Noctilux price increase

My guess is that the price of the glass element is only part of the story. I would suspect that they had a sizeable inventory from prior production runs that has finally run out. Now they need to gear up for another production run and are re-pricing based on current production costs.
 
It really is very simple.
The M8 generated a lot of Noctilux sales ...because the adopters coming from a dslr do not think it is heavyyyy and big .. but small compared to what they are used to... i... it simply is a very popular lens these days.
2nd Hand stock of Noctiluxes already dried up about 4-5 months ago when people started collecting lenses for the upcomimg M8 (and i know from expertience .. i had very hard times finding one for a descent price).
So there is a shortage ..... so what's wrong with rising prices and making some profits these days? Is Leica suddenly the only company in the world that is not allowed to act rational???
If it's to expensive .... do not buy ..... or sit it out and waite!
 
Exactly. Leica have what appears to be inelastic demand for the lens so why not increase the price? And maybe do it again in a while?
 
I always wonder how much more Leica users will put up with, but it seems there is no end for their loyalty. This smells like Leica is trying to offset the additional costs of the M8 desaster with the price increase of the Noctilux. What other camera manufacturer could increase their prices by 20% and not get a huge uproar? There must be something in these little red boxes that gets released and makes people immune to just about anything Leica does to them - amazing!
 
rxmd said:
The $1500 price increase nicely coincides with the 30% discount for M8 buyers. Guess what lens people were most interested in.
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I think that this is partly the story, and the speculation from another here that the current production run is at it's end. Before starting the next production run that will bind capital for years to come they have 'to squeeze the lemon dry' - take out whatever they can get of the current stock.

One other thing worth noting is that the Noctilux is now the only 1,0 aparture lense in production, now that Canon has for long, terminated theirs and, cowardly, replaced it with a 1,2 version.

I have both the Canon EF 50 mm 1,0L and the Leica 50 mm 1,0 Noctilux. Haven't had my Noctilux for more than a few months my experience with it is limited, but as far as I can see now, the Canon version is better. It reproduces slightly better contrast at full aparture (but vignettes more, particularly on a 1Ds II). I won't give a final judgement before trying the Noctilux some more, though. Regardless, both these lenses fare better on analogue film cameras than on digitals. Selling your Noctilux would be a smart way to finance your M8.

Strangely, the Noctilux has always been the more expensive of the two. Here in Norway the last price (20% sales tax included) of the Canon EF 50 mm 1,0L was about 25.000 NOK - AF and golden databuses included that transmit aparture settings to the camera - and finally to your computer. Canon's is markedly larger and heavier and obviously (when you feel it) more solid than it's little sister Leica,- that in it's rather simple form costs 38.000 NOK - before this last increase, that is.

Both are special purpose half-body portrait lenses that produces perfect blured backgounds at large apartures with a distance to your model of 2 - 3 meters. Perfect for that magazine illustration to an interview of an artist - or the annual report picture of the CEO of a big corporation. No flash needed.

But they are difficult to use at this if the model does not show patience with the photographer who has to work very presise (here the view finder system excells!). - No family member of a gear-freak photographer freqenting RFF would usually show that kind of patience....

The other purpose was 'to make a 1,0 lense - just for the fun of it', - I am sure. Which makes them extraordinary lenses with weird capabilities. Like shooting hand held through a scandinavian summer night with a Portra 160VC. Only freaks appreciate that kind of pictures; landscapes with a few meters of DOF.

So, photographing with these lenses - and appreciating their products is a lonly business, - you are on your own. - Like the life of van Gogh must have been, when you think of it. (It's tough being an artist!)

A picture of my Noctilux mounted on a Zeiss Ikon is attached. It works excellently with the AE of this camera.
 

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nasmformyzombie said:
Absolutely absurd. Leica is pricing itself out of the market.
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In the case of the Nocti, Leica's reply might be, "Compared to what?" For f/1 optics, they're the only game in town. You don't have to go quite that extreme for low-light work, but if you feel you have to, then it's time to crack that wallet a little wider. Solms has made a calculated risk in deciding to jack up the Nocti's already-heavy price tag. Leica probably doesn't sell many of these lenses in a given year (remember the Pentax ad from a few decades back, featuring their 15mm ultra-wide, boasting that they likely wouldn't sell even twenty of them that calendar year?). The Nocti is the McLaren F1 of photography: if you want to go that fast, and with flair (but hopefully not flare!), be prepared to part with a breathtaking sum of money for the privilege.


- Barrett
 
What a strategy by Solms ... I'm impressed. Bring out a $5000.00 camera and it causes all out war on the majority of forums that are brave enough to discuss it's pluses and minuses. What did Dorothy Parker say ... "It's when they don't talk about me that I worry" ... or something like that!

"They're not discussing the Noctilux much on the forums these days Wilhelm ... what should we do?"

"Well Wolfgang ... I think we'll put the price up to around $5000.00 and see if that injects a little passsion into the discussions!"

:D :D
 
AFAIK, Leica hasn't been making this lens for years -- the manufacturer is ELCAN: http://www.elcan.com/

Yes, ELCAN's previous incarnation was E. Leitz CANada, but it's been sold off long ago and is no longer part of any Leica company or group.

Perhaps ELCAN wants to stop (or has already stopped) production. Solms is just selling off inventory, thus the last-ditch effort to maximize profit. "Low sales" (further aggrevated by the price hike, of course) is always a convenient excuse for production termination. :rolleyes:
 
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Mazurka said:
AFAIK, Leica hasn't been making this lens for years -- the manufacturer is ELCAN: http://www.elcan.com/

Yes, ELCAN's previous incarnation was E. Leitz CANada, but it's been sold off long ago and is no longer part of any Leica company or group.

Perhaps ELCAN wants to stop (or has already stopped) production. Solms is just selling off inventory, thus the last-ditch effort to maximize profit. "Low sales" (further aggrevated by the price hike, of course) is always a convenient excuse for production termination. :rolleyes:
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That does it! No way I am going to support - directly or indirectly - e weapons producer like Raytheon. Any more products out of Leica's range that comes from ELCAN?
 
RF-Addict said:
This smells like Leica is trying to offset the additional costs of the M8 desaster with the price increase of the Noctilux.
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I think you are right on here.
Word from inside Solms is that Meight sales started to slow earlier than expected and that the unanticipated cost of fixing the Meight really hurts.
More lens price increases to come according to people inside the building...


Andreas
 
RF-Addict said:
This smells like Leica is trying to offset the additional costs of the M8 desaster with the price increase of the Noctilux.
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I don't think even the genii at Leica who thought up the "lets tell the customers we purposely put a weak IR filter on the M8 so it'd need front IR filters on every lens and hope they don't ask why we didn't say so until a month after the customers figured it out for themselves" spin, are stupid enough to think they will sell enough Noctiluxes at $5000+ that the extra $1500 will bail them out of the M8 losses.

The likeliest scenario is that the Noctilux sells in such small numbers that current stock was produced quite a number of years ago. When it sells out, producing new ones will be much more expensive. They may even be planning an on-demand production vs making a run of them.
 
To my obseravtion; there is a lot of Noctilux'es out there. Here in Norway, - which has always been a dull and low Leica market (relative to, say, Denmark and Sweden) - there is a lot of Noctilux'es for sale 2.hand.
 
everyone has to make their own call, but for one having only just bought into Leica M I am already decided on buying no more. The price hikes have been so significant ans within such a short period of time that it just smells wrong. If others will pay these prices, great. It will keep the company afloat, but I am out. I bought both M bodies from heavily discounted or grey but mainly ZM lenses. I will be looking to Zeiss and CV for those FLs I might not use very much. I cannot say that I would be buying a noctilux in any case, but 5K...well thats a lot of 'other' gear.....or lying!
 
Olsen said:
That does it! No way I am going to support - directly or indirectly - e weapons producer like Raytheon. Any more products out of Leica's range that comes from ELCAN?
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Okay, I'm ignorant on this point: are all the Noctilux lenses Leica's been selling up to this point, in fact, of Canadian origin? ELCAN, near as I can tell, hasn't been building any camera stuff for Leica for some time. (Didn't Leica sell ELCAN off to Hughes or some other military-industrial-complex type, during the period when they spun off the photographic arm from E. Leitz proper?)


- Barrett
 
The Noct is the only thing ELCAN makes for Leica, at least until recently. AFAIK of course. http://leica.nemeng.com/040b.shtml

Noct owners: please chime in and say that "Made in Canada" is engraved on your latest version. ;)

And there has been no "E Leitz proper" for a long time -- it was split into L. Geosystems, L Microsystems and L Camera, distinct companies with only the name in common.
 
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