[Leica] Gauntlet

["Rod Fleming" <rodfleming@sol.co.uk>]

Hi.

I like this Bob McEowen guy. He makes sense.

He wrote

> I understand that given Leica's
production level prices are going to be high. SOME of that price is
justified
by quality (maybe half to 2/3) but the rest of it has more to do with
production and market factors. Again, I'm not bitching. Using a Leica is
worthwhile to me. It's becoming important actually. So I'm WILLING to bear
the cost. That doesn't mean I have to like it. <

Has anyone, I wonder, done even a rough guide as to the relative real cost
of a 50's M3 versus today's M6- you know, taking into account wage levels,
inflation, and all that stuff? Today's Leica bodies are expensive, yes, but
not drastically so when compared to the opposition, particularly the Rs,
which have more competition of course.

My first good camera was a Model III, which some lowlife nicked about 20
years ago- at the time the replacement (s/h, of course) would have been
about £200 (GBP)- and my goodness, a Model III today in similar condition is
about- £200. But my salary is quite a few times what it was then, thanks,
and so is everybody else's that I know of. I have a hunch- only a hunch, but
it would be interesting to know- that Leicas have actually become cheaper in
real terms over the years.... If some slight cheapening of the finishes has
allowed this, isn't it a bit elitist to bitch- so long as the current
cameras are up to the task, which no-one seems to deny?


As for unattributed quotes, well, IF this was mainstream journalism, then
that would be bad form, in my opinion. Any Editor I've worked with  would
have gone just ballistic over it. (And so would I, if anyone working for me
served up such copy.) In general terms unattributed quotes, when they are
allowed at all,  are only allowed as background and as support for
on-the-record quotes, not as a central plank of a story. I seem to recall a
certain Woodward and Bernstein having to do a great deal of work to get
"Deep Throat" statements backed up by on-the-record sources before they
could print.  In this case, you could get away with "Widespread feeling
amongst professional repairers.....etc etc," as long as you then had "Mr Joe
Bloggs, a qualified repairer with xx years experience, said......etc etc.)
Gotta stand the statements up, I'm afraid.

However, BIG however, this is not mainstream journalism, although there are
clearly a fair number of journalists both active and lurking around
here.........But when we're hanging around here, we're on R&R- and if  you
can't spout unsubstantiated opinion on an internet list, where can you?

And just to show that I'm not above a bit of misbehaviour when I'm off duty,
the other day I had a conversation with a repairer who thoroughly panned the
build quality of a certain well known Japanese camera, and said that older
models were much better in every way. But he made me promise not to reveal
his name, in case he got in trouble with the importer. Honest.

(There, see? I can sit on the fence as well as the next guy. Ouch.)


Cheers


Rod  (no wonder the human backside is the shape it is, eh?)