I have to agree with larmarv916. Leica's problems started long before Steven Lee was around, long before.
My perspective is from that of a news photographer. The Leica and other 35mm rangefinder cameras were superb tools for us from the time the introduction of high quality, high speed film like Tri-X allowed us to move to 35 from roll and sheet film cameras. They were small, quiet and focused large aperture normal and wide angle lenses with accuracy. The 35mm cameras from Leica had usually spent a long time being field tested. And they were superbly built. You probably had a new camera relubricated and the rangefinder accuracy checked with your lenses. But, until you smashed it, drowned it or had it stolen on the road, it pretty much survived with only the periodic CLA's (clean, lubricate and adjust) that all hardworking mechanical cameras received.
Even when the Pentax SLR appeared with its somewhat primitive instant return mirror and auto stop-down (but not reopen) diaphragm, the rangefinder held its own because of its ability to accurately focus those large aperture wides and normals accurately. Even today a long-based rangefinder is often going to handle those lenses, wide open with dimly lit, low contrast subjects more successfully than an autofocusing DSLR.
The standard rig was 2 rangefinders (wide and normal lenses) and an SLR (longest lens). Everybody's heroes, Bresson, Duncan, Mydans, Eisenstadt, Erwitt, used rangefinders. Walter Huen brought the Leica School to the photojournalism departments of colleges - a two day series of illustrated lectures on how to use the camera, even pointing out that for those on a budget Canon made more economical lenses that fit the Leica bodies. Even young photographers who were superbly pictorial in their vision, photographers like Constantine Manos, used Leicas.
And then that disappeared. Ownership and management changed. Folks like Hermes, the French luxury company, became involved. Suddenly the Leica was a conspicuous consumption item. People talked about the softness of the leather covering. More special runs of commemorative cameras were introduced. And you could special order cameras with particular metal finishes and colored leather covering. I was asked to test and write up a camera by a photo magazine. The person I spoke to at Leica had, until then, been working with handbags and offered to loan me a camera for testing for "several days."
To a great extent, the Leica, a superb tool, if not the only tool, simply disappeared from the world of the young photojournalist and documentary photographer.
I talked to a German Leica employee several years ago who told me they could have had a digital camera ready to go in the late '90's. If that was premature, it certainly couldn't have been worse than the introduction of the M8. A lot of faulty cameras had to be returned to Germany. I didn't get an M8 that worked properly (one just stopped working completely, another produced some kind of electronic flare that wiped out part of the image every few frames) until my third one. If the marketing of the film Leica has undergone some rough spots, these have been dwarfed by the rough spots in the introduction of the digital Leica.
I always thought the use of Leicas by some pretty remarkable professional photographers promoted its use by some serious amateurs. And I thought the increased volume in sales that the advanced amateurs provided helped keep the cost reasonable. The pros probably benefited a little more from the ruggedness of the camera; the amateurs probably were able to more often take greater advantage of the superb optics.
But I see very few M8s in the hands of young, starting photojournalists. I see them in the hands of middle aged photographers and old people like me. And, soon, that means that they won't be in the hands of the established, working photojournalists. I find that very sad. I could probably continue on with what would become the longest single message in Rangefinder Forum history. Instead, just let me end by saying I wish they would get rid of that noisy motor drive and replace it with a thumb wind or one of Tom's base winds.
