Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/10/17

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Subject: [Leica] Re: Future R Plan
From: telyt at earthlink.net (Doug Herr)
Date: Sun Oct 17 01:43:04 2004

on 10/16/04 6:52 PM, Stephen Gandy at leicanikon@earthlink.net wrote:

> granted, these are all guesses.  but the fact is, that what Leica has been
> doing with its SLR lineup and precious investment capital just has not
> worked out financially over its entire 40 year R history.  it's time to
> wake up and think differently, or there will not be a Leica as we know it.
> 
> Stephen Gandy

Stephen, I believe you're over-simplifying for the sake of your argument.
The most successful R bodies were the SL and R4s, and these were profitable.
But what the bodies do is make it possible to sell lenses.  Whether Leica
sells more than a handful of digital backs isn't important; what's more
important is that customers percieve a system that allows them to switch to
digital, even if the customers never buy or use a digital body.  People want
to know the option is available.  This is what sells 4-wheel-drive cars and
trucks.  The vast majority of people never take the vehicle off the pavement
but they want to have the option.

If as you have suggested Leica were to make lenses available in Nikon AIS
mount, how many dedicated Nikon users would use a premium-priced lens that
doesn't meter on many of the modern bodies and aren't well suited to an AF
viewfinder?

Doug Herr
Birdman of Sacramento
http://www.wildlightphoto.com



In reply to: Message from leicanikon at earthlink.net (Stephen Gandy) ([Leica] Re: Future R Plan)