Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/01/20
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 10:12 PM 1999-01-19 -0800, Randolph Carlisle, Friend to Beast and Man, wrote: >Ritz Camera offered the M3 with the 60mm f/1.2 Hexanon for $449.50 in >1956. This was a common practice in the fifteen years after the War, as selling a camera body of one make with a lens of another make enabled the retailer to set his own price. In other words, Leica could mandate a set price for a Leica body sold with a Leica lens or, for that matter, sold without any lens at all. BUT, a Leica body sold with a CZJ or TTH or Konica lens avoided this, which is why the discount houses generally so advertised their wares. The "Fair Trade" laws in the US were revised around 1960 and this situation changed, resulting in a sudden and dramatic cessation of aftermarket Leica thread-mount lenses. (Today, a manufacturer can control the ADVERTISED price but can have only minimum control over the SELLING price, which is why B&H and Cambridge and the like now simply list "CALL!" as the price.) Marc msmall@roanoke.infi.net FAX: +540/343-7315 Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!