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Just heard from my dealer, that Leica informed them that on May 1, all products will be increased by 7%,  More for the battery,  I believe 90%, so back to close to 300.00 for a new cell.  D-Lux (not sure what that is) 75%.    

I realize that every year Leica has some form of a price increase, however it tends not to be across the entire product line. 

Paul C 

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1 minute ago, Paul2660 said:

Just heard from my dealer, that Leica informed them that on May 1, all products will be increased by 7%,  More for the battery,  I believe 90%, so back to close to 300.00 for a new cell.  D-Lux (not sure what that is) 75%.    

I realize that every year Leica has some form of a price increase, however it tends not to be across the entire product line. 

Paul C 

Most citizen's governments don't suddenly apply tariffs across the whole of a country's imports either. Leica's whole product line is going down with the rest. I guess the D-Lux and batteries come from China, so have the full fat price increase.

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I hope Leica will use this opportunity to fix the Canadian situation. I think their strategy for the past decade and a half has been to assume that Canadians would get frustrated with the lack of dealers and stock, and order from B&H instead!

I am always amazed when I go to a mid-size European city and find that there are one or two Leica dealers, with cameras and lenses in stock. That hasn't happened in Canada since the early 2000s (before Leica NJ took over distribution).

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While periodic price increases are the norm for Leica, I wonder if the big increase on the M10 battery is using all the talk about tariffs to justify the increase, knowing US customers are getting desperate for the batteries and will pay the increase when and if they become available.

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vor 6 Stunden schrieb JackieTreehorn:

Nope.  Going in the wrong direction, fellows.  Was contemplating a Q3 43.  Not so much now.

So the tariffs just saved you 7,000 bucks. It works! 🤣

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16 hours ago, TomB_tx said:

While periodic price increases are the norm for Leica, I wonder if the big increase on the M10 battery is using all the talk about tariffs to justify the increase .....

If the batteries state on them that they are made in China I'd guess that they attract higher tariffs. Cameras are clearly marked as made in Germany, as are lenses. I wonder about some of the accessories though. We are probably going to see a lot more information about 'countries of origin' although no doubt there will be some creative assembly. The EU has rules on what needs to be done where in order to be able to claim location of manufacture although I'm unsure about elsewhere. In the 1950s I believe that there was a town in Japan called Usa which enabled some interesting markings!

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Rumour(maybe malicious 😉) has it that Japan renamed a town to be able to mark knives made there Made in Solingen.

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1 hour ago, jaapv said:

Rumour(maybe malicious 😉) has it that Japan renamed a town to be able to mark knives made there Made in Solingen.

After WWII in the early 1950s they said the same about the city of “Usa” Japan saying Made in USA…

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3 hours ago, TomB_tx said:

After WWII in the early 1950s they said the same about the city of “Usa” Japan saying Made in USA…

Errr…no.
A well worn story but product markings have to show “country of origin” not “town of origin” 😉

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30 minutes ago, NigelG said:

Errr…no.
A well worn story but product markings have to show “country of origin” not “town of origin” 😉

They do now but I recall seeing plenty of stuff marked 'foreign made' as an example.

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On 4/21/2025 at 12:57 PM, LocalHero1953 said:

Leica Rumors says just US and Canada (as Leica supplies Canada via a US distributor).

Does this mean if buying a German built Leica product in Canada you are contributing money to the US Government via their tariffs on EU countries?

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20 minutes ago, AandW said:

Does this mean if buying a German built Leica product in Canada you are contributing money to the US Government via their tariffs on EU countries?

We don't know if the rumour is true yet. Leica's USA site has a banner about price increases on May 1, but there is no mention of Canada. I guess we'll find-out in a week.

Canadians can get around US taxes by buying from Europe, Hong Kong, Singapore, etc.. As I mentioned earlier, Canadian Leica dealers rarely have any stock, so that's not a huge change from the current situation.

I am more worried about the service side of things. Will it be a huge hassle to ship cameras and lenses to the US? The situation used to be that Leica New Jersey sent you a customs form that you included with your shipping docs, and things went smoothly. That might not work if US Customs has 10x the workload, or if rules change between the day you ship and the day your package crosses the border (never mind the day when your equipment is shipped back).

The ideal solution would be for Leica to establish a presence in Canada again, even if it's a tiny warehouse in Mississauga. We may be in for a rough ride until that happens.

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Posted (edited)

On April 16, The Camera Store in Calgary, Alberta received a notice from Leica USA that advised them that dealer pricing would increase on May 1 due to US tariffs.

“I contacted our rep and asked why Canadians would be subjected to US Tariffs when there are options to legally avoid charging tariffs when exporting to other countries,” Peter Jeune, Managing Director of The Camera Store (TCS) tells PetaPixel.

“They said they wanted price parity between Canada and the US which makes no sense. If an American purchased a Leica product anywhere in the world and brought it back to the US they would still be subject to the tariff. If they purchased in Canada, they would effectively end up paying the tariff twice.”

Jeune says that he asked Leica the same questions back in 2019 when the United States first imposed tariffs on German products and, “they basically said it was too much work” to have different pricing in Canada and the US.

“I asked them to reconsider last week. I was told today that this is their final decision,” Jeune says. As a result, Canadians should expect to see a 7% increase in price to Leica products.

This morning, Leica USA confirmed that pricing is going up for both regions. To add greater context to what was told to Jeune, the company says its choice is one that it is forced to make due to how it manages imports into North America.

https://petapixel.com/2025/04/30/leica-raises-prices-in-canada-to-reach-price-parity-with-tariffs-in-the-us/

Edited by FLehmann
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Twas the night before the price increases and all through the house-
Not a Leicaphile was happy, not even a spouse-
The Bokeh Balls were hung by the chimney with care-
In the hopes that the tariffs would soon disappear-
The money was stashed all snug under their beds-
While visions of Noctilux' danced in their heads-. 

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Posted (edited)

There is a concept called "obeying in advance". Who cares what a company's preference is? Buy it from whomever gives you the best service and least expensive price. Iceland had a distributor who basically was happy to sell you stuff, but never help if anything went wrong. In the end one incident was the straw that broke the camel's back, and now I just buy wherever in the world is cheapest and most convenient. I am not saying this is a revelation, I just mean that if Leica is going to make Canada pay US tariffs, then don't buy from Canadian Leica stores unless you want to support those individual dealers, just buy from other stores around the world. Maybe when their sales crash more than 7% they will decide it is no longer "too much trouble". Right now it is your money, so they don't care. Make it their money and my guess is that all of a sudden they will be motivated. Again, keep in mind that they have never been more profitable than they have been in the last few years...they are more than capable of eating this 7% if they wanted to. It might be worth Canadian customers writing in as well to express their displeasure.

Edited by Stuart Richardson
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