useless generation
Established
Pretty crazy to hear stories about people hoarding Leica gear and owning multiple Ferrari's when there are people queuing up at Foxconn to get jobs making Apple products for a dollar an hour.
Rayt
Nonplayer Character
The Chinese learned a thing or two from the West that a concentration of wealth in private hands, the so called 1 percent, serves as a economic growth engine for the rest of the country.
FA Limited
missing in action
highly unlikely in the near future. chinese people won't buy it. foreigners won't buy it.
people already associate "Made in China" with the crap at the dollar store or wal-mart. how are they going to advertise a Chinese camera brand? look at samsung, even an established electronics company with a "good" reputation can barely get any traction in the market despite their dominance in the mobile phone industry.
clayne
shoot film or die
Absolutely not surprised.
shanenoir
Established
Rayt
Nonplayer Character
lol, good one. You had me for a second there.
I didn't say it was a good thing. They learned it from the best. There are as many bankers in Shanghai as Wall Street.
noimmunity
scratch my niche
Leica Taiwan...
henri klein
Established
There may be fewer Leica bashers in China.
Certainly. However, it requires only few years of customer experience to become a Leica basher.
sevo
Fokutorendaburando
The Samsung problem is home made - they are highly successful as a maker of mainstream consumer products, but no successful maker of any high quality niche mobile phone or TV either.
As far as "Made in China" goes, the reputations of brands and nations do change. "Made in Germany" was originally introduced by the British as a warning against inferior German cutlery. And Caterpillar, a brand long associated with big ugly smelly things that dig holes in landfills, now manage to sell fashion and scents alongside their old core business of handling dirt...
Robert Lai
Well-known
The Chinese billionaires usually have a link to the Communist Party somewhere in the family, if not directly in themselves. No different from America - crony capitalism. There will always be the few who make themselves the aristocrats, and the mass majority become their serfs. Or, as Marx called them, the bourgeoisie and the proletarians.
Never doubted you Jon
Was just interested by the contrast in the responses to your thread and this thread here
majid
Fazal Majid
It makes perfect sense. The supply of used Leicas is still mostly in the West, and to a lesser extent Japan, as those were the dominant economies in 1950-2000. Now that the world economic order is becoming more multipolar, with the rise of China, Korea, India and so on, demand is more evenly spread than supply, and there will naturally be osmotic flows of used cameras until supply is aligned with demand. That's happening in other markets, such as art.
kaiwasoyokaze
Half Frame Goodness
there's a lot of opinions and ideas on the thread. some quite interesting....some quite misinformed about China.
i think made in china items will not necessarily be a problem in the future. consider that those cheap plastic crap that comes from china; there will always be a market for it in Africa, the middle east, or India. for those countries, brand names to the less well off segment of the population are a moot point and buying made in china is always an option. (even within china itself.) it's the fact about buying goods considered luxurious items other than necessities (bowls, tools, etc) that might be a harder sell.
the scale of economy works by mass producing. a simple example is how an adapter for a well known lens sells cheaper than one that is niche. a olympus pen f adapter would always cost more than the olympus om adapter for the same camera because of the amount of adapters they are producing.
something that is self evident i know, but needs repeating.
I just wanted to add....Korea is kind of becoming like Japan nowadays. with a huge older population getting older and the birthrate slowing a little. The economy was getting worse,and new graduates are having problems finding jobs more and more in the past 3 years.
So this rise will be slowing down, (or can argued that they are not really 'new' as a rising country or economy. I would say 5-10 years ago it was much better.) Korea is getting into a more perilous situation nowadays.
i think made in china items will not necessarily be a problem in the future. consider that those cheap plastic crap that comes from china; there will always be a market for it in Africa, the middle east, or India. for those countries, brand names to the less well off segment of the population are a moot point and buying made in china is always an option. (even within china itself.) it's the fact about buying goods considered luxurious items other than necessities (bowls, tools, etc) that might be a harder sell.
the scale of economy works by mass producing. a simple example is how an adapter for a well known lens sells cheaper than one that is niche. a olympus pen f adapter would always cost more than the olympus om adapter for the same camera because of the amount of adapters they are producing.
something that is self evident i know, but needs repeating.
I just wanted to add....Korea is kind of becoming like Japan nowadays. with a huge older population getting older and the birthrate slowing a little. The economy was getting worse,and new graduates are having problems finding jobs more and more in the past 3 years.
So this rise will be slowing down, (or can argued that they are not really 'new' as a rising country or economy. I would say 5-10 years ago it was much better.) Korea is getting into a more perilous situation nowadays.
YYV_146
Well-known
Just bought a 24mm elmar in HK Guess I am contributing to the 50%...
You won't believe how many units the Leica HK storefronts shift. I was in one for an hour and they sold 3 X2s and an X-Vario. Honestly I have to thank Leica for still making m lenses bodies, they'll probably be in a better finance position without them...
Guess I am contributing to the 50%...You won't believe how many units the Leica HK storefronts shift. I was in one for an hour and they sold 3 X2s and an X-Vario. Honestly I have to thank Leica for still making m lenses bodies, they'll probably be in a better finance position without them...
mansio
Established
If the Chinese made a full frame mirrorless with interchangable lenses they could do it at a price that would make Fuji or Sony choke I suspect and you can't tell me they aren't capable.
They're currently building a space station for ****'s sake!
with samsung releasing android camera system we are not far from it at all.
with ARM SoC powerful enough for most tasks and sensor easily purchase from sony and other, they really don't have much tech block from building smomething fun and cheap.
android(and linux, any open source awesomeness) opens up china. i still remember any pre-android donut "smartphones" in china were made with ugly and rubbish UI
noimmunity
scratch my niche
Never doubted you Jon
Was just interested by the contrast in the responses to your thread and this thread here
Now that fire won't spread over this way.
Platinum RF
Well-known
I heard China is taking sandpaper to all black paint Leicas and then is selling them at double the price!
How? will you buy a sandpaper brassed Leica MP for the doubled price of mint/new MP?
Platinum RF
Well-known
What are you talking about?
During the 50-70's Made in Japan means crap, too. Samsung is a great company on par with Apple, Sony and others.
clayne
shoot film or die
What's that got to do with the price of rice in China?
Al Patterson
Ferroequinologist
Now if we could get them to buy more stuff from the US than they sell here, that would be great also.
It is a huge country, so I guess they will be on a buying spree for quite a while.