Deathless Leica M Film Cameras Rebound

[Keith (M)]

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Article on the Online Photographer website about a recent interview with Dr Kaufmann on a French website.  Interesting snippets regarding film & digital M production numbers.

 

PS - wasn't sure if this was the best place for the post - feel free to move it if it would garner more readers elsewhere.

Edited November 8, 2023 by Keith (M)

[FrozenInTime]

I liked this:

"What is your favourite Leica device?

When I go to the beach, I always use the Leica X-U (type 113), the underwater camera. We have only produced 3,000 or 4,000 copies. It was based on the X system, with an APS-C sensor, and it was waterproof up to, officially up to 15 metres, but we tested it up to about 23 metres. It is the most versatile and robust camera I have. But we no longer produce it, we stopped it in 2017."

[Anbaric]

'Anyway it's a good thing they didn't deep-six the tooling for the film cameras, because, remarkably, sales have rebounded to ~5,000 per year. That might not sound like much. But it is, because Leica is a luxury brand and they're high-priced...meaning that low sales numbers are a feature, not a problem. I mean, nobody wants an exclusive luxury product that everybody has, pretty much by definition, right?'

Great for Leica and their continued survival and success, great for people who see them as status symbols, not quite so great for the rest of us.

[250swb]

It's troubling to hear Leica describe their cameras as priced to appeal to snobs. I'm glad I got most of my Leica equipment when they were a camera company. And I doubt anything new will appeal to me anyway, but especially not with that sneering attitude towards photographers who don't have a qualifying bank balance. It's one thing to make photographers aspire to owning a Leica, but it's something else when Leica intend the price to be always just out of reach for many. But who'd want to be in that type of club?

[Anbaric]

To clarify, that's the gloss that The Online Photographer blog is putting on the story, though Dr Kaufmann does touch on what they learned about marketing from Hermès, and their Leica shop strategy (which doesn't sound great for the future of independent Leica retailers - hopefully there'll still be a place for them...).

https://phototrend-fr.translate.goog/2023/09/interview-dr-andreas-kaufmann-proprietaire-leica/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp

But there has been a very noticeable shift upmarket under the current management. Perhaps that's the only way they could survive (and thrive), though when you charge £2,980 for a 35/2 that went for £895 in its previous (very similar) incarnation, earlier this century, you are appealing only to a very narrow segment of the market. Leica prices have more than tripled over a period when average wages have not come anywhere close to doubling, and prices for the new digital gear are stratospheric - an M11 is a very large chunk of the average annual salary in countries like the UK. In the film days, you might justify the expense of a Leica as a lifetime investment, something that would probably outlast you, but will you even be able to get batteries for today's Leicas in a couple of decades, let along repairs? The film cameras should have greater longevity, of course, though if you're a colour film photographer the future of a medium that has largely been reduced to a single supplier is unclear, and costs continue to spiral.

I'm glad that Leica is still around (it very easily might not have survived) and they've found a strategy that works for them, but their new luxury products don't feel terribly relevant to me at the prices they charge for them. With the demise of the Summarits and the price that even the humble 50/2 has risen to, there are really no more entry level products, either.

[TomB_tx]

10 minutes ago, Anbaric said:

I'm glad that Leica is still around (it very easily might not have survived) and they've found a strategy that works for them, but their new luxury products don't feel terribly relevant to me at the prices they charge for them. With the demise of the Summarits and the price that even the humble 50/2 has risen to, there are really no more entry level products, either.

Agreed - I too miss the days when they were a mainstream camera company with a product range that even I could save for. It was a borrowed M2 with 50 Elmar 2.8 that seduced me to Leica. As I recall that lens was then $68 new. These days I've gone back to the "entry level" lenses more, using the 50 2.8 Elmar (1964) a lot, while the 35 & 50 2.5 Summarits are now my main lenses on my M10. I stretched my retirement budget a lot to get the M10, which is my ideal digital camera. But there are no more Leica cameras or lenses in my future.