David... It is not the manufacturing cost reduction ( if there is one) that is the driver for Leica's lower prices on the Summarits... They want to buy market share, expand into new owners, cut the re-purchase of used lenses: How can they do that with lenses that sell for $2500 and up apiece? They can't. History tell us they have been unsuccessful. The market tells them they have been unsuccessful. They need a lower priced line to get new owners to pop for a M7 or M8 with 3-4 NEW lenses. Optical glass is sold to everyone.... I think I read that 200 types of glass covers 99% of the designs out there..... or something like that. Yes, volume purchase DOES affect price, but not sufficient to justify 10-25 times the cost of the competition....based upon component cost only. Labor is more expensive in Germany than in China. Again, enough to justify the cost differential? I don't; see it. What they have done is to save a few bucks by limiting the max aperture to 2.5 from 2.0. A big difference? I am no optical design engineer, but my suspicions are that the differences in the final design are small. Yes, insisting on NOT using ASPH elements cuts cost a bit. Again, I think it is a small % of the selling price. Taking a hit on GM is the way they have done it. And they get their reward by selling lots more lenses, which they figure will recoup the individual lens GM into a greater overall Margin. Example... I worked for a company that sold a product at or really below cost. Why did they do this? To keep the line operating at peak efficiency, they could afford to lose a few bucks on a volume product, but to recapture the loss by making other products that were more profitable to begin with at a much higher profit. It works. I think your last paragraph is absolutely true....... see below.... What Leica has done is to establish a new way for potential used lens buyers to purchase new lenses at the same cost. I think it is brilliant. Frank Filippone red735i@xxxxxxxxxxxxx As for the new Summarit's themselves, only time will tell if they live up to traditional Leica standards. But, I suspect that they will. The big fear, then, is that the new Summarit's will steal sales from the Summicrons. But, if Leica can sell a Summicron for E2250 and a Summarit for E1250, and make, say, 200 Euros on each one ... it does not matter. True, sales will decline, but profits will stay the same, or even increase - as more people will be able to afford the new lenses. Those who truly "need" the f2 lenses will still buy them! --- David Young, Logan Lake, CANADA ------ Unsubscribe or change to/from Digest Mode at: http://www3.telus.net/~telyt/lrflex.htm Archives are at: //www.freelists.org/archives/leicareflex/