a
> potential SLR customer.
> 
> Anyone know what's the hold-up with the Zeiss/Cosina 1.5/50mm Sonnar not
> being available from any of he usual suspects (B&H etc.) right now?  Was
> Cosina affected by the Tsunami?
> 
> 1.5/50 Sonnar is the next lens on my list for the M6 after a huge
> disppointment with H. Scherer's work on my Zeiss Ikon Contax IIIa (now
> sold).
> Jan
> 
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Frank Filippone <red735i at earthlink.net>
> You don't really mean this...... do you?
> For one, the day I buy an M9 for $7K, is the last day I stay married.
> If there were a $3-4-5K M9. I might be tempted.
> For a backup camera, a $3-4-5K M9 would also sell like hotcakes.
> If you double the volume, ( using the perverse and inverse of Moore's Law)
> the manufacturing cost should halve.
> Frank Filippone
> <Red735i at earthlink.net>
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
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Replies: Reply from red735i at earthlink.net (Frank Filippone) ([Leica] Another R option (now M9))
In reply to: Message from wanderjan at gmail.com (Jan Decher) ([Leica] Another R option (now M9))