RE: [Leica] Digilux 2

["Gary Williams" <nasmformyzombie@mindspring.com>]

There is a sub cult of Leica bashing.  Right now, the bashing is on the
proposed price of the Digilux 2.  However, I assume most readers of this
list have paid similar high prices for their Leica gear.  Why?  Because,
for some situations, there is no better tool in the world, period.

So, to answer B.D. direct question, what if the Digilux 2 works like the
M?  What if the shutter goes click when you press the release?  What if
you can do that over and over just like an M?  How about controls that
you can figure out by feel in the dark?  How about real manual focus so
you can set your hyper focal and bang away with confidence?  What if the
lens/sensor/software lets you make beautiful 11X14's?

So, why don't we all wait about a month until we see what it really is?
I know that the Panasonic FZ10 makes beautiful 8X10's and the manual
focus feels like a Canon ring USM lens which is no bad thing.  

I also think that if it works much like an M and produces images that
scale well then I might just be a customer.  I have tried almost all the
digicams out there and frankly have a mostly hate relationship.  Perhaps
this iteration will work.

The initial price of a tool is trivial if it does what it was intended
to do: my dad has a set of furniture knives (think of router bits) that
his grandfather used to make furniture, with them I can match exactly an
edge molding originally made 150 years ago.  I have a twenty year old M6
that I have hammered for years and it keeps the film etched: I have a
forty year old M3 that has had one cleaning, it also keeps on ticking.
Who really cares if they were two or three times the price of a Nikon F?
I have worn out an F and a Canon F1; I haven't been able to wear out my
M's
:)
Don
dorysrus@mindspring.com


No matter how you rationalize this one (think "router bits"---oh
please), the Digilux 2 is completely out of touch with the marketplace.
While this may not rival the blunder made by Kyocera with the $6500
Contax N digital full frame SLR (which was trading hands on the
secondary market a year after release for $2000-2500 and the stench from
which has effectively eliminated Kyocera from the DSLR market), a 5 MP
point and shoot priced at $1800 in 2004 will not be in the hands of many
users until its price drops to about $600-750 in the secondary market a
year after its release.  Prediction: if you want a high-end Leica
digicam buy the Digilux 2.  We will not see another product of this kind
from Leica unless the geniuses at Hermes sell its share of the business
to Panasonic.  A 200% price differential on Leica (sorry Hermes) fur
lined leather bags may fly in Paris, but a 200% price differential on a
Digicam will not fly anywhere except straight into the toilet.  

Leica will suffer in the marketplace and in the court of public opinion
with the release of the Digilux 2.  It remains to be seen how a company
as small as Leica can survive in the brutal arena of the photo game with
this kind of corporate decision making.  How many more animals will have
to die to keep Leica a going concern?

Gary

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