Leica Kravitz Special Edition with Brassing?

mkvrnn said:
Dez, I agree with your original post entirely. Special editions of any sort, and especially this one, just devalue the reputation of the company in my opinion. Rather sad.

In fact I would join in with the general kicking of the Leica name were it not for one thing. I phoned the factory in Germany recently to ask if they could supply a tiny part for one of my R4 lenses. I was expecting to be told that the part went out of production 30 years ago, but to my amazement the lady took my name and address and two days later the part arrived at my home in England. Needless to say I was astonished and absolutely delighted! Customer service like that is extremely rare.
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Really? How?

How is an off-the-shelf M-E one iota inferior because of the Kravitz edition?

Cheers,

R.
 
FrankS said:
Funny how new Leica releases cause so much angst and anger.
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No angst, no anger, no kicking. Just humour with a dash of irony.

I am happy that the world has people wealthy and foolish enough to spend ~$30K on a pre-brassed camera, so Leica can keep going with more approachable products for the real world.

Cheers,
Dez
 
Leica and the Leica special edition bashers, the most wonderful of dysfunctional marriages.
Carry on, nothing to see here. Yesterday M60, today Correspondent Edition. Tomorrow ,who knows?
 
With the exception of buying a used camera, the only worthwhile brassing should come from your own use of you favorite tool. Then it has some meaning (assuming one wants to assign meaning).
 
Dez, I was gonna post that link under the heading "Most ridiculous Leica Special Edition ever?", but you beat me to it. But upon further reflection, I think there were so many ridiculous special editions, it's kinda hard to choose...
 
The perennial problem: people who've never designed a camera or run a photographic business in their lives, telling Leica what they should be doing...

If you're all so bloody smart, buy the company, as Dr. Kaufmann did. Yes, we all have our ideas. But talk to Andreas and see if you're quite as clever as you think you are. Do I always agree with him? Of course not. Do I unswervingly respect everything he has ever done? Equally, no. But I've talked to the guy and he's worth a thousand of the average internet whinger-cum-self-styled-expert.

Cheers,

R.
 
It does seem odd I grant you, but Leica is a small company and the commercial reality is this - unless the money keeps flowing in through the door every day, every week, every month then it will soon be out of business. So anything they can do to sell cameras on a regular basis is legit in my book so long as it has that result. Besides is this that much different from some of the "special" editions it has sold in years gone by? Who can forget the kitsch of the "safari edition" Leica R4 camera complete with sand coloured paint finish? Now to me, that one was high on the yuk factor scale. But there will be people who will have appreciated it.
 
peterm1 said:
It does seem odd I grant you, but Leica is a small company and the commercial reality is this - unless the money keeps flowing in through the door every day, every week, every month then it will soon be out of business. So anything they can do to sell cameras on a regular basis is legit in my book so long as it has that result. Besides is this that much different from some of the "special" editions it has sold in years gone by? Who can forget the kitsch of the "safari edition" Leica R4 camera complete with sand coloured paint finish? Now to me, that one was high on the yuk factor scale. But there will be people who will have appreciated it.
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+ 1
 
peterm1 said:
It does seem odd I grant you, but Leica is a small company and the commercial reality is this - unless the money keeps flowing in through the door every day, every week, every month then it will soon be out of business. So anything they can do to sell cameras on a regular basis is legit in my book so long as it has that result. Besides is this that much different from some of the "special" editions it has sold in years gone by? Who can forget the kitsch of the "safari edition" Leica R4 camera complete with sand coloured paint finish? Now to me, that one was high on the yuk factor scale. But there will be people who will have appreciated it.
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Dear Peter,

Hey, we don't need no steenkin' commercial reality. We are PURISTS who know far better than Leica how Leica should stay in business!

And someone objected to my use of the word "dimwits"...

Actually I quite liked the R4 Safari paint. Pity about the camera...

Cheers,

R.
 
I assume the wear and brassing will not be perfectly equal on each of the 125 models.
So a collector and owner can gleefully use it without losing value..
I love the idea.
The first scratch or ding the worst!
Leica succeeds in a grand manner.
 
I fear that the answer to the original question posed in the thread title is...

Yes. It can.

I'll give you a few key ideas to ponder:
- diamonds
- platinum
- vintage brass melted down from 17th Century pirate ship cannons
- a "BMW Art Car" matched edition (Google it if you're not a 24 Heures du Mans fan)

I'm sure you can think of more...
 
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leicapixie said:
I assume the wear and brassing will not be perfectly equal on each of the 125 models. So a collector and owner can gleefully use it without losing value.. I love the idea. The first scratch or ding the worst! Leica succeeds in a grand manner.
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No way man!
Lenny Kravitz is a meticulous artist. He will rub the paint off exactly the same on each copy. :p
Leica didn't just hire anyone to rub off this paint !
 
Lenny is the star designer, over-seeing the rubbing by Carlo, the technician who actualizes the artist's design.
 
FrankS said:
Lenny is the star designer, over-seeing the rubbing by Carlo, the technician who actualizes the artist's design.
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Oh thanks for the clarification.
Clearly I'm uninitiated in the labor hierarchy Leica implements for these "LImited Edition" models. :eek:
 
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