Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2008/12/20

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Subject: [Leica] Re: Unbelievable
From: jayanand at gmail.com (Jayanand Govindaraj)
Date: Sat Dec 20 18:36:38 2008
References: <380-220081251921932285@M2W014.mail2web.com> <ED92C068-0816-41B7-BA42-41A7F8C0DABC@mac.com> <494C1305.7000706@mcclary.net> <3cad89990812191723u5dc965b2jd390a505d2d2650c@mail.gmail.com> <5A8565FA-2825-4E91-B743-100E9B8CCF13@btinternet.com>

Frank,
They will have to change, I think. Tell me one thing. If the lesser body and
a 50mm Summarit should be bundled as a kit, does it make sense? Surely at
some point the buyer will buy an additional lens or two. Cant the basic
tooling already in place for the M8 be used for a more inexpensive body, by
using different materials,etc? The Panasonic tie up is really, IMHO, totally
in favour of Panasonic, with Leica charging much more for what essentially
is a red dot on a camera. They have to have in house brand extensions going
forward. Otherwise they are going to find it very difficult in the present
economic climate, where value, as a proposition, will come into play in all
buying decisions. That is why I think the Summarit-M line is a step in the
right direction. The real pity is that they were not able to get themselves
into a position of strength in the last 15 years of conspicious consumption,
as quite a few luxury brands have done.

I think the company that will come out with a digital rangefinder camera is
possibly Nikon, who also have a heritage here to hark back to, and the
D3/D700 sensor, which with its low light capabilities would be perfect for a
rangefinder. Wont be cheap, though.

Cheers
Jayanand



On Sun, Dec 21, 2008 at 12:18 AM, Frank Dernie
<Frank.Dernie@btinternet.com>wrote:

> But Jayanand, it has been like this for for 30 years and they are still
> here and making the sort of camera enough people want to buy to keep going.
> I am sure the market for a simple rangefinder camera is tiny and, as such,
> the cost for tooling a "low cost" type camera of this type could never be
> recovered. By making a camera with tooling appropriate for low volume the
> unit cost will always be high.
> If there was a big enough market for rangefinders to make less expensive
> ones there would have been an Epson (or Cosina-Voigtander) RD2, the fact
> that there wasn't tells us all we need to know. IMHO.
> Frank
>
>
> On 20 Dec, 2008, at 01:23, Jayanand Govindaraj wrote:
>
>  Harrison,
>> I agree with you - you need an annuity line. Alternatively, you need to
>> dominate a professional niche requirement. Leica does neither.
>> Cheers
>> Jayanand
>>
>> On Sat, Dec 20, 2008 at 3:02 AM, Harrison McClary <lists@mcclary.net>
>> wrote:
>>
>>  I wonder how big of a market there is for the "Best of" cameras.  The
>>> EOS1DsIII while a great camera has a great price tag also.  As does the
>>> new
>>> D3x or whatever Nikon calls theirs.  If Canon and Nikon did not make
>>> D40's
>>> and Digital Rebels I do not think they'd be the profitable companies they
>>> are.  Leica really needs to consider making some entry level cameras
>>> also.
>>> The number of people who will pay 1200- 2000 for a new body are far
>>> greater
>>> than those who will pay 5grand for one.
>>> Lottermoser George wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>> Whether a new R10 competes
>>>> in quality and price
>>>> with the best of Nikon and Canon
>>>> remains to be seen.
>>>> I choose to believe that it will;
>>>> even though I cannot afford
>>>> anymore best of.
>>>>
>>>>
>>> --
>>> Harrison McClary
>>> Harrison McClary Photography
>>> harrison@mcclary.net
>>> http://www.mcclary.net
>>> ImageStockSouth - Stock Photography
>>> http://www.imagestocksouth.com
>>> Tobacco Road: Personal Blog:
>>> http://www.mcclary.net/blog
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Leica Users Group.
>>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>>>
>>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Leica Users Group.
>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>

Replies: Reply from Frank.Dernie at btinternet.com (Frank Dernie) ([Leica] Re: Unbelievable)
In reply to: Message from wildlightphoto at earthlink.net (wildlightphoto@earthlink.net) ([Leica] Re: Unbelievable)
Message from imagist3 at mac.com (Lottermoser George) ([Leica] Re: Unbelievable)
Message from lists at mcclary.net (Harrison McClary) ([Leica] Re: Unbelievable)
Message from jayanand at gmail.com (Jayanand Govindaraj) ([Leica] Re: Unbelievable)
Message from Frank.Dernie at btinternet.com (Frank Dernie) ([Leica] Re: Unbelievable)