[LRFlex] Re: Further speculation on the R-10D

David and Neil wrote in part:

I think you've hit the nail on the head w/r/t the digi-back concept. I'm
sure they'll sell some of those beasts, but I can see a lot of problems
with the approach. The cost of a digi-back that can properly interface
w/an R8/9 vs. a self-contained digi-body makes me wonder why they persist
in that direction.


I think I know the answer to that.

Their approach is predicated on three facts. [1] They know they need to get into the digital area, or perish. This means learning the technology... and fast! [2] They have an unsold inventory of R9's that number into the thousands. [3] Germany has a law on it's books that says whenever a municipality or other government body needs a product, they must by German made, if it is available, regardless of cost! Only if no suitable German built product is available, may they consider EU products, and only if no EU made product is available will they be able to consider non-EU (read Japanese with regard to cameras) products.


Makes sense. A bit like the German 'beer purity' laws, which keep out a lot of the the competition. OTOH it's true - German beer tastes much better. I believe they have the same sort of thing for sausages, which go very well with the beer.

But, as has been pointed out in this and other Leica forums, Leica always seem to want to re-invent the wheel, which, given their restricted R&D resources, means that by the time a lot of products get to market, they're already obsolescent. This was true of the 'flexes, and it may well be true of the R9 back.

At a slight tangent, when I was in Victoria for the Spring Shoot, I tried the M7 and wasn't too impressed. The display and automatic features didn't seem to me to be too different to the Canon A-1 SLR, which hit the market over 25 years ago. I still have one of these, and the electronics are still functioning perfectly.

Whereas the development of mechanical cameras used to be a steady evolutionary process for all manufacturers (i.e. the 'ground-breaking' Nikon F SLR actually shared many features with its rangefinder predecessors), this is not necessarily true in the electronic age, where Moore's Law seems to be alive and well in the increasing power and sophistication of sensors.

IMHO I can't see any way that Leica will survive long term in this digital age unless they buy in the best in electronics and then package them in their own inimitable style.

For myself, I think the M6 is about as far as I want to go.....

Best

Alex




--
Alex Hurst
Waterfall
Nr. Cork
Ireland

Tel: +353 214 543 328 (H)
       +353 214 270 907 (W)

Fax: +353 214 271 248
email: corkflor@xxxxxx
Also: corkflor.2@xxxxxxxxxx (when in the UK, which isn't often)
Home website: http://www.iol.ie/~corkflor/
Business website: http://www.corkflorists.com/

Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) public key available at:
http://pgpkeys.mit.edu:11371
ID: 0x5BB72019
------
Unsubscribe or change to/from Digest Mode at:
   www.horizon.bc.ca/~dnr/lrflex.htm
Archives are at:
   www.freelists.org/archives/leicareflex/

Other related posts: