[HUG ] SV: Re: Dollar fall kills Hasselblad? (and Leica?)

> I haven't seen their price, in US$, go up.

Others are better informed than me, but the price of both the CFV and the Leica 
M8 has increased drastically due to the falling dollar.  Both items have 
increased also in local currency. 
> 
> If anything, the weak Dollar is going to affect the European market, since 
> it is cheaper to fly to the staes, spend a couple of days in, say, New York, 
> and then fly home with a new CFV digital back for your Hasselblad, pay all 
> the taxes and import duties when arriving home, and still not be worse off 
> then if you would have bought it in Europe.

Sure.  I have just bought a 1Ds III when visiting Singapore recently.  In my 
local currency it was the cheapest of the large Canon camera I have bought; 1Ds 
(NOK 52.000 in 2003) 1Ds II (NOK 48.000 in 2006) and the 1Ds III (NOK 45.000 in 
2008).  In 2007 I bought a M8 just before the drastic price increase of 9% (18% 
in dollars!)   But that does not solve the problem for Leica.  Their problem is 
that the americans arn't buying!

Whole busloads of Norwegian photo enthusiasts emptied the shelves of B &H in NY 
last automn!  But that Europeans now can buy the stuff cheaper than before 
isn't going to solve the problem.  Half the market is gone; the americans. 
 
 
> free weekend in New York to boot. Who can resist! ;-)

My sister's daughter have bought a flat at Manhattan last automn.  The price 
was lower than for a similar flat here in Oslo!  They saved close to 100.000 
NOK on the dollar fall from the date signing the contract to the payment was 
done.  Due to the falling dollar!

> Many European "exporters", like Imablad, have moved much of their 
> manufacturing to China already.
> They had already "precompensated" for the events unfolding now. ;-)

This I don't believe to be true for Imablad and Leica, at least.  Nor do I 
think it is a solution for them.  Nobody wants a China-made Leica.  It is not 
only low salaries that makes China so cheap.  It is that cost factors like 
steel and energy prices etc. - arn't calculated in at global prices.

Tom of Oslo


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