Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/06/26

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Subject: Re: [Leica] leica CL
From: James J Dempsey <jjd@jjd.com>
Date: Fri, 26 Jun 1998 09:49:36 EDT

> From: Dennis Painter <dwp@deltanet.com>
> Subject: Re: [Leica] leica CL
>
> Which will you buy?
>
> M6  for $1995 USD
> CL2 for $1895 USD
> 
> Think about the manufacturing economics of a CL-2.  Just because it is
> smaller does not mean it cost less to manufacture.  

Ah, but does the M6 really cost so much to manufacture?  Perhaps this is
closer to the truth:   (my conjecture)

      cost to manufacture        retail price
M6        $1000                    $2395
CL2       $1000                    $1395

If this were the case, Leica could essentially open up a new market where
they would sell higher volumes (at lower margins) without doing too much
damage to their M6 market.

(Plus, they would continue to sell M-lenses at M prices to CL2 users.)

To keep from damaging their M market they would have to "cripple" the CL2 in
some way.  Shorter rangefinder base would be a good start.  Inability to use
more exotic lenses like Noctilux and 75mm f1.4 would be another.

                       --Jim Dempsey--
                         jjd@jjd.com
                       http://jjd.com/