[Leica] Leica and Apple

[manolito at videotron.ca (EPL)]

Lawrence Zeitlin  wrote:

Leica is no stranger to offshore manufacturing. The Leica CL, made by
Minolta in Japan, is a superb camera and its 40 mm Summicron, also made in
Japan, is one of the Leica's best normal lenses. Leica itself has partnered
with Fuji and Panasonic. It has made some of its best cameras and lenses in
Portugal and Canada. If it adopted the Apple model, Leica's sales would
increase, its profits would soar, and Herr Kaufman would be ecstatic. Te
only unhappy people would be some members of the LUG. You know who you are.

Here are some facts.

While the Monolta-built Leica CL was a neat little camera for its time, it
wasn't very rugged and was prone to some troubles. Minolta's own re-design,
the CLE, is a much better camera and tougher in the field too. In my
opinion, that's one of the problems of outsourcing and re-badging -- the
outside supplier may not have the ideal commitment to the product, may just
take your idea and run with it.

The 40mm Summicron-C was made at Wetzlar, in Germany. Minolta made slightly
different Rokkor model lenses for its own cameras in Japan. Most folks
prefer the Wetzlar made 40mm, while there were several 90mm f:4 lenses in
that C series (German Elmars and Japanese Rokkors) and they're all
equivalent, but not identical. The 28mm M-Rokkor for the CLE has a design
flaw that usually needs fixing (poor anti-reflection coating).

E. Leitz established the Midland facility to take advantage of lower duties
charged on optical and photo products imported into the USA from Canada vs.
duties on European imports. The early Midland production was made with
German manufactured parts, so just assembly was going on in Canada.
(Similarly, the Saar-assembled Leica cameras came into France at a lower
rate of duty vs. German assembled cameras). Soon after, the prospect of
designing and making gear for NATO caused things to become more interesting
at Midland and the remnants of the Leitz family immigrated to Canada.

However, consumers never really took to the Made in Canada markings and
that's why this wording appeared sporadically on Canada-assembled or
designed cameras and lenses. I well recall Leitz Canada's advertising
campaign in the 1970s touting the qualities of the Made in Canada gear.
Clearly, for a company with Leica's storied history, marketing concerns can
sometimes trump other more rational arguments about the origins of quality.

The Portugal factory was established to take advantage of lower labour costs
as well as European regulations that allow a product to be labelled with
country of origin based on a complicated calculation of where costs were
incurred. So a fancy executive washroom or R&D department or advertising
staff or cafeteria in Wetzlar or Solms tilts the balance in favour of Made
in Germany vs. similar facilities at a lower cost location like Vila Nova de
Famalic?o, Portugal. Things are not always what they seem.

Over time, QC issues seemed to flare up with the Canada and Portugal
production and consumers were quick to blame these on the fact that Midland
and Vila Nova aren't in Germany. Who knows where the line between reality
and perception lies?

The fact that we continue to see design and manufacturing flaws in
German-made M8 and M9s suggests that no location on Earth is going to
guarantee a perfect product.

But people asked to plunk down $8000 on an M9P are perhaps entitled to
expect a certain cachet as well as quality for their money.

In my opinion, that an M9P costs more than double what the last issued film
M came out at (the MP, at about $3500) -- well, that's a problem, especially
with battery issues and hot pixels and all that jazz.

Emanuel