photokina - Your Questions To Leica

[pop]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

+1

Any answers yet?

New thread somewhere?

Twitter feed?

 

Thanks!

 

Hallo,

 

die Fragestunde ist gerade vorbei - es haben sich sowohl der neue Vorstandsvorsitzende Herr Schopf als auch Herr Dr. Kaufmann zwei Stunden für uns Zeit genommen und haben viele Fragen beantwortet.

 

Live konnten wir das leider nicht anbieten, ich werde aber noch ein Protokoll schreiben und hier veröffentlichen. Ich bitte nur um ein wenig Geduld, da ich die nächsten Tage ziemlich stark eingebunden bin...

 

Live von der photokina

Andreas

 

Entirely unauthorized translation (sort of) for those short on patience:

 

The Q&A session is just over. Both Mr. Schopf and Mr. Kaufmann have spent two hours of their time answering many of our questions.

 

We haven't been able to offer a real time reporting of the proceedings, we're afraid. However, I (admin) will presently produce a written transcript. I'm asking you all for a bit of patience as I am heaviliy committed for time the next few days.

 

(all errors in translation are entirely mine - pop's)

[mooky]

Whoa!!!!! If the meeting quotes take a few days, there will be torches in the streets......

[mooky]

IMHO they also underestimated the demand for the R10.

 

Well of three groups of questions I submitted, the last asked how many executives and designers at Leica are VERY familiar with the complete R system, from Leicaflex to R9? That is by USING them and for how long?

 

My guess is that they spend one heck of a lot more time knowing the M.

[glenerrolrd]

And Zeiss's R-alternative is?

 

Thats easy any Nikon,Canon or Sony camera you want and their Zf,Ze etc line of lenses..

[phalter]

IMHO they also underestimated the demand for the R10.

 

Yes. I did a little counting: Between 1963 and 1996 (i.e. from the first Leicaflex to the R7) they sold 455'000 SRL cameras. So they must have sold way over a million lenses for their R-cameras. It's beyond me to understand that there is no market for a single digital body that allows the R-users to continue using their lenses in the digital age.

 

And it's beyond me to understand why a company does so little for their R-customers that is SO proud of allowing their M-users to continue using all the screw-mount and bayonet-mount lenses produced in the past 80 years on their M8's and M9's.

[lct]

And Zeiss's R-alternative is?

R solution with R lenses vs Canon solution with Zeiss lenses. CZ is the winner. Will keep using my Mandler lenses though. In memory of the good old times when Leica respected its customers.

[veraikon]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

I would take a Nikon - some R lenses rebuild with Leitax , rest Carl Zeiss (ZF.2) or Voigtländer

[farnz]

Philipp,

 

Thank you for providing your translation services and now we can sit back and wait until Andreas kindly provides the answers.

 

 

Mooky,

 

Andreas is freely giving his own time to arrange the meeting with the folks at Leica, attend it and report back to us. Perhaps we should appreciate what he's done for us, respect his time and wait patiently for him to kindly let us know Leica's responses to the Forum's questions.

 

 

We should also thank Leica management for giving up 2 hours of their time to respond to our questions when they'd probably much rather be travelling home after a long week at PK. I doubt that many companies would willingly entertain public interrogation by the members of a web forum in the way that Leica has done. Well done, Leica!

 

At the end of the day a short wait isn't going to change the responses and perhaps one of the other forum attendees will post about it, which is what happened when Stephan Daniel met some forum members after the last forum visit to Wetzlar.

 

Pete.

[Paolo.Battista]

Mhh, well they spent some time with our forum members. That could be fine, but the real question for me is: are they going to tell us something really useful for someone that's not an M's or S's guy? Otherwise, for my purposes the Q&A session could be based on the Volkswagen cars (since the major Leica event was De Silva driven), that I really never buy.

[mooky]

Philipp,

 

Thank you for providing your translation services and now we can sit back and wait until Andreas kindly provides the answers.

 

 

Mooky,

 

Andreas is freely giving his own time to arrange the meeting with the folks at Leica, attend it and report back to us. Perhaps we should appreciate what he's done for us, respect his time and wait patiently for him to kindly let us know Leica's responses to the Forum's questions.

 

 

We should also thank Leica management for giving up 2 hours of their time to respond to our questions when they'd probably much rather be travelling home after a long week at PK. I doubt that many companies would willingly entertain public interrogation by the members of a web forum in the way that Leica has done. Well done, Leica!

 

At the end of the day a short wait isn't going to change the responses and perhaps one of the other forum attendees will post about it, which is what happened when Stephan Daniel met some forum members after the last forum visit to Wetzlar.

 

Pete.

 

I deeply appreciate Andreas' efforts, and I have sent him PM's expressly stating that. Please, don't ask me to respect Leica management's efforts, that goes without saying. But I won't for a minute say that they have handled their own past words - spoken by their choice, to be satisfactory when they also know darn well by reading the Forum comments, what they have stirred up.

 

I'm not in their shoes, but I would envision a simple comment - 'for those of you expressing interest in the progress of an R solution, we want you to know we are working towards that end yet we understand that you, as enthusiastic supporters the R system and Leica desire to hear more, we will continue to do our best to keep your interests in hand as we move forward, thank you,,,,,,'. They are adults, I'm sure they can understand our willingness - again - fed by their own comments, to know more. Especially if one considers that for many, Leica is a 'family' of users from casual to pro and can tend to take things personally.

 

I have said, complete with 'smiling face' that I will gladly wait before passing complete comments - but I hardly think they consider Forum member questions interrogation. Here's another smiling face.

[stunsworth]

Well of three groups of questions I submitted, the last asked how many executives and designers at Leica are VERY familiar with the complete R system, from Leicaflex to R9? That is by USING them and for how long?

 

My guess is that they spend one heck of a lot more time knowing the M.

 

That's a red herring surely. You may as well ask Kodak executives how much Kodachrome they've shot. Business isn't about how much you use or like a system, it's about whether you can develop it and sell it at a profit.

 

Could Leica make money with a Leica R10? I have no idea, but given the poor financial position of Leica until recently I'm sure that if they were confidant that it would be a money maker they'd have no problems designing and selling the camera.

[J Mitchum]

I think they are, just telling us plainly that they are not able to reveal a new camera system at the moment.

 

But are they even working on one is the question. We don't even know that much.

[stunsworth]

But are they even working on one is the question. We don't even know that much.

 

We do know that much, they have said that any R 'solution' will not be provided by Leica.

[J Mitchum]

We do know that much, they have said that any R 'solution' will not be provided by Leica.

 

Okay, let me rephrase that. Are they still working on one?

 

JUN 2009 - Forum meeting in Hessenpark

"There will be no R10 from Leica, but there will be a good solution that allows us to use our R-lenses on a digital body."

 

NOV 2009 - Leica Experience Day

Leica has three different product scenarios regarding adapting R lenses to a Leica digital camera. As soon as a decision for one of these projects is made, Leica will publish a time schedule for this R solution

[stunsworth]

Okay, let me rephrase that. Are they still working on one?

 

My assumption - and I would love to be proved wrong - is that since no one has come out of the meeting saying "Yippee there's an R camera on its way" that's it's as dead as a dead project can be.

[mooky]

We do know that much, they have said that any R 'solution' will not be provided by Leica.

 

I think they said that there would be one, but not necessarily by them alone? Assuming that's what you meant?

 

To be clear(er) about what I said before about the question(s) I submitted pertaining to how many executives have used the R system - I meant that in the sense that they may be a bit more understanding about the R user(s) passion and our desire to use R lenses on a Leica digital solution....if they have used the system. Too, it would seem more likely that they would be more focused on the M, as it's there bread and butter system.

[stunsworth]

I think they said that there would be one, but not necessarily by them alone? Assuming that's what you meant?

 

Yes, that's what I meant, though at the moment I'm not convinced that there will be an R 'solution'. As I've said earlier I would love to be proved wrong.

[mooky]

Yes, that's what I meant, though at the moment I'm not convinced that there will be an R 'solution'. As I've said earlier I would love to be proved wrong.

 

With the utmost respect, I hope you are 1000% wrong.

[stunsworth]

With the utmost respect, I hope you are 1000% wrong.

 

Nothing would please me more than to be proved wrong.

[Advertisement]

Hallo,

Look here: Interesting Leica gear

[J Mitchum]

Well I think, we should leave summing up the details to Andreas and then start with individual views about many topics dealt with in the meeting. None from the leading crew of Leica was missing and each one gave his own view, which perhaps was the most interesting about the meeting.

 

There were no big news, just some facts about the present situation. They all were very clear that Leica won't give premature announcements, as long as they aren't sure about themselves.

 

All of them still seemed to be surprized about the success of the M9 and the S2 and they mentioned some numbers about the D-Lux 5. They also gave some detailed facts about present problems in keeping up production to customer's demand.

 

The focus seems to be on doing the homework to increase capacities for a better output and to solve problems. At the same time they a thinking about and working on future concepts but were very, very reluctant to reveal more than this.

 

Since it's going to be a few days before Andreas is able to post maybe you could tell us in the meantime what exactly they said in response to the R-lens 'solution' question?