Saloti Posted May 23, 2008 Share #61 Posted May 23, 2008 Advertisement (gone after registration) With regard to "winning team": Leica Camera nearly went into bankruptcy years ago and is far from being a healthy company today, they are still in a critical position! We all agree that the major reason for this has been Leica`s dramatically late arrival on the digital market. But - lens prices as well were/are much too high. My understanding is that Leica wants to change this with the new Summarit series (and again: in this context it was a desaster to increase the list-price for the M8 as they did at the end of last year, apparently this brought down sales dramatically...it does not make a lot of sense to offer high quality lenses at affordable prices if nobody buys the overpriced body...).However, if they reasonably spread their product range there still would be a place for a 0,95/50mm, as the "Maybach" of the M-lenses, we will see. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted May 23, 2008 Posted May 23, 2008 Hi Saloti, Take a look here Special Limited Edition Noctilux-M. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
lct Posted May 23, 2008 Share #62 Posted May 23, 2008 You might wish to re-read what Kaufman said recently: " high performance wide-angle and ultra speed lenses are a longstanding Leica tradition". Never change a winning team again Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
scjohn Posted May 23, 2008 Share #63 Posted May 23, 2008 My only thought is "darn, I bought all of my Leica glass thinking it durable. I need a humidore???" Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tjv Posted May 24, 2008 Share #64 Posted May 24, 2008 I bet this is the rumored Noctilux replacement / limited edition people have been talking about. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob_x2004 Posted May 24, 2008 Share #65 Posted May 24, 2008 :D :D Took a leaf out of Rollies book? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Olof Posted May 24, 2008 Share #66 Posted May 24, 2008 Come on thats a fake. Somebody takes his humidor, cut some cusihions and put his noctilux inside, and now everybody starts a discussion about Leicas sillys collectors ! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iron Flatline Posted May 24, 2008 Share #67 Posted May 24, 2008 Advertisement (gone after registration) Come on thats a fake. Somebody takes his humidor, cut some cushions and put his Noctilux inside, and now everybody starts a discussion about Leica's silly collectors ! Actually, that's kind of my thinking as well... I mean, it's not on the Leica site yet, just some web page. EDIT: Ouch, I just saw the same image on the Leica Meister page... might be true after all. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest darkstar2004 Posted May 24, 2008 Share #68 Posted May 24, 2008 Dude, then you really want one of THESE for your M8! If it had Monica Lewinski on it instead of Che Guevara, I'd be interested in obtaining one... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest darkstar2004 Posted May 24, 2008 Share #69 Posted May 24, 2008 I just wish Leica would get off this horse. Leica's strength lies is in its understanding of the science and practice of photography, paired with engineering precision, craftsmanship and commitment to excellence. Leica should play to its strengths and stop making a fool out of itself by trying to appeal to the bling brigade. At this critical juncture in Leica's evolution, this is entirely the wrong message to be sending to the greater mass of potential customers. This bit of nonsense states quite clearly that if you have taste you should look elsewhere. It says that if you are a serious photographer, you should look elsewhere. It says that if you are anything less than stinking rich, you should look elsewhere. Sad, that at a stroke, Leica alienates the very customer-base its struggling to attract in order to win over a few rich gits. Please Leica - stop parading your frilly panties to those with more money than taste. You're insulting all of us that love you ... and we remember when you so disastrously went down this road once before. Amen to that!! Rob the ignorant and photographically impotent modern day Pharohs to create a windfall and/or keep the company afloat? Knock yourself out, Dr. Kauffmann! Just don't turn your back on we honest-to-god imagemakers who love Leica cameras and lenses. By discontinuing the Noctilux and pricing the last ones to be made at $16,100US, you have done precisely that. The modern day Pharohs have enough venal sycophants groveling at their feet already; how about honoring the 99.9% of Leica photographers who have been and continue to be the bedrock of Leica camera instead of turning your back on them in favor of a few fabulously wealthy pukes who don't give a rat's ass if Leica lives or dies? Those pukes would much rather Leica go under - it would increase the value of their Noctilux "investment." Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SJP Posted May 24, 2008 Share #70 Posted May 24, 2008 Initially I thought it was $16000 for the whole lot of 100 Noctiluxes which seemed resonable enough for a old design lens which is up for replacement at Photokina with something better anyway. If Leica can remain solvent this way no problem - I guess most of us would like Leica to stay in business. If Leica is really clever they could even shift out-of-spec Noctiluxes via this route as it is wholly unlikely the collector Nocti's will ever be used. Leica probably has a pile of "too much focus shift versions" readily available in their warehouse. As a side effect this scheme will make the normal used Noctiluxes less desirable for the average collector as they do not come in the magic box i.e. this is good news. In fact I am considering buying one for nostaligic reasons. Personally I would value a (visibly) used one more than a sterile object in its own luxury coffin. The present going rate at Schouten's is about 4000 euro & up ex. VAT, so 5000 - 6000 euro all in. But he has always seemed on the expensive side to me. Any comments on this price level are welcome. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lct Posted May 24, 2008 Share #71 Posted May 24, 2008 ...The present going rate at Schouten's is about 4000 euro & up ex. VAT, so 5000 - 6000 euro all in... Not so bad, add a 3,000 euro Elie Bleu's cigar case and you save 1,000 or 2,000 euro on the Leica's offer. Now you'll have but a mere cigar case with an average joe's lens of course... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bill Posted May 24, 2008 Share #72 Posted May 24, 2008 Sheesh. 1. It's business 2. It's smart marketing 3. We are not the target demographic 4. I for one am not "alienated" What a storm in a teacup. Some people are never satisfied. How DARE Leica do something so grubby as targeting a specific demographic with money to spend and packaging a standard product at the end of it's production run to appeal to that demographic! How sordid! How tawdry! What a sell-out! Oh please... Regards, Bill Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rsh Posted May 25, 2008 Share #73 Posted May 25, 2008 If I were running Leica, I would make the decision they have made. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sdai Posted May 25, 2008 Share #74 Posted May 25, 2008 If I were running Leica, I would have smashed 99 of them and sent the last one to Sotheby's. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwelland Posted May 25, 2008 Share #75 Posted May 25, 2008 The burning question is ... are they 6-bit coded? If so, can you get a similarly boxed M8 to go with it? If the last 100 are anything as badly adjusted as my vintage October 2007 example that's sitting with DAG ... why bother smashing them? Sell them to punters as part of the 30% discount programme until the cupboard is bare and perpetuate the Noctilux folklore about it being 'difficult' to focus accurately, how it's expected that you'll live with focus shift as you stop it down, and if you can't focus it accurately within 6-12 inches despite managing to focus every other lens in your possession, it's your fault. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SJP Posted May 25, 2008 Share #76 Posted May 25, 2008 Not so bad, add a 3,000 euro Elie Bleu's cigar case and you save 1,000 or 2,000 euro on the Leica's offer. Now you'll have but a mere cigar case with an average joe's lens of course... A cunning plan indeed - methinks it is time for some carpentry lessons, building a box cannot be that hard. Who is Elie Bleu anyway? Never heard of him/it/her. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lct Posted May 25, 2008 Share #77 Posted May 25, 2008 Elie Bleu is said to be the best or one of the very best humidor makers in the world. Elie bleu, ST Dupont, Prometheus lighters, Cigar cohiba, Cuban Montecristo, Partagas cigar Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SJP Posted May 25, 2008 Share #78 Posted May 25, 2008 Thanks - I found out the same myself via Google just now. Interstingly the coffin does not seem to be worth much more than 1000- 2000 $ retail (unless you get the Che Guevara design humidor at 2500 GPB). So buy a pile of used Nocti's at say $5000 add $1500 for the box, sell on e-bay at $11500 => $5000 profit. No wonder Leica started doing this. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
marknorton Posted May 25, 2008 Share #79 Posted May 25, 2008 It's interesting to compare these antics from Leica with an invitation I received this morning from Nikon to participate in an online survey, basically, how can we improve the D3? Has Leica asked me how I think the M8 could be improved? Err... no. Says it all, really. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rik Posted May 25, 2008 Share #80 Posted May 25, 2008 Initially I thought it was $16000 for the whole lot of 100 Noctiluxes which seemed resonable enough for a old design lens which is up for replacement at Photokina with something better anyway. If Leica can remain solvent this way no problem - I guess most of us would like Leica to stay in business. If Leica is really clever they could even shift out-of-spec Noctiluxes via this route as it is wholly unlikely the collector Nocti's will ever be used. Leica probably has a pile of "too much focus shift versions" readily available in their warehouse. As a side effect this scheme will make the normal used Noctiluxes less desirable for the average collector as they do not come in the magic box i.e. this is good news. In fact I am considering buying one for nostaligic reasons. Personally I would value a (visibly) used one more than a sterile object in its own luxury coffin. The present going rate at Schouten's is about 4000 euro & up ex. VAT, so 5000 - 6000 euro all in. But he has always seemed on the expensive side to me. Any comments on this price level are welcome. I agree Schouten is usually a bit more expensive than others. If you look at the closed transactions on *bay, you will find however that prices vary quite a bit. Also dependant on the credibility of the seller, which also varies quite a bit. There are some on there now. As a plug (probably not allowed..), I will have one for sale soon, I'm also in the Netherlands (Utrecht), if you're interested send me a pm. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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