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Panasonic in talks to buy Leica from Mr. Kaufmann


petermcwerner

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If I should start any rumours that some Japanese producers of cameras are paying people to start rumours about Leica in some internet forums, and my rumours were not sustained by any facts at all, would anybody exspect the chiefs of Nikon and Canon et al. coming to this Forum and declaring my rumours are not true?

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Panasonic seems much more innovative than Leica, see for instance the G1. They might be able to offer an R10 before the last R aficionados have their R lenses converted to Nikon

 

When Sony aquired Konica/Minolta, there were similar tut tutting's going on. Minolta in particular were a very innovative camera and optics manufacturer. Good enough for Leica to brand a few of their R lenses in fact.

 

Some years later, the Sony Alpha series of excellent DSLR's are born out of that marriage. Capable of using some of the Minolta heritage lenses (same mount retained) as well as some excellent new Carl Zeiss A/F lenses. The Alpha camera designs retain much of the old Minolta feel about them.....very intuitive to use with bright 100% viewfinders. It is said that the Minolta designers are very happy working within the Sony brand.

 

A similar arrangement between Leica and Panasonic might be more difficult due to geographical and cultural differences, but if (and this is a very BIG if) it means the survival of Leica expertise and the development of as yet unknown Leica products, then we should cautiously welcome it........should it ever happen as the alternative might not bear thinking about!

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Let me see, I'm running a company which is losing Y380bn this year, I want to close 40 factories and get out of the rice cooker and bread-making business and I think what else should I do? I know, I'll buy a loss-making German optics company, just in case my problems are not already bad enough...

 

Most insightful post I've read on this thread. Japanese companies are busy unloading non-core businesses. Strengthening the cooperative relationship between the two companies would mane sense, but the notion that Panasonic would even consider acquiring Leica is so absurd as to be laughable.

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