Leica could have survived selling high end lenses

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hugo.drax@gmail.com - 24 Feb 2005 04:06 GMT

Too late, but Leica could have used its lens expertise to sell high end
lenses to Canon/Nikon competing against L lenses etc.. make a profit
doing so while still able to service its Rangefinder folks. They had
the name and the quality, leica lenses on Canon digital EOS bodies
would have been a real nice thing but old germans are stubborn I guess.

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Thi - 24 Feb 2005 14:18 GMT

I like their lens a lot for their quality, and built. If they make AF
lens for Canon, and Nikon, I would think that they do well. I wish the
company well.

Thi

> Too late, but Leica could have used its lens expertise to sell high end
> lenses to Canon/Nikon competing against L lenses etc.. make a profit
> doing so while still able to service its Rangefinder folks. They had
> the name and the quality, leica lenses on Canon digital EOS bodies
> would have been a real nice thing but old germans are stubborn I guess.

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Roger - 24 Feb 2005 15:25 GMT

>Too late, but Leica could have used its lens expertise to sell high end
>lenses to Canon/Nikon competing against L lenses etc.. make a profit
>doing so while still able to service its Rangefinder folks. They had
>the name and the quality, leica lenses on Canon digital EOS bodies
>would have been a real nice thing but old germans are stubborn I guess.

I'm missing something here... Selling to Canon/Nikon; or selling to
Canon/Nikon customers (the companies or the end users?).

If the former, I don't see a company opening the gates to become a
merchandiser at the expense of undermining my top line. If the latter,
I'm still not sure Leitz could have gotten the notion of producing a
generic core and surrounding it with specific aperture/focusing
motors, etc. Doing so may have also compromised the nits of the
optical design that made them special to start with (purely
speculation).

As far as the Leica stock holders are concern, in a US business model
they would not approve of the SLR lens business supporting the
rangefinder business. The rangefinder division needs to support
itself.

It's and interesting idea. I don't think it's simple to execute and
may be why it wasn't done.

Regards,
Roger

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Bruce Graham - 24 Feb 2005 23:35 GMT

> >Too late, but Leica could have used its lens expertise to sell high end
> >lenses to Canon/Nikon competing against L lenses etc.. make a profit
[quoted text clipped - 23 lines]
> Regards,
> Roger

and if they wanted to sell direct, they would need to licence the lens
mount (unless they wanted to have Sigma's problems) and would Canon or
Nikon do that? Leica are in no position to pay a lot of money up-front,
and even a big royalty per unit would still be mice nuts to Canon or
Nikon, but with a potential long term erosion to their reputations.

From Canon's or Nikon's perspective, it is much better to devalue the
brand, steal the technology (or buy at a very low price) and hire the
best optics people! Only Pana have more interest, given their use of the
Leica brand/technology, so they might be the highest bidder and may even
have first refusal rights in which case they don't have to bid at all,
just step in at the end. I have only had a short play with the 12x f 2.8
IS zoom on the Panasonic FZ20, but it seems impressive to me.

Bruce G

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uraniumcommittee@yahoo.com - 24 Feb 2005 17:24 GMT

Leica has approached other camera companies about selling lenses to
them, but has been turned down.

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Thi - 24 Feb 2005 18:22 GMT

As with other industry such as automotive, many companies have merged
and out sourcing in order to be competitive.

Thi

>>Too late, but Leica could have used its lens expertise to sell high
>
[quoted text clipped - 9 lines]
> Leica has approached other camera companies about selling lenses to
> them, but has been turned down.

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Sander Vesik - 26 Feb 2005 15:08 GMT

> > Too late, but Leica could have used its lens expertise to sell high
> end
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
> Leica has approached other camera companies about selling lenses to
> them, but has been turned down.

They were probably interested in actual performance not colelctors...

Signature

Sander

+++ Out of cheese error +++

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ian lincoln - 27 Feb 2005 17:54 GMT

>> Too late, but Leica could have used its lens expertise to sell high
> end
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
> Leica has approached other camera companies about selling lenses to
> them, but has been turned down.

nobody could afford those exhorbitant prices

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Roxy d'Urban - 28 Feb 2005 05:24 GMT

>>> Too late, but Leica could have used its lens expertise to sell high
>> end
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
>
> nobody could afford those exhorbitant prices

I see you corporate high flyers speak for the whole world now. I've got a
couple of Leicas and if I wanted to, I could afford a few more too.

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Duncan J Murray - 26 Feb 2005 17:43 GMT

I agree - it wouldn't have been too difficult at all to change a Leica R
lens to work with Canon or Nikon (still manual focus i'd imagine though) -
but it would probably have caused the death of the M series - it seems lots
of people use the M series in order to use the lenses.

Duncan.

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