Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/05/08
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]-----Original Message----- From: lug-bounces+bdcolen=earthlink.net@leica-users.org [mailto:lug-bounces+bdcolen=earthlink.net@leica-users.org] On Behalf Of Rich Sent: Friday, May 07, 2004 11:03 PM To: Leica-user@ispwest.com Cc: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us Subject: [Leica] leica zeitgeist <<However, I do truly hope I am misinterpreting the "Leica Zeitgeist" comment. I do truly hope they are not actually trying to create, foment, gestate, instill, force-feed or piddledate some ethereal Zeitgeist in or into a digital M body. After all, one man's Zeitgeist is another man's historical, and irrelevant, artifact. In camera design, I'm betting it's suicide by committee. >> I should clarify. The "Leica Zeitgeist" comment is mine, not his. Perhaps what I was thinking was the conflation of some of very "now" technology with some of that "retro" feel that most M's have. (Maybe more -say the MP than M7- but none of them feel like a Nikon D70 or Canon EOS wiz-banger etc. post-modern super plastic.) I don't know if Zeitgeist is the right word for that, but it as close as any I can think of. This reminds me of the debates I used to lose in grad. school trying to read Hegel. Oh well, I think I lose again, but it is ok as perhaps I clarrified a bit. ;> <<Leica's demise?>> If there are 300+ million people just in the USA and 8 (?) billion on the planet, 99.999% of them will find everything Leica makes to be an "irrelevant artifact" and that other .001% will keep them going strong. Probably only 1% of that .001% is ever even going to find this thread...so it really doesn't take too much to keep them going. If .001% of the world's population could afford $3k cameras that alone would be pretty impressive, never mind upgrade those to digital, with its correlate of upgrades every 2 years. A while back I read (maybe here?) that they were only going to make 10,000 of the Digilux2 for the total run. I think I heard also that the new digital R module is going to have a run of about 2000. That is a drop in the bucket compared to Canon (200,000 10D's were made in one month I was told a while back) or Nikon (still not a big company btw) and yet it is enough to be worth it to them to do (I presume)...so they don't need a home run, they can just play small ball and stay in the game. My .02. Not anyone elses... cheers, Rich -- Our New Address: The Photo Village, Inc. 1133 Broadway, Suite 824 (between 25th & 26th Streets) New York, NY 10010 (212) 989-1252 www.photovillage.com _______________________________________________ Leica Users Group. See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information