RE: [Leica] Viability of Leica; my 2 cents

[Alexey Merz <alexey@webcom.com>]

Peter wrote:
>They need to wake up and produce lenses for AF SLRS, perhaps even 
>rebadge an AF body for use with their lenses.  With Konica and now
>perhaps Nikon enetering the rangefinder market, they may well go 
>the way of Zeiss Ikon.

Nikon and Konica still have to compete on price. Given the costs of 
R&D and tooling, and the relatively small RF market it is unclear
whether a product of comparable quality can be made for a *much* 
lower price. 

Have you looked at the price tag on the Konica unit? 
It is substantially more than a G2, and does not (appear to)
have glass that equals that on the G2. As a relatively young
buyer in the Leica market (32 YO), I have to say that I'd 
still go for the M in a second. The advantages of the KM
(autoexposure but NO TTL???; winder; p/s style film loading;
faster shutter) are greatly outweighed by its disadvantages 
(loud, battery dependant, loud, small mag finder, loud, lower
resale value unless production ends early and it gains cult 
following, poor prospects for long term maintenance). 

I'm not saying production of a worthy competitor to the M is not
possible - just that there is ZERO evidence that any such competitor
exists.

In fact, the only camera that I seriously considered instead of
a Leica M was NOT a G1 or Hexar but the *Mamiya* "M"6. (What 
ultimately settled this issue was the slooooow max apertures 
of the Mamiya lenses. When you need f/1.4 nothing less will do.)
But as we all know that the Mamiya *and* its lenses are priced 
more or less as though they *were* made by Leica. 

Go figure. Making a really nice RF is expensive.

- -Alexey