HU: Noctilux price increase effective January 1, 2008

edhohoho

edhohoho

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I just received a call from a local camera store regarding my recent inquiry about purchasing a new Noctilux through them. After talking with the buyer or distributor, apparently the store can get one in about 7 to 10 days. (Makes sense since recently Leica was said to have fulfilled all Noctilux orders placed with the 30% discount.) When I told him I would think about it, he told me that I would have the opportunity to purchase the lens at the $5495 price until 12/31/07, with the price increasing to $5995 on 1/1/08. Wow, that was quick. So much for the "usual" delay of Leica price increases.
 
I checked my local shop yesterday. They are increasing the price of a lot but not all items. Thankfully they are not increasing the prices of the summarits that I'm saving up for.
 
edhohoho said:
I just received a call from a local camera store regarding my recent inquiry about purchasing a new Noctilux through them. After talking with the buyer or distributor, apparently the store can get one in about 7 to 10 days. (Makes sense since recently Leica was said to have fulfilled all Noctilux orders placed with the 30% discount.) When I told him I would think about it, he told me that I would have the opportunity to purchase the lens at the $5495 price until 12/31/07, with the price increasing to $5995 on 1/1/08. Wow, that was quick. So much for the "usual" delay of Leica price increases.
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7 to 10 days? I've heard that before. I hope Leica have caught up with the Nocti demand as it would be great to see the lens in the hands of more photographers. I waited in line a year before giving up on owning a new one, perhaps I should have given it another month. It's a beautiful lens and would have been worth the wait.
 
I read on the German LUF that price increases were supposed to be 5% across the board. We would need a dealer to chime in on this. Sometimes Tony Rose pops in and confirms/denies.
 
peter_n said:
I read on the German LUF that price increases were supposed to be 5% across the board. We would need a dealer to chime in on this. Sometimes Tony Rose pops in and confirms/denies.
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About 5% in the US at least... but not across the board.

the summarits did not go up... and if my memory serves me, neither did 28mm Elmarit. I definitely remember the Nocti, 50mm Summicron, and 35 Summilux on the price increase list.

< the list was verbally listed out to me yesterday at my dealer>
 
The funny thing is that you can get a Canon 50/1.2 instead, which costs about the same amount by which Leica is now increasing their prices. The difference is half a stop, or 2.54 vs. 2.14 cm DOF at 1m wide open.

Philipp
 
rxmd said:
The funny thing is that you can get a Canon 50/1.2 instead, which costs about the same amount by which Leica is now increasing their prices. The difference is half a stop, or 2.54 vs. 2.14 cm DOF at 1m wide open.

Philipp
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The Canon is very flare prone and has that infinity lock.
 
I am glad Leica is doing this, in my opinion, they should increase the price even more, so that the new users will feel even more exclusive. This would be good for the RF world - as soon as the word spreads out that people are spending 15.000USD to buy the a' la carte pink snake leather bound mechanical MP film camera with a 10k fixed fl lens on it, we will assist at massive switch from the Canon 1DS mark twohandredtwentythree equipped with the 12-400 f0.95 USM IS XL superduperzoom population of users, because, as is obvious, the more expensive something is, the better pictures it takes, by definition.
 
Hacker said:
The Canon is very flare prone and has that infinity lock.
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If that's the reason for spending an extra $5.5k, you can always take out the infinity lock and use a hood. Or get a Canon 50/0.95 for one fifth of what a Noctilux costs.

The only reason I can possibly see somebody justifying a Noctilux is if the particular way the Noctilux renders things is worth a $4800 to $5500 premium for him. That's a matter of taste I guess; I've seen my share of Noctilux pictures, but none where I would have said that this is it. Different strokes for different folks I guess.

Philipp
 
ErikFive said:
6K for a nocti? Thats just silly 🙂
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Agreed, there`s NO lens worth $6,000 , it`s one lens that isn`t on my priorities list, even if I could pay that sort of money for lenses, (I would`nt) - I don`t get what`s to rave about.......and I don`t like the look the f1.2 50mm Canon gives either, but from what I`ve seen the Canon f0.95 does pretty good stopped down to f1.2 (and that`s another lens that isn`t worth stupid collectors prices $500 to $700 at most) - my opinion as always 🙂

Tom
 
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ErikFive said:
6K for a nocti? Thats just silly IMO. And thats my opinion. Im not trying to make it your opinion🙂
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Ordered some time ago (with the old price catalog) but it is actually here and with the new price 😡 . I started with RF late in Aug this year, very late (due to persistent Tennis Elbow problems, I switched from using SLRs) and I guess I have not been lucky like many here with lenses bought with the old prices, e.g. MATE or Summilux 75. The lack of stocks (old and new) and the resultant price increases have been recent. Really bad timing for recent RF purchasers.
 
ErikFive said:
rather buy a used 50 and 35 Lux Asph and a used 0.95 at the same price as a new Noct. 🙂
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Or an EOS 5D ($1900 new) with a couple of Canon EF lenses, such as a 50/1.0L ($2100 or so used), a 24/1.4L ($1200) and a 135/2L ($800) 🙂

Philipp
 
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