Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/01/25
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]
on 25/1/00 3:34 pm, Stephen Gandy at leicanikon@earthlink.net wrote:
> However something is broken, but it's not the camera -- it's the lack of black
> ink in Solms. Something has to change, or everyone on this list will
> eventually
> become collectors of a discontinued camera.
Perfectly true. I've never been tempted into one of these 'whither leica'
threads before, but here are my thoughts.
1. The leica brand is worth a hell of a lot. Danger sign for a company
ploughing into the red. Germans may not like hostile takeovers but hey,
welcome to the 21st century.
2. Incremental progress of the kind most often envisaged on this ng is
unlikely to turn the corner for the company
3. Most people who are likely to buy leicas in their current incarnation
already have them, or replace customers who die. I don't think people are
buying voigtlander or konica bodies instead of leicas. As well, maybe, or
instead of other cameras. However, they are *very* likely to buy the lenses
if they already own leica bodies.
4. The M6 is a highly evolved camera which doesn't have too much room for
'improvement'. It's never going to be an autofocus, modal, motordriven
thing. Personally, give me a manual camera, but that's just me.
5. Leica simply don't have the R&D infrastructure to introduce competitive
digital or autofocus technology. They *have* to license this either
externally or from a future business partner.
So what are my conclusions? Leica can only grow its revenue by introducing
new products which address new customers. Thus it has to go high: all
singing all dancing autofocus M7; low: a budget body to compete with all
those second hand M2s and M4-Ps out there, but which allows aspirant users
to buy into the system; sideways, but voigtlander and konica are there
already; or niche, turning out more and more jewellike collectors pieces
(spit).
Personally, the only interesting direction I can see is sideways, which
means a merger. If this allows leica to maintain its lens production (they'd
be nuts not to) and service the legacy of M-body users, while evolving the
M6 (again, they'd be nuts not to) and perhaps blue-skying an M7 with the
help of newfound R&D muscle, I say great. The rest of it will be...
interesting to say the least. One important corollary would be that you
would find the cheaper lenses rebadged as 'leica/cosina' or whatever, and
perhaps a coherent match between the two ranges.
The alternatives are not pleasant to contemplate.
Final thought: they should introduce a 'mass customisation' service whereby
like Dell Computers, you can specify your M on the web. I'd like a low-mag,
black finish M6 please, only don't bother with the electronics, and give me
framelines for 28/35/50/75/90/135. Oops, I've already got one. It's an M4-P.
- --
John Brownlow
recent photos: www.pinkheadedbug.com
more photos: www.cinematic.freeserve.co.uk
music: www.jukebox.demon.co.uk