Guest odeon Posted January 6, 2014 Share #1 Posted January 6, 2014 Advertisement (gone after registration) Hi there, I saw some interesting informations about Leica M (typ 240) production... Os segredos da Leica - JN Live Really, do we have a Portuguese camera? Or, only "Made in Germany" part engraved in Germany? Your thoughts? The truths? Our trust? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted January 6, 2014 Posted January 6, 2014 Hi Guest odeon, Take a look here Leica Camera - Made in Portugal (NOT Germany). I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
MediaFotografie Posted January 6, 2014 Share #2 Posted January 6, 2014 ...a very good answer is Assembling The Leica M9 on Vimeo In the first minute you can see waht comes from Protugal and what is done in Germany thomas Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
earleygallery Posted January 6, 2014 Share #3 Posted January 6, 2014 Where do you think the guts of the camera are made? All the electronics, LCD, sensor etc? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lanetomlane Posted January 6, 2014 Share #4 Posted January 6, 2014 I don't care where it's made as long as it keeps producing great images. I've found the Nikons produced in Thailand are just as good as the Japanese ones. Regards, Tom Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdlaing Posted January 6, 2014 Share #5 Posted January 6, 2014 What's your point? There are a whole bunch of Mercedes Benz' made in the USA as well as Volkswagen. It's still a German company and engineering. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
algrove Posted January 6, 2014 Share #6 Posted January 6, 2014 What's your point? There are a whole bunch of Mercedes Benz' made in the USA as well as Volkswagen. It's still a German company and engineering. Heck, my family has a VW made in Mexico and it has worked well for 10 years. Trouble for me with many M240 that I have owned is that the "German engineering" is lacking. Maybe it should the engineered elsewhere or by other engineers. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff S Posted January 6, 2014 Share #7 Posted January 6, 2014 Advertisement (gone after registration) Be careful...this topic has been known to lead to some entertaining discussion. And that's just one example. Jeff Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pico Posted January 6, 2014 Share #8 Posted January 6, 2014 ...a very good answer isAssembling The Leica M9 on Vimeo In the first minute you can see waht comes from Protugal and what is done in Germany thomas Interesting. It appears that they use the USB port for tethering of some testing and something like Luigi's bottom plate sans doors (10:27) for other stages, naturally. I would love to have the dust removal tethered software. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jip Posted January 6, 2014 Share #9 Posted January 6, 2014 Again someone who thinks he' been lied too because it says made in Germany... who cares where its been build... this is the 8th thread I see about 'someone finding out the truth' Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pico Posted January 6, 2014 Share #10 Posted January 6, 2014 Heck, my family has a VW made in Mexico and it has worked well for 10 years. Mexican and Brazilian Beetles used early, 'swing arm' technology that German VW abandoned for superior IRS suspension decades before stopping German production. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaapv Posted January 6, 2014 Share #11 Posted January 6, 2014 In this age of global production it is impossible to produce complicated products without sourcing parts and subassemblies from all over the world. There are strict regulations for the label “made in Germany” Leica complies with them. They even go better than that by sourcing many key parts if not in Germany but within the EU. A few years ago my wife bought an Suzuki Alto “made in Japan”. Only when it started rusting it turned out that the car was mainly built in India from Chinese parts, with just a bit of final assembly in Japan… Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaques Posted January 7, 2014 Share #12 Posted January 7, 2014 because everyone does it... it is OK to stretch the truth... A bit like spying, eh? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
zlatkob Posted January 7, 2014 Share #13 Posted January 7, 2014 They've had production in Portugal for something like 40 years, and it's no secret, so that fact should not be a surprise at this point. I suppose they could change the engraving to "Made in Germany and Portugal and with parts from several other countries" ... but you might not like so much text on the camera. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bephoto Posted January 7, 2014 Share #14 Posted January 7, 2014 R8, and most parts of R9 and varios parts of M6 were made in Portugal, afaik electronics for M8 and M9 are made by Jenoptik AG not sure about M's. and they just invested huge money on Portugal's plant last year, which makes sense. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaapv Posted January 7, 2014 Share #15 Posted January 7, 2014 because everyone does it... it is OK to stretch the truth... A bit like spying, eh? Ok, let’s mark every product “made on the planet Earth” As it is, it is very clear that the final bringing together of the parts and amount of assembly determines the marking on the camera. Quite a few R cameras have been marked “ made in Portugal”. I was a bit put out at the time seeing that on my new R, but soon realized that it was a complete irrelevancy. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
marknorton Posted January 7, 2014 Share #16 Posted January 7, 2014 I think a more honest approach would be to simply put "Leica Camera AG Germany" on it rather than "Made in Germany". Arcane rules dictate that the place of manufacture is where the last significant manufacturing operation is carried out which is itself open to interpretation. Porsche's Cayenne is made alongside the VW equivalent in Bratislava and is shipped to Leipzig where they add a few cosmetic bits and install the drive train. Originally, they used to make a song and dance about the engine coming from Porsche's spiritual home in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen but even that is dropped now that the biggest selling Porsche model variant is the Cayenne diesel which uses an Audi engine made goodness knows where. In the same way, the engine in my Range Rover is made in a suburb of Bridgend in Wales by Ford; if I had gone for a diesel, it would have been made in Mexico. Truth is, products and their components parts are made where the economics stack up best. When Leica first used Portugal, there would have been a clear cost advantage in doing so. It must still exist to have justified the recent investment. It would be interesting to know how much an M Typ 240 would cost if the work now done in Portugal was done in Germany. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wattsy Posted January 7, 2014 Share #17 Posted January 7, 2014 There was a time (not that long ago) when Leica were less coy (or more honest) about manufacturing provenance. I distinctly remember at least some R8 bodies with "Made in Portugal" on them. I suspect these sold equally as slowly as the "Made in Germany" examples. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaapv Posted January 7, 2014 Share #18 Posted January 7, 2014 My Leica R3, despite being for 80% Minolta, had "Made in Portugal" on it.... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
earleygallery Posted January 7, 2014 Share #19 Posted January 7, 2014 My R3 is proudly engraved 'Made in Portugal' and my 35 Summicron 'Made in Canada'. The essential parts of any new M or X are obviously made in the Far East by various electrical manufacturers. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
honcho Posted January 7, 2014 Share #20 Posted January 7, 2014 When Citroen moved assembly of the 2cv from Paris to Portugal, manufacturing "quality" took a nosedive. Trabant clearly had the foresight not to do the same........ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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