Leicas plan for 2012 Photokina

[jsrockit]

Who is it aimed at? Most everyone here complains about Leica prices and buys second hand cos its cheap. Being cheapskates means they'll buy a new fuji over a new Lecia since the Leica WILL be more expensive. Why do you suppose so many have Olympus and Lumix and 4/3 systems. That's the market this is aimed at. Do you think it'll be price competitive in that market. I'll wager it won't. The only people who will buy it are people with Leica stamped in their brains.

And that is all they will need to buy it. Leica doesn't need to sell the same numbers as Fuji / Panasonic / Olympus to be successful.

If Leica does this right, they can make the ultimate compact. The materials they use, the design they choose, the stripped down interface, etc are important to some people. People who never bought Leica before bought the X1 because it was simple and elegant.

 

[jsrockit]

And, practically speaking, why buy into a new system on the heels of Leica promising and then de-promising an R-digital solution? Either way, it seems like this new system won't be supported nearly as fervently as the M, so technologically it will likely always be behind Canon, Sony, Pentax, et al.

The M will always have its fans. You are talking about an ikon in the camera world... of course this new system would take time to gel. However, your blurb about Leica's new system can be said about any company's new system. Any one of them can fail and be discontinued. That's life.

Remember, the X1 was the first of its kind (compact APS-C), and while it had flaws, people still bought them and Leica did well with it....even thought it isn't a M.

 

[ferider]

And, practically speaking, why buy into a new system on the heels of Leica promising and then de-promising an R-digital solution?

Who says this is not exactly their R-digital solution ? Seems likely that a compact, EVF-based, interchangeable new system can adapt R lenses.

Roland.

 

[LCT]

Sounds obvious.

 

[tlitody]

Hey, I have an idea! Let's wait to see a real product description, price structure and compatibility definition before guessing how "uncompetitive" the product may be.

Don't be so boring. It's far more fun Prognosticating 😀

 

[jsrockit]

Who says this is not exactly their R-digital solution ? Seems likely that a compact, EVF-based, interchangeable new system can adapt R lenses.

Roland.

Maybe, but it doesn't matter to them much because they already sold all of the R lenses they made... 😉

 

[Bill Blackwell]

"Leica's goal is to create a new market in the Electronic Viewfinder, Interchangeable Lens segment. ..."

... simply more items in the Leica stable to be on back-order.

 

[jsrockit]

... simply more items in the Leica stable to be on back-order.

Must be nice to sell out of almost everything you make. 😀

 

[BMacW]

Compact camera with APS-C or bigger ===> Only Nex 5 and GXR can be considered as competitors. And their current system lens offering is poor ( poor in number for Ricoh, poor all the way for Sony). So if Leica is to introduce their own mount/lens/system. They are not going to far behind. (please do not throw in all the Manual lenses and adapter options, that's irrelevant, we are talking about a new 'SYSTEM'. As much fun as you can have with a Nex5 + M mount lenses, you are not going to use ONLY that for a trip or event)

Think of it as a GF1 + new Leica Summilux for M4/3, except it's a different mount with bigger sensor.

People will buy it because they can shoot Leica lenses on APS-C sensor potentially with decent autofocus.
There is no good MF solution for M lenses except rangefinder, Leica is taking the right step to just create a new system altogether.

 

[ferider]

Maybe, but it doesn't matter to them much because they already sold all of the R lenses they made... 😉

Maybe it does - R lenses can be adapted - makes existing followers happy. Because of short registration distance, current M lenses can be repackaged/remounted and sold on the new system. Existing Leica u4/3 lenses (like the new 25/1.4) could be repackaged, too. All around a sound business proposal 🙂