daveolson Posted March 21, 2012 Share #1 Posted March 21, 2012 Advertisement (gone after registration) It his becoming apparent that Leica has thrown away its old marketing book and has subscribed to the Japanese concept of large scale sales. I use my one M6 and two M7s, plus 2 R6.2 s and one R 7. I have a rather good selection of Canon glass including their magnificent 200 USM f 1.8, all three of their macros and a number of others I found necessary when I was shooting professionally. The same can can be said of my Leica lenses for both the Ms and the R.6s. When shooting editorial work the requests were extremely varied and that required variety in lenses. OK, that's my situation as it stands. I'm retired and to try and justify laying $7,000.00- $8,000.00 USD. My CPA ran the figures and they just don't jive. Now I hear about an M 10! What's that going to cost?, and how long then before an M11. I'm not sure who their (the Japanese) market target is, but it sure ain't goin to be. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted March 21, 2012 Posted March 21, 2012 Hi daveolson, Take a look here Why I Won't Buy an M9 or 9+. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
iphoenix Posted March 21, 2012 Share #2 Posted March 21, 2012 It's unfortunately inherent in current marketing "strategy". Keep giving them the latest and they'll forget the quality (sorry Leica). The balance is between "Latest", "Quality" and "Price". At the moment, give me a good, mint film camera, rather than a new "soon to be superceded" digital. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kanzlr Posted March 21, 2012 Share #3 Posted March 21, 2012 My only camera for months was a Ricoh GXR and I was thinking about an M9 for quite a while now. All of a sudden I decided to buy a used Hexar RF, a film scanner, a box full of Portra and Ektar and I couldn't be happier. The remaining money was spent to finally get a car and to renovate our living room Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pop Posted March 21, 2012 Share #4 Posted March 21, 2012 As far as I am aware, Leica did not anounce any new M camera bodies. It's all hearsay and speculation all over the web. Hence, the problem does not exist in the form stated. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightwrangler Posted March 21, 2012 Share #5 Posted March 21, 2012 It his becoming apparent that Leica has thrown away its old marketing book and has subscribed to the Japanese concept of large scale sales. Who exactly told you that? Apart from some gear-addicts in the usual photo forums? Mike Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
01af Posted March 21, 2012 Share #6 Posted March 21, 2012 As far as I am aware, Leica did not announce any new M camera bodies. As of now, they indeed did not. But they did announce some announcement ... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave_d Posted March 21, 2012 Share #7 Posted March 21, 2012 Advertisement (gone after registration) Unless you are making a living with your camera the only justification for spending money on any camera no matter which brand is personal satisfaction. Yes Leica cameras are financially out of reach for many people who appreciate the brand. One thing that doesn't help Leica's pricing in the USA is the value of the Euro vs dollar. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
earleygallery Posted March 21, 2012 Share #8 Posted March 21, 2012 Can I just add that I'm definately not buying a Maybach. Hideous looking thing at any price, what are THEY thinking of!!!!! No sir, not for me! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pgk Posted March 21, 2012 Share #9 Posted March 21, 2012 And the OP's point is what? That Leica should adopt a marketing strategy that might put them out of business? That they should somehow make a digital M which is immune to future developments? In an ideal world perhaps an M digital should be cheap enough for all, but in a world where a niche product has to fight for even its market share I can't see this being possible. This topic has been done to death already can we move on please? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ornello Posted March 21, 2012 Share #10 Posted March 21, 2012 Hilarious. Digital technology is still in its infancy and rapid improvement is inevitable. Product life cycles are therefore shorter with digital equipment. Pros factor the cost of their equipment in their fees. Early digital SLRs were more than $20K I believe, and are now junk. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodak_DCS Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Messsucherkamera Posted March 21, 2012 Share #11 Posted March 21, 2012 It's unfortunately inherent in current marketing "strategy". Keep giving them the latest and they'll forget the quality (sorry Leica). The balance is between "Latest", "Quality" and "Price". At the moment, give me a good, mint film camera, rather than a new "soon to be superceded" digital. Amen to that! The M9 and M9-P are really the only digital cameras that have interested me so far. That having been said, I can't see sinking $7000 or $8000US into a camera that is admittedly better than its predecessor but still clearly has issues. Maybe Leica's new price strategy is that the camera model number will coincide with the price of the camera: M10 = $10,000US, M11 = $11,000US, etc. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sailronin Posted March 21, 2012 Share #12 Posted March 21, 2012 OK, I won't be buying a Hasselblad H4D-65 or Phase One 180 IQ either.... If you're not making money with the camera it's a hobby (as are my cameras) and an accountant telling you that it's not worth the money is spot on. Digital developments and product lifecycles are a fact of life. My first 4 function calculator (+,-,/,x) cost over $120 USD, five years later they were given away for free when opening a bank account. My first Apple IIe had 64kb of memory and cost $3000, now a telephone you get for free with a service contract has memory in the gigabytes and a more powerful processor. Do you really expect Leica or any other company to put out a digital product and then fail to improve it or keep up with technical advances??? Sure road to failure. Even the automobile industry (which progresses much more slowly than electronics) would laugh at a company putting out a car with drum brakes, carburetor, manual transmission, no seat belts or airbags, magneto ignition and 5 mpg. It's called progress, either keep up or get out of the way Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ornello Posted March 21, 2012 Share #13 Posted March 21, 2012 OK, I won't be buying a Hasselblad HD4 or Phase One 180 IQ either.... If you're not making money with the camera it's a hobby (as are my cameras) and an accountant telling you that it's not worth the money is spot on. Digital developments and product lifecycles are a fact of life. My first 4 function calculator (+,-,/,x) cost over $120 USD, five years later they were given away for free when opening a bank account. My first Apple IIe had 64kb of memory and cost $3000, now a telephone you get for free with a service contract has memory in the gigabytes and a more powerful processor. Do you really expect Leica or any other company to put out a digital product and then fail to improve it or keep up with technical advances??? Sure road to failure. Why is an accountant's opinion relevant? I don't understand that at all. If it's a hobby, who cares? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sailronin Posted March 21, 2012 Share #14 Posted March 21, 2012 OP said his CPA said it didn't make sense...he's shooting commercially but sounds like the M9 would be "hobby camera"?? I may have misunderstood OP Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ornello Posted March 21, 2012 Share #15 Posted March 21, 2012 OP said his CPA said it didn't make sense...he's shooting commercially but sounds like the M9 would be "hobby camera"?? I may have misunderstood OP he says he's retired....so what does the CPA have to do with it? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
luigi bertolotti Posted March 21, 2012 Share #16 Posted March 21, 2012 We are in the FILM Forum, and the OP does NOT quote any digital camera within his set... my conclusion is that we can keep him comfortable : no announcement from Leica is expected in the film area... they still do a pair of wonderful film Leicas (M7 and MP), who anyone who loves film can consider as a worth-or-not buy. M9 M10 etc.. are definitely in the Digital Camera market... which follows some rules of its own, mostly tied to the still rapid development of the basic technology behind (sensors). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pop Posted March 21, 2012 Share #17 Posted March 21, 2012 As of now, they indeed did not. But they did announce some announcement ... Indeed, but the squared announcement did not even leave any hints as to the product line or lines affected. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
IkarusJohn Posted March 22, 2012 Share #18 Posted March 22, 2012 It his becoming apparent that Leica has thrown away its old marketing book and has subscribed to the Japanese concept of large scale sales. I use my one M6 and two M7s, plus 2 R6.2 s and one R 7. I have a rather good selection of Canon glass including their magnificent 200 USM f 1.8, all three of their macros and a number of others I found necessary when I was shooting professionally. The same can can be said of my Leica lenses for both the Ms and the R.6s. When shooting editorial work the requests were extremely varied and that required variety in lenses. OK, that's my situation as it stands. I'm retired and to try and justify laying $7,000.00- $8,000.00 USD. My CPA ran the figures and they just don't jive. Now I hear about an M 10! What's that going to cost?, and how long then before an M11. I'm not sure who their (the Japanese) market target is, but it sure ain't goin to be. Quite right! It's a disgrace that Leica stopped making the M3. What were they thinking? Improvements? Bah, humbug! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanG Posted March 22, 2012 Share #19 Posted March 22, 2012 I'm not sure what the OP is getting at. If Leica hadn't produced the M8 and M9 and S2 and X1, what are the odds they'd still be in business? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Archiver Posted March 22, 2012 Share #20 Posted March 22, 2012 Leica was able to survive for years on minimal releases as they had a very loyal consumer base, and digital technology was not at a level to compete with their products. They produced very high quality, minimalist cameras for decades because the next big step forward had not been taken. Digital technology changed that, and now Leica has to compete in the same arena. As AlanG mentioned, not producing digital cameras like the M8, M9 and S2 would likely have consigned Leica to the grave. But the move to digital obviously means operating within its parameters, which includes competing with other brands with increasingly accelerating development times. The fact that Leica is developing an EVIL is a sign that they recognize a market they can reach. I think that the digital model upgrades are not a sign of Leica discarding quality and going for disposability; the regular digital upgrades are a necessity to operate in this field. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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