how many lenses does Leica make a year?

[stump4545]

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with such high demand if you had to take a guess at it, how many 50mm lux asph does leica make a year? 35mm FLE asph? .95 etc..

 

maybe like "100" .95s?

[dwbell]

As many as they need to satisfy you,

minus one.

 

[adan]

Overall, 30,000-50,000 per year, based on historic figures (which are a) old, include the R system, c) don't include the S system).

 

The thing to remember is that Leica doesn't have 147 grinding and polishing machines to maintain constant production of glass for all 21 of their cataloged M lenses at any one time (assuming 7 elements per lens on average). More like a dozen to 20 machines. (someone probably knows the exact figure)

 

So lenses are produced in batches - say, two thousand 50 f/1.4s in a month, then change the machines to make 35 Summarit glass for a month, etc. (Realistically, they probably have 2-5 lenses (14-30 different lens elements) "in production" at the glass stage at any one time.)

 

The batches of a particular type are scheduled based on expected sales. If they expect to sell 500 Noctis every year, they don't make 42 per month - they will schedule a batch of 1000 once every two years. The scheduling means the machines are "committed" to specific lenses at all times - which is why, if a certain lens sells more than expected and runs out, they will not have any more until the next scheduled batch.

 

(Leica has been working on expanding the production facilities, so they can handle bigger or more batches at a time, but it is still a work in progress.)

 

So it is possible that in any given year, Leica makes NO lenses of a particular type. I was talking to someone with Solms contacts earlier this month, and his source said the 16-18-21 has not actually been made for four years. Leica has been selling down the last batch from 2008. Which doesn't mean it will never be made again, just not until the next free time-slot on the machines.

 

At a rough guess based on popularity, Leica probably makes 4 batches (8000) a year each of the 50 and 35 Summicrons, one batch each (1000-2000) of most everything else, and one batch (maybe as small as 1000) every 2-4 years for the low-volume exotics (the 21/24 Summiluxes, 135, 18, 50 f/0.95, 90 f/2, 16-18-21). But I'm guessing at the relative popularities based on history. The Asian market currently swallowing a plurality of the production may have different priorities.

[Messsucherkamera]

how many lenses does Leica make a year?

Apparently not nearly enough!

[fWord]

This is a very interesting question to ponder, even if not related to photography itself. I was always under the impression that Leica is a very small, boutique company. And as such have been amazed at the number of lenses they are able to produce in a limited timeframe, especially if their quality control and 'hand-made' nature of their equipment is to be believed.

 

On the Leica Wiki website, it actually gives an estimate of the numbers of lenses produced in a given year, but for individual lenses. Unfortunately the figures stop from 2006 onwards.

 

On Erwin Puts' site, we might have read his discussion about some of the newer lenses being easier and quicker to produce, hence relieving the strain on the production line. These same lenses are also not surprisingly the more affordable ones in their lineup, and have the potential to sell in larger numbers (although perhaps not always so). I imagine that, for example, people would prefer to buy a Summicron 35mm ASPH second hand rather than buy the Summarit 35mm, even though both are stellar lenses in their own right and the Summarit is a good deal cheaper.

 

Leica of course faces considerable competition from themselves in the form of the second-hand market, so their cheaper lenses may not actually become best-sellers, despite being more affordable.

[pico]

Leica makes only one of each model lens. The rest are really quantum phantoms that travel from person to person faster than the speed of light. This rather like the one and only Christmas fruit cake, handed across generations Christmas by Christmas, but faster.

 

Noctilux glass is made of cosmic dark matter and is responsible for the accelerating inflation of the universe: owners can sense it from that feeling that their wallet seems farther away each day.

[hoppyman]

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The last figures quoted in a blog or interview with an executive were I think 36 lenses a (working) day,

That was doubled to about 60 on recent demand with a plan to get the number up to 120 (I'm guessing when in their new Wetzlar facility?)

Any way you look at it not many units for world wide.

 

Someone quoted a dealer rumour recently that the backorder total was about 35,000 units!