But they haven't just been luxury all along. They used to be serious tools for photographers in nearly every newsroom in the world. Not just owned by the very well-to-do, but by normal working professionals. Same goes for Rollei, an extraordinary piece of gear for the professional photographer but also serious amateurs. They abandoned the working photographer market in favor of the very well off over the past two decades. They had been passed up by Nikon and Canon back in the 1960s. They refused to innovate in time for the digital sea change and came into the game a decade late with products that didn't have the reliability for serious full time photographers who weren't independently wealthy with an arsenal of backup digital Leicas. Fuji, Sony, Nikon and Canon passed Leica generations ago in the timeline of digital capture. Leica's customer service went the way of the dodo at this time as well. I'm sorry to agree that they know what they are doing but what that is happens to be sad for those of us who like the once-great marque. What they are doing is just creating jewelry which happens to make photos.
When I can use a Leica M9 with one of two ~50mm lenses on it, both representing the high and low ends of the gear spectrum and making the same image, then something is wrong. There is no reason for my old $16 Helios 103 to perform on-par, shot-for-shot, aperture-for-aperture, against a brand new 50mm Summicron.
So they do know what they are doing. They are pricing out those of us who defend or defended their use in spite of the arcane mode of focusing and loading so we can have a quiet camera. Now, we have quiet paperweights or quietly on hold while someone at Leica tells us why our camera has been out for repair for a total of nine out of twenty-one months.
I can still afford a Mercedes-Benz E300 Diesel. That's a car on the edge of executive class with very good customer service and excellent reliability. It costs the same amount as a new Leica M digital camera with a suite of three lenses. Don't even bring up the larger format Leica versions costing a significant chunk of what a decent house in Philadelphia does.
As one of the former working photographers that Leica abandoned I think the watch line is just a gross addition to their continued shift into the jewelry business.
Phil Forrest
