Your opinion about the new Leica website

[clive]

I don’t see the point of this—is there a point? Is it trying to sell the brand to a totally new target market? Is it merely trying to add “cool” to the brand? One tires of it within seconds.

May I suggest that you focus your attention on simplicity and relevance and use your various talents and resources to improve the product and customer service?


C.

[msole]

I usually go to the Leica website to find information, which used to be a breeze. The new design has made finding information quickly very hard to do.

The new website would be more appropriate for selling fashion, even though even for that purpose it lacks design and sophistication. It's a very UN-LEICA website. Leica is about great design, simplicity, and functionality. The website has none of these attributes.

If I was buying my first Leica today, I would hesitate after looking at the website. The new website makes me think that the company's values have changed for the worse. I hope that is not the case.


M.

[joewehry]

Once you get past the flash introduction which I hate, the balance of the website is as usable as ever. I like the updated photos as headers in the key areas (M System, Compact, etc.) featuring the models from the introduction, but not the flash introduction.

They just need to kill the main flash intro, making the site once again usable and friendly to almost any browser.

[mjflory]

I've never heard of the company but in about thirty seconds I understood what they do. The site is so well done that I've bookmarked it as an example of good web design. (I have not done the same for Leica's new site.)

Originally Posted by spylaw4

Absolutely!

For a website model of clarity try Vitsoe.

[S. Wong]

half the links don't work (popups)
the intro takes forever
the story is boring and lode times are terrible
I can't find anything on the reflex cameras or lenses (even the Digilux3 mini-frame camera)
and I had to update adobe flash to see any of it

all in all, I give it a 2 of 10. It would have gotten a 3 if the photos had not jumped around the way they did during what little I saw of the "love story"
-Steven

[NZDavid]

My first opinion was far too gentle. Because I like Leica, in brief: this website does not do the company justice. It could be a lot better. Please, Leica, consult on this and make a few revisions. So how should it look? Suggestions, anybody?

[michael_boylan]

Originally Posted by spylaw4

Absolutely!

For a website model of clarity try Vitsoe.

Brian,

Vitsoe and Leica share both a modernist design heritage and an ability to hoover money out of your wallet. I should know, I've bought a load of Vitsoe over the last couple of years

[Ron Kennett]

Originally Posted by admin

How do you like the new Leica Website?
Leica Camera AG

Tell us your opinion!

Andreas

Leica has got where it has by pursuit of excellence and I am proud to be a Leica customer. Successful businesses remain so by having a strategy of continuous improvement. In the case of Leica this meant extending the technological boundaries and this must have been uncomfortable, especially since the most expedient way of accomplishing this was by international collaboration. This journey has only just begun and proud Leica does not yet seem to want to speak too loudly about its partnership, eg that extending the D system concept requires us to shop at Panasonic. Many Leica enthusiasts are understandably also rooted in the past, consoled by the timeless beauty of their equipment investments. Time will pass and Leica will accelerate further into the modern world of digital photography, leading the world as before, having benefited from its collaborative ventures. In the end, business is business; take comfort in the fact that the customer is always right (but takes time to accommodate market forces!)

The website recognises very smartly how we customers need shaping to continue our enjoyment of premier class products in the future!

[Simple1]

It was interesting for about 5 seconds then it was annoying. I would rather see real world usage (reportage/street shots) by real users than some glam-inspired, over the top, look at me montage. Get gritty with some b&w street shots and show the M series; flash through the R series with some professional set-ups; then toss in the p&s family and friends stuff.

Lee

[Adi]

Very elegant. It would be nice if the characters are dynamic and story continues to evolve.

[ndjambrose]

Originally Posted by Simple1

It was interesting for about 5 seconds then it was annoying. I would rather see real world usage (reportage/street shots) by real users than some glam-inspired, over the top, look at me montage. Get gritty with some b&w street shots and show the M series; flash through the R series with some professional set-ups; then toss in the p&s family and friends stuff.

Lee

I agree - this would have been nice. I don't have any problems with there being a new website, or that it's in flash. In fact, I think it's interesting that Leica is revisiting some of its branding ideas and trying to be innovative.

But my principal objection to the new site is that the storyline is pointless. All the characters just stand around looking useless and vaguely pointing their cameras at nothing in particular. (I can only hope that's not an indictment of Leica photographers ) But, regardless, if I were a potential new customer there's nothing in the new flash material that would convince me I needed to buy one, or that I could even identify with.

Now, had they done what you're suggesting, it would be a different story...

[jacobh]

Well, I am not overly impressed. It looks like the designers were more interested in "flashy" effects rather than serious information. Moreover I am immediately shot at with the remark that I need to download the latest Adobe flash player product. Was that really necessary ? Yes, I am using a slightly dated system with Firefox, but then I am not really interested in continuously having to update my system with the latest Internet fashion fads.

Checking on the R-department, the accessory subchapter was apparently empty or nonfunctional (or Leica has stopped supplying accessories. ??)
Fortunately there was a good section on technical lens data and a contribution by Erwin Puts.

But what are Leica's plans with the R-system anyway ? The website offers hardly any prospects. I am still hoping for the following:

1) That they will offer a full-frame sensor body. The competition is
already showing the way with their recent introductions of
full-size sensor models.

2) That they will grasp this opportunity to get away from the
ill-conceived fashion ideas that make the R-8 and R-9 so
ugly-shaped and non-ergonomic. ( But I have no criticism on
their technical and engineering content .) Back to the concept of
"nur das Wesentliche".

Hoping for the best,
jacobh

[stuny]

Jacob -

At the end of 1999 one of the reasons I chose the R9 over the R6 was its ergonomics. Most of us R8/R9 users like the ergonomics.

[Theodor Heinrichsohn]

I found the introduction too long and, on clicking the site more than once, to become annoying.
The information is not as quickly available as with the old site. I may not be the target group, as I mostly look at Leica's site for some specific information and don't really want the extra blurb.
The absence of any reference to the R system is worrying.
Teddy

[leicapages]

Just checked the Leica webpages again: no information on the R accessories indeed, and neither on the projectors or the special M models. What is going on?

[twom4]

Originally Posted by lct

Wonder what 'target group' it is aimed at

Good one LCT.

[lct]

Hi Chris, good to 'see' you here.

[sthan]

Originally Posted by admin
How do you like the new Leica Website?
Leica Camera AG

Tell us your opinion!

Andreas


Paris, February 8-th 2008

Letter to Leica
Care of Mr. Andreas Jurgensen

Andreas and dear all,
I did not "read" that Intro from a pure commercial or technical
efficiency.
To me, it's consistent with what I call the "Leica story".
Leica has always been and remains history, and Leica pictures do
tell a story.
It reminds me a post I received on a photo website where I posted
one of my images. A critic wrote the way I used blur and bokeh
conveyed a sense of nostalgia, a sense of "past being present", that
appealed to him.
I think that this "past being present" (see what Roland Barthes or
Susan Sontag wrote about photography) is the essence itself of
photography.

That Intro convey this narrative touch of Leica brand — a brand of the past
being present — fully alive.

This is quite distinctive from any other brand, which sell
mostly their technical "NASA like" efficiency. When you
see Nikon (and I love my Nikon FM3) or Canon ads, it's
like cars ads, nothing more.
Here, there is a narrative, and that script works with me.

Alright, this is part Leica, part "Hermes" style, travelling
people with Vuitton bags and so on — but why not ?
I prefer that stylish family rather than skinny models and
young males "à la Calvin Klein" playing what we call in french
"faux durs" — phoney thugs.

Yours faithfully

[Ron Kennett]

I agree with this alternative and valid analysis of the Leica ethos. It can only be preserved by moving forward

[medved]

Just awful, irrelevant and strange. Hasselblad shows more respect for its customers and gives more information which you can find easily. Dumb and dumber...