M8 Price Increase October 1st ?? looks like it

[CameraQuest]

According to various (but apparently not publicly confirmed by Leica) reports,
M8 price increases October 1st will vary with the market place

Japan 20%
Europe 600 Euro
US $600

Stephen

 

[Joe Mondello]

Yikes, pretty steep!

But I guess it means that our current M8s have held their value kinda sorta . . .

I wonder how this will affect sales for them.

 

[RichC]

There is an official announcement: http://www.leica-camera.co.uk/news/news/1/5198.html

 

[dazedgonebye]

Oh well, I couldn't afford it at the current price anyway. So, I guess this doesn't make any real difference to me.

 

[tomasis]

hurray leica is done the right thing 🙂 because the earlier M8 was clearly underpriced. I think also that current price is right since Leica seems to have fixed teething troubles of the M8 and updated with nice firmware. The price increase may be due to increased repair costs, who knows 🙂

 

[Hartlén]

The new price, +600 euro, is already applied in Sweden. (From 1:st of September)

 

[iml]

hurray leica is done the right thing 🙂 because the earlier M8 was clearly underpriced.

I agree. The only reason I haven't bought one yet is because it's far too cheap.

Ian

 

[Ben Z]

I remember back in about 1996-97 a new M6 (classic) with USA Passport at B&H was $2700. Few were being sold and Leica USA started offering a $300 rebate, then a $600 rebate. Still the gray market flourished and guys like Don Chatterton and Jim Kuehl were raking it in, selling M6's for $1800. USA Prices settled in around $1900 and didn't really take a major jump upward until a couple years ago. I bought my MP demo for $2K, new ones were $2450 (started at $2350 the year before). The moral of the story is, Leica can ask but if sales slack off they'll have to issue rebates or something. Typically Leica new models tend to sell like crazy the first year. In the M8's case, maybe a little longer because a bunch of people probably decided to sit it out after the early reports and are now jumping in. A niche item like the M8 has to reach market saturation quicker than mass-appeal items like the Canon/Nikon dSLR's. Add to that there's a different mindset going on with digital than there used to be with film cameras, and people tend to think in terms of shorter product life cycles. All that together and Leica's price hike might be short-lived. But who knows?

 

[summilux]

common vendors can obtain M8 from Leica at quite a low price, it is just vendors then choose to mark up quite considerably, typically at over 20%, which is nothing strange for luxury goods.


M8 must be selling quite well, so Leica see fit to increase the price, partly to absorb the costs of repair and recalibration of all those pre-M8 lens. M8 itself should be cheaper to manufacture, it shares many parts with DMR.

but Leica is the only company which increases price of a digital camera, whose spec is becoming out of date already.

 

[kennedda]

Leica M8 - Improvements with Price Increase?

Leica M8 - Improvements with Price Increase?

How can Leica bring in a price increase without any improvements to the camera? P
If this is not the case, what is the upgrade/future product path? an M8x or M9?

 

[chuckcars]

Leica has a handle on its marketing. Good to see a price increase, it is just good business. The market is there.

 

[Olsen]

Stephen,

I can't understand how this increase of 400 British Pounds amounts to 600 US$. It is more in the region of 780 US$. - And the dollar is still falling. Have Leica increased the price of M8's in the US earlier this year?

Leica must do what is neccessary to make the brand survive. Price increases are bad, but obviously neccessary. Here Leica gives customers half a month's warning, which I think is sympathetic, to protect themselves from the incease if they react fast. A fair deal.

 

[Didier]

These almost yearly price increases are the really most unpleasant side of Leica. What's even worse, in my country (Swizz) they charge more for reddotted products than in Germany, just because they believe there's more purchase power here - though we have a VAT which is a third of Germany (19%) and very low import taxes. I may buy it there or in the USA, but then must import it with a lot of paper hassle, and must export/re-import it in cases of warranty with even more paper hassles.

Didier

 

[Didier]

common vendors can obtain M8 from Leica at quite a low price, it is just vendors then choose to mark up quite considerably, typically at over 20%, which is nothing strange for luxury goods.

AFAIK all Leica licensed dealers must sell it for the final street price that Leica is telling them. Otheriwse they lose the license. This is a reason why you can find almost no grey market for new Leica products.

I guess when Leica increases the prices, the bigger part of the increase goes to them, the smaller part to the dealer.

D.

 

[Ben Z]

I can't understand how this increase of 400 British Pounds amounts to 600 US$. It is more in the region of 780 US$. - And the dollar is still falling. Have Leica increased the price of M8's in the US earlier this year?

It just went up from $4795 to $4950 in the last month @ B&H & some other US dealers.

 

[Tuolumne]

And Apple just LOWERED the price of its iPhone by $200. Now that is technology! I don't know what Leica is, but probably a luxury bauble more than a technological product.

/T

 

[Keith]

The M8 will now be around $8000.00 in Oz for a digital rangefinder body. Buy a couple of quality lenses to match the capabilities of your new toy and you'll probably be in the $15000.00 area at least. I was lucky I found a dealer who took $500.00 off the price of the camera I bought because he wanted out of it ... I've noticed he no longer lists Leica on his website. I was also lucky that I have lenses for it already due to previous Leica habits.

I think sales in this country would be marginal before the predicted increase and will become less than marginal now. I would like to now how many M8's have been sold in Oz ... not many I suspect. Australians are keen embracers of technology in the areas of communications etc but there's also a 'no bullsh*t' attitude that seeks value in what they buy ... and high priced Euro technology struggles here at the best of times! 🙄

 

[dll927]

Eventually the day is going to come when Leica will be like Rolls-Royce - you hear about them but never see them. At least new ones.

I bought an M4-2 in 1983 for $800. Along with 35mm, 50mm and 90mm lenses, the total cost was about one-third of today's price for a body alone. I'm not in the market for one now.

 

[Tuolumne]

Now would be a good time to buy one to see how much you like it. If you do, you just saved yourself $1K. If you don't, you just made $.5K! 🙂 Seems like a win-win proposition.

/T

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

I think this is a dumb move. Nikon and Canon has announced new FF cameras and the price of the M8 goes up?

More hybrid cars are about to make it into the market, and the price of gasoline goes up? How dumb is that! 😉