new leica lens technology heads towards smartphones

[willeica]

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Leica are doing the right thing for their business and are going to where the market is. They are neither a charity nor a craft business and must survive in the very fast moving and changing market that exists today. They are following the mass migration to smartphones in the light of the very rapid collapse of the compact and consumer camera markets. At the other end they are following the professional market which will always require specialist equipment to carry out its business. For those of us, who are somewhere in between, they will continue to provide products for us so long as a market exists for those products. No amount of saying that certain types business are beneath a company like Leica will alter the real nature of today's market. Anyone who denies that is living in a cocoon of delusion. If Leica and its products are to survive then the company must diversify. It has had too many near misses with extinction in the past to avoid taking the diversification route.

 

William

[earleygallery]

I am not referring to camera sales etc

 

....it is about what the smartphone ideology can offer.

 

Niche markets are too small for R&D, partnering with Panasonic and Huawei has given Leica a greater scope just as Zeiss has with Sony etc

 

You are still viewing things from a camera perspective it is the multimedia/social media hardware that will take the top spot and that is even in the higher end of the market. The camera is a bit playerNikon and

 

Canon are like the fossil fuel car companies of the past..... no no to electric etc so will the big white Canon lenses disappear from the sports arena

I understand your point and I agree mostly although 'the big white Canon lenses' will be around for a while yet.

 

It is very much about camera sales - if sales of P&S cameras were going through the roof Leica would be chasing a slice of that market. Instead they're going into phones and instant cameras, funnily enough both are booming in terms of sales!

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[pgk]

I am not referring to camera sales etc 

 

....it is about what the smartphone ideology  can offer.

 

Smartphones simply offer Leica another outlet for their lens design skills but this is hardly new technology - different lens design parameters are hardly new technology are they? It makes sense for any company to expand into arenas which can use their skills and generate income. I do agree though that solely maintaining a place in 'conventional' photographic design and manufacture cannot sustain companies when their product lines are being eroding by equipment which displaces them. 

[imants]

 Lens technology for multimedia  hardware is still in its infancy it will be a very different beast in 10 years , my reference to smartphones is because they are the most widespread hardware presently available 

Edited September 27, 2016 by Imants

[pgk]

 Lens technology for multimedia  hardware is still in its infancy it will be a very different beast in 10 years , my reference to smartphones is because they are the most widespread hardware presently available 

 

Lens technology for all sorts of applications is far from being in its infancy - its just that us (civilian) users are far from aware of some of the uses optics are already being used for . Leica does not (as far as I am aware) operate in many of the fields which use some of the more sophisticated  and intriguing optics- other do, and they may actually be well placed to produce interesting optics. Photographic optical designers may be playing a sort of catch-up already. And before you ask, no I don't know exactly what is already being produced but I am aware that many specialist optical companies operate in markets which require a high level of confidentiality/secrecy whether we appreciate or like it or not.

[imants]

 New optics/lenses etc  won't even use glass.................. Mr Kaufmann is right in the direction he is going it just is that leica will never be the same and the m will become a quirk of history

 

............................anyway  many of you lot are the same ones that didn't believe in digital.

 

 

I doubt if any of you use film now.....I  do  but only because I like playing in a darkroom with chemicals

Edited September 28, 2016 by Imants

[Exodies]

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Don't believe in digital? I don't even believe in light.

[pgk]

..... will become a quirk of history

 

Just like most of us - you included .

[jdlaing]

Leica was here long before imants and will be here long after imants has gone.

Sniveling doesn't help.

[pico]

[...] I am aware that many specialist optical companies operate in markets which require a high level of confidentiality/secrecy whether we appreciate or like it or not.

 

And their products are so subtle!

 

 

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Edited September 28, 2016 by pico

[IkarusJohn]

The focus on smartphones is clever, and the only rational place for Leica to expand into.

 

There was an interesting analysis of the iPhone 7 a few weeks ago (I think it might have been Wired) which suggested that the technology had plateaued (i.e., the hardware).  Once, each new release of an iPhone offered more functionality, more storage and better performance.  Not so much now.  The iPhone 7 is viewed as being a better platform of improved software and greater use of the technology.  Apple isn't going to make anywhere near as much out of its phones as it has done in the past, but it will continue to be a profitable part of its business.  People will hold their phones for longer, but they will keep upgrading - they will just hold what they have for longer and the next best thing won't be as important.

 

If we look at cameras, and Leica cameras in particular, back in the day you reviewed the available cameras with some care, chose your camera and a few good lenses and then used them until they fell apart (well I did, anyway).  Improvements were incremental, but did not drive a decision to "upgrade".  That came later.  In terms of image quality and usability, I think we're at the same stage that film was at when the improvements offered by new films (Kodak's T particles) also plateaued.  For the fastidious few who really worry about perfect corners and pixels at 200%, there are incremental gains to be made, but the cost is also quite considerable.

 

New cameras (even the relatively "cheap" Sonys) are expensive, and the investment in lenses considerable.  I don't actually believe that a new M, new SL or T2 will have an appreciable improvement in image quality at all - not in real life.  Sure, the haptic may improve, and the EVF, but what we have now is pretty amazing (for someone coming from film in the 1960s).  For Leica, I believe we will see longer product cycles as people hold onto their hardware for longer, and hopefully support which reflects those longer product times.

 

Leica currently offers the X, Q, T, M, SL & S series, with all the variations which go with them.  They will be refreshed, expanded, products dropped, and other variants offered, but that is the product line.  Offering new products (R&D and production) is a huge drain on the company, and in the last 3 years they've expanded the M series, offered the new Sofort, SL, Q & T cameras, expanded the X and upgraded the S.  My guess is we will see a bit of consolidation, with longer cycles and more incremental improvements.

 

Meanwhile, the growth is in the cellphone market, and Leica is at the forefront with the P9.  Even Apple is playing catchup with the twin-lens iPhone 7+.  Good on them!

[pgk]

If we look at cameras, and Leica cameras in particular, back in the day you reviewed the available cameras with some care, chose your camera and a few good lenses and then used them until they fell apart (well I did, anyway).

 

And strangely enough camera manufacturers used to stay in business with longer product cycles. To survive in the future it might well be worth reviewing the past - but then few ever learn from history do they? Constantly changing and bringing out new models is finally an impossible task, and especially when most equipment is more than fit for purpose already.

[rramesh]

Warning with future Leica?

 

DO NOT SUBJECT TO BENDING PRESSURE. MIGHT DAMAGE BATTERY AND CATCH FIRE.

[earleygallery]

The phone will eventually become obsolete so Leica shouldn't put too much hope in smartphone lenses.

 

We'll have a chip embedded into our ear, rather like a dog, and if you think 'call Fred' it will connect you with Fred so you can speak. If you want to look up some information you'll think 'what's the weather like in London today' and you will see images of London and the weather patterns. There will be no camera. If you think 'I want to see photos of kittens asleep on cushions' you will instantly see a rolling variety of such images.

 

Leica will be able to move into replacement lenses for our eyes, which will become a very competitive market. Most people will be happy with the cheaper Chinese replacement eye lenses but some of us will value the Leica glow in our eyesight!

[Exodies]

Speak to Fred? I'm not sure synchronous communication will be around much longer; it's just a burden on the one you call.