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Leica M11 - your next camera? {MERGED}


Al Brown

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20 minutes ago, bags27 said:

With Voigtlander knocking it out of the park with their M lenses, someone will come along with an M mount film camera--even a RF--for $3k or under that will be extremely tempting.

Many have tried the M mount - Epson, Minolta*, Konica*, Voigtländer Cosina* (Bessa me mucho 😊), Rollei*, Zeiss*, Ricoh... nobody's camera is around anymore. Must be the dreary M curse...

(* all these are film cameras)

Edited by Al Brown
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1 hour ago, LocalHero1953 said:

Too lazy to search for the data.....who else produces a quality film camera these days other than Leica's MA and MP?

Albeit a tiny percentage of the industry, there are still various companies producing quality view cameras and technical cameras, large and medium format.  In fact, these are growing in popularity.

Jeff

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1 hour ago, bags27 said:

With Voigtlander knocking it out of the park with their M lenses, someone will come along with an M mount film camera--even a RF--for $3k or under that will be extremely tempting.

The time is now no need to worry about the shortage of electronic components ; the perfect cottage industry - home assembling clockwork cameras.

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3 hours ago, Tailwagger said:

Something seems off to me, as I fail to see how they could survive producing half a dozen different models with so few sales. 

Well, not to be glib but price x quantity = revenue. To survive one must either increase quantity or price. I think we know Leica's path. A decision that is working out quite nicely for all, we get the cachet, Leica gets the revenue.

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1 hour ago, Kwesi said:

Well, not to be glib but price x quantity = revenue. To survive one must either increase quantity or price. I think we know Leica's path. A decision that is working out quite nicely for all, we get the cachet, Leica gets the revenue.

I wasn't talking about any path. I was questioning the .15% market share.  Revenue per Leica Camera Division for 2016/7 at 400M Euro.  Let's do the basic math...7.5 million * .0015 = 11,250 units. For simplicity, let's say an average wholesale price of $5K per camera across all lines. That tallies a paltry ~$56M.  Now of course, they earn money from optics as well, but I find it impossible to believe that lens revenue is 7x that of camera sales. So as I said, the 0.15% figure doesn't make sense unless it perhaps refers solely to M sales. 

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From different online sources, FWIW…

.15% was the apparent market share 10 years ago, at which point sales from Leica cameras, lenses and accessories totaled $141M Euro.

https://www.techradar.com/news/photography-video-capture/cameras/leica-aims-for-1-camera-market-share-1039773

Five years ago, Leica’s apparent market share was 1%, with 100,000 cameras sold annually.
 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/leicarumors.com/2016/10/28/leica-is-selling-over-10000-cameras-per-year.aspx/amp/

 

Production capacity in 2012 for the M9 was about 20,000+.  
 

https://gmpphoto.blogspot.com/2012/06/production-numbers-of-leica-cameras-and.html?m=1

Jeff

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1 hour ago, Tailwagger said:

Now of course, they earn money from optics as well, but I find it impossible to believe that lens revenue is 7x that of camera sales.

You failed to account for the Leica owners who confess to owning 25 different 50mm lenses. ;)

........................

Just kidding - mostly.

I do think you may have misinterepreted something - the Leica Camera Group is one and the same as Leica Camera AG (as opposed to Leica Microsystems, Leica Biosystems, and Leica Geosystems)

https://www.leica.com/

So the figure of €400 million represents revenue not just from M/S/CL/TL/SL camera bodies (including pricey special editions), but also all the: M/TL/L/S lenses, optical viewfinders, EVFs, lens hoods, lens caps, flashes, Panaleicas, sports optics, and the service depts, (including Leica Camera Inc. in the USA, and other subsidaries). Not to mention watches. ;)

Every single product and service handled or made by, sold by and listed on the web site for Leica Camera AG. Lumped together.

https://leica-camera.com/en-US/company

https://leica-camera.com/en-int/Company/Press-Centre/Press-Releases/2017/Press-Release-Leica-Camera-AG-records-strong-revenue-growth-for-the-2016-2017-financial-year-and-bucks-the-downward-trend-in-the-camera-market

Edited by adan
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I think that 64gb built in turns an $8900+ camera into the most expensive "SD card reader" on earth.  

Why oh why would I want to tie up my camera to download photos?

Same reasoning for not caring about having a USB port for charging on the camera:  it becomes the most expensive battery charger on earth.

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10 hours ago, Al Brown said:

Many have tried the M mount - Epson, Minolta*, Konica*, Voigtländer Cosina* (Bessa me mucho 😊), Rollei*, Zeiss*, Ricoh... nobody's camera is around anymore.

Clearly none have been profitable enough so they were underpriced and doomed to failure. Given that Leica film cameras are hand built from batched parts I'd guess they are profitable in small numbers and can be assembled mostly to order if needs be. I wonder just how many flim cameras Leica now produces annually? I'd hazard a guess and suspect it may even be in three figures (several per day) but its a guess based on nothing more than the posts about new cameras on the forum. I wonder just how many Leica dealers have them in stock?

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It’s conceivable (I have no data) that those who use the Leica camera branding (eg Huawei, Panasonic) are in some way paying for the privilege… perhaps not only an upfront payment but also amortised costs and maybe even a tariff per unit sold.

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54 minutes ago, pgk said:

I wonder just how many flim cameras Leica now produces annually? I'd hazard a guess and suspect it may even be in three figures (several per day) but its a guess based on nothing more than the posts about new cameras on the forum. I wonder just how many Leica dealers have them in stock?

Difficult to say without checking every dealer.  In the UK, Red Dot have all four variants of M-A and MP in stock.  Ffordes have three out of the four with only the Black Paint MP shown as awaiting stock.  I remember a few months ago Red Dot had a limited supply of MP Black Paint with 0.58 and 0.85 viewfinders, and they were all sold within a matter of days.

The availability of good quality labs for processing and scanning, with some providing a We Transfer service for large file scans, is increasing the interest in analogue.

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13 hours ago, Al Brown said:

Many have tried the M mount - Epson, Minolta*, Konica*, Voigtländer Cosina* (Bessa me mucho 😊), Rollei*, Zeiss*, Ricoh... nobody's camera is around anymore. Must be the dreary M curse...

(* all these are film cameras)

I paid about 450€ for a Bessa R2A 5-6 years ago and today they sell for 1500-2000€ on ebay, maybe it'd be a good time for Voigtlander to restart production

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3 minutes ago, Simone_DF said:

I paid about 450€ for a Bessa R2A 5-6 years ago and today they sell for 1500-2000€ on ebay, maybe it'd be a good time for Voigtlander to restart production

For sellers it is a great time for anything used in M mount but probably not so great time for anything new in M mount...

Edited by Al Brown
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6 minutes ago, Al Brown said:

For sellers it is a great time for anything used in M mount but probably not so great time for anything new in M mount...

I keep saying, for every digital M you buy, you need to buy a film M as a hedge.   When you sell later, you sell both.  The film M has appreciated some, the digital M has depreciated.  With luck and chance smiling maybe you come almost even.

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30 minutes ago, KFo said:

 

I keep saying, for every digital M you buy, you need to buy a film M as a hedge.   When you sell later, you sell both.  The film M has appreciated some, the digital M has depreciated.  With luck and chance smiling maybe you come almost even.

If I did that I'll be at a lost given the running cost of film has also increased. But I guess if you buy a film m purely for investment/ paper weight it might work. How much more a film m can appreciate to?

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1 hour ago, Al Brown said:

For sellers it is a great time for anything used in M mount but probably not so great time for anything new in M mount...

Agreed. Prices are crazy right now, especially for vintage lenses. A 50 black paint rigid goes for $15-25k right now when I bought one 2 years ago for $5k. Used MPs are selling for retail or more. Interesting though that newer gear is selling for good prices still if you are thrifty. 

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