Will you pay $7,195 for the new 50 'cron Asph?

Very well stated!

John

rxmd said:
In other news, I hear that some farmers where angry when Lamborghini sold their tractor division and concentrated on making silly sports cars instead.

Leica just isn't that company anymore and hasn't been in a while. The fact that their luxury goods will also produce decent pictures in the hands of a skilled photographer doesn't make them any less so. No matter what their marketing says, Leica does not cater to professional artists, no more than Rolex ownership is about knowing the time of the day.

You sound pretty angry and bitter about it, but you're probably just venting. Anyway, if this does bother you so much that it becomes a moral issue for you, I suggest you stop using Leica rather sooner than later, because the Leica of the 1950s that was about photojournalists and artists is gone and is not coming back.
Click to expand...
 
I will never pay that price for any lens or camera in my life. But I don't blame Leica for making such a lens : they're pretending to rebuilt a link between their brand and the Magnum agency and I think it's consistent. Even if a recent Leica ad pretend that Robert Capa used a Leica and every body knows he used a Contax.
I blame Leica for making Hermes special editions. It's an insult to photography and it's insane in the world we're living : to me it's the dark side of their commercial strategy.
 
Andreas Kaufmann. Cameras from the 1%, for the 1%.



Yeah, I know. Leica is making money hand over fist these days. They just aren't selling a whole lot of cameras to photographer.
 
steveyork said:
You do realize that by purchasing and using USED Leica products you do support the company, albeit indirectly. If you're really that pissed off, get rid of all your Leica stuff.
Click to expand...

Precisely, a lot of us have & when enough people stop buying at these ridiculous prices then they will be forced to either:
1) cut their profit margin so that they can lower their prices or
2) better manage their cost of R&D and production so that they can lower their prices or
3) both 1 & 2 or
4) get out of the business.
 
rxmd said:
In other news, I hear that some farmers where angry when Lamborghini sold their tractor division and concentrated on making silly sports cars instead.
.
Click to expand...

Not exactly.
that would be so if they would have decided to sell only gold plated tractors and if they were almost the only tractor makers in the world, so having a huge impact on the global tractor prices.

Koni Kowa said:
I blame Leica for making Hermes special editions. It's an insult to photography and it's insane in the world we're living : to me it's the dark side of their commercial strategy.
Click to expand...

I see it the other way around:
They can make as many silly special editions as they want if that keep them able to keep making good tools.
making over engineered, over priced tools knowingly cutting their connection to the real photographers is what annoys me.
And if Magnum is in such a situation that they need to make cash by making PR to a luxury good company by selling the dream of the golden age of photography to extremely rich hobbyists, it is quite sad too...
 
Leica has always been a premium brand focused on making premium equipment. Then as now. We may disagree about the need for, or their rendition of, a digital monochromatic small format camera, or of a $7000+ medium speed modern 50mm lens. That's fine, use/buy what you like. There's plenty of alternative image-making gear, some of it obviously still prized Leica gear from one or more prior generations who likely wished that, when new, that gear cost less than it did.

So, keep on, Leica. Just like Porsche, whose cars I'll never own but thrill to see and hear, it's great to have Leica making what it does. Impressive for a small organization in a market dominated by enormous companies with far greater capitalization and resources.
 
Too many Other FUN things to do with that kind of Moula :D

I Will be PURRfectly Content with my v5 Cron....love it's built in little Hoodie
Which had its Workout & Mojo via the Eyes & Hands of Simon(Our Man in Tangiers) & Nigel ;)
 
I can't imagine paying that kind of cash for a lens where I'm going to post photo's on the internet, especially on RFF with it's limited size restriction. I'll remain quite happy with my J3 50/1.5 which I bought after seeing Raid's 50mm lens test a few years back where the J3 beat out a lot of high dollar Leica lenses.:D
 
mynikonf2 said:
Precisely, a lot of us have & when enough people stop buying at these ridiculous prices then they will be forced to either:
1) cut their profit margin so that they can lower their prices or
2) better manage their cost of R&D and production so that they can lower their prices or
3) both 1 & 2 or
4) get out of the business.
Click to expand...

I don't really understand where this is coming from.
It isn't as if we have a right to own Leica gear.

Why get mad because something is expensive.
If we were talking about the bare necessities of life I'd get it.

For all I care they'll price it $ 20.000 and goldplate it so people will know you have money to spare.
 
It'll do absolutely nothing noticeable that another of their lenses won't do as well in reality.
Rich mans bauble and all that.
 
I always wonder why so many people waste their money for business class tickets. I would rather prefer to fly economy for 12 hours and enjoy this lens a life time. It is a matter of preferences only. Also do not forget that the non Apo summicron has not been replaced but complemented. There is no need to buy it.

Regards,
Steve

Regards,
Steve
 
Steve Ash said:
I always wonder why so many people waste their money for business class tickets.
Click to expand...

On a side note - I couldn't understand that either until starting work with an employer that paid business class tickets for trips over six hours. If your plane arrives at four in the morning and you have to work the next day with five hours of jetlag, it makes a real difference for your productivity if you've slept well during the night or not. In some cases it might be preferable to pay the premium for the ticket (which isn't that big for volume clients either) rather than to effectively lose the employee for an extra day.

I wouldn't pay business class for private flights, but I guess that's why it's called business class.
 
It seems to me that there are many very nice 50mm lenses that possess higher quality technical characteristics than my talents can use. Leica is a small company that is exploiting a very small niche. We just might thank them later when others try harder to mimic products, such as a B&W sensor camera, at a much lower price. I love my film Leicas, but the economic downturn has me off my crazy photographic spending spree... probably permanently. I now digitally appreciate Fujifilm, Ricoh and even Sony.
 
I can understand the "APO" attached to this.... This reminds me of the days when I used a 180mm f3.4 APO Telyt, I compared this to several 180mm - 200mm (incl 2.8Elmarit) at the time..... Nothing had came closed the APO, it was almost 3D with beautiful colour reproduction on Kodachrome 25. While I would never justify spending this kind of $$$$ myself today, there are some that will !!!
 
All this whining is humorous. Far from a Leica fan boy myself, but it's ridiculous to say Leica doesn't support photographers. They make a handful of lenses in the 50mm focal length that cost from $1495 to $10,000. If they only made the crazy priced lenses then I'd understand the allegation, but they make a range of lenses. And I can still get my Leica cameras made in the 1970's fixed with new parts; parts from Leica. Does that sound like a company that doesn't support? It's pretty transparent why you people pissed off. Well, get used to it; that's life.
 
steveyork said:
All this whining is humorous. Far from a Leica fan boy myself, but it's ridiculous to say Leica doesn't support photographers. They make a handful of lenses in the 50mm focal length that cost from $1495 to $10,000. If they only made the crazy priced lenses then I'd understand the allegation, but they make a range of lenses. And I can still get my Leica cameras made in the 1970's fixed with new parts; parts from Leica. Does that sound like a company that doesn't support? It's pretty transparent why you people pissed off. Well, get used to it; that's life.
Click to expand...

Thank you Steve.. now we all are satisfied with your commentary and started to feel better.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom