On Oct 2, 2008, at 2:35 PM, wildlightphoto@xxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
Steve, it might be helpful to recall the anger and frustration of Nikon users before the D3 and D700 were announced. A very common sentiment was that Nikon was hopelessly behind the competition, they were ignoring the needs of their loyal customers, and their silence was an insult to theirfans. Does this sound familiar?IMHO the S2 is a brilliant move on Leica's part: they saw a hole in the market that Leica is uniquely suited to fill, and that nobody else appeared to be moving in that direction. It doesn't do much, if anything, for the existing M or R user, but it should bring new users to the brand and the technology developed for the S2, paid for by S2 sales (assuming the marketnext year will support ANY camera sales) will be very usable and moreaffordable in future M and R system cameras because of economies of scale.We're beginning to see the effects of economies of scale in the Summarit-M lenses, and, as Peter Karbe explained in David Farkas' Photokina blog, inmany of the new M ASPH and APO lenses.I am also frustrated that the R10 is taking so long to be developed, but I believe that Leica'sxperience with the S2 technology and development will result in a better R10 and M9 than if Leica had not pursued the S2 market.
Doug, I hope that argument will come to fruition...Steve
Doug Herr Birdman of Sacramento http://www.wildlightphoto.com Original Message: ----------------- From: Steve Barbour kididdoc@xxxxxxx Date: Thu, 2 Oct 2008 14:07:23 -0700 To: leicareflex@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [LRflex] Re: Reading the LR2 manual..... On Oct 2, 2008, at 1:42 PM, David Young wrote:Steve commented::they are either ahead of the game... or 6-7 years too late....Hi Steve: If, by "they", you mean Hr. Kaufmann and the current team at Leica, they cannot be "6 -7 years too late" as they have only been there about 2.5 years.oh by they, I mean Leica...I know, from talking to both Hr. Kaufmann and Steven Lee, that Hr. Kaufmann has a great commitment to Leica and to the R system. This commitment is one of the reasons that Lee was hired... he was a long time R user, before coming to Leica. Hr. Kaufmann knows, I'm sure, that he is "a day late and a dollar short", but he is committed to deliver an R10 that should satisfy most R users. I think it would be here, now, except for their desire to bring the S2 to market. With Leica's low production, high value products and long development cycles, the S2 is ideally suited for them. But they only have resources for one major project at a time.I would like to have faith in them, but with all the fainting and weaving, experience has taught me to remain entirely unimpressed by what they say... and David, forgive me, but it's risky for you to be an apologist for them...we are on the same team, but at times you sound like a hostage advocating for the terrorists.The R10 will be a "tougher sell" for the general market...but I think that if they do it right (going for the R7 size/weight is a good start) the R10 will be introduced to great sales, as R users move to it as M users moved to the M8. Whether they can garner more of the general dSLR market, after that, will remain to be seen. However, people buy small Nikons and Canons because the Pros use the large Nikons & Canons. If the S2 captures a decent share of the pro market, those looking for an upscale dSLR will buy the R10 because the Pros are using Leicas. Hell, it worked for me. In 1965, I bought a Nikon F because the pros were using them! Only time will tell, but I think Leica is on the right track, even if it isn't the track for us, until sometime in 2010. Cheers! --- David Young, Logan Lake, CANADA Limited Edition Prints at: www.furnfeather.net Personal Web-site at: www.main.furnfeather.net Stock Photography at: http://tinyurl.com/2amll4------ Unsubscribe or change to/from Digest Mode at: http://www.lrflex.furnfeather.net/ Archives are at: //www.freelists.org/archives/leicareflex/ --------------------------------------------------------------------mail2web.com – Enhanced email for the mobile individual based on Microsoft®Exchange - http://link.mail2web.com/Personal/EnhancedEmail ------ Unsubscribe or change to/from Digest Mode at: http://www.lrflex.furnfeather.net/ Archives are at: //www.freelists.org/archives/leicareflex/
------ Unsubscribe or change to/from Digest Mode at: http://www.lrflex.furnfeather.net/ Archives are at: //www.freelists.org/archives/leicareflex/