LEICA: still sought after?

[Richard Man]

You were the one that took us into the twilight zone by repeatedly holding up Magnum members as examples of great Leica photographers. Turns out Magnum photographers use all different type of equipment, so it is clearly not the camera that make the difference.

Yup, you caught me.

Oh my. Let's see, how many posts did I say Leica is a niche market and not for everybody - and not because of the prices? How many posts did I say "go take photos"? But no, let's mix and match and generate whatever opinions we want and ignore what people actually say. Yup.

WINNER!!! You win the argument! Whatever it is.

 

[film_man]

There are people that buy new cars, there are people that buy the same car as 1-year old used for a 20% discount, those that buy that car as a 3-year old used car for essentially a 40-50% discount and those that are happy to buy a 15 year old car for £1000. They all will take you from A to B in varying level of comforts, refinement and reliability.

So you can spend £3500 on a new MP with warranty and all, £1500 on a used MP that is still serviced or less than £50 on any of a number of other 35mm cameras that may or may not break after 5 shots and may or may not be serviceable. They will all take photos in varying levels of performance, convenience and refinement.

People are free to spend their money how they like, obviously there's enough to buy new for Leica to stay in business.

BTW, if you were to look at digital Leica Ms they are not that expensive compared to the latest and greatest from the usual players and even the lenses (new) are no longer that much more.

 

[Huss]

My Zenit EM I bought new in 1979 and still works as well as the day it came out the box,is that Leica build quality or what?

I wouldn't brag about a camera being broken since 1979.

 

[ciniframe]

Regarding viability of Leica's film bodies I wonder how many total new film bodies are sold in a calendar year. I'm quite sure Leica would never release that information but it would be interesting to know.
As a WAG I'd say less than 1000 of all types (MP, M7, MA) worldwide.
The used market still seems healthy though I cannot see how that helps Leica's bottom line.

 

[Richard Man]

Regarding viability of Leica's film bodies I wonder how many total new film bodies are sold in a calendar year. I'm quite sure Leica would never release that information but it would be interesting to know.
As a WAG I'd say less than 1000 of all types (MP, M7, MA) worldwide.
The used market still seems healthy though I cannot see how that helps Leica's bottom line.

The 1000 number may be high, to be honest. Since the cameras are basically hand made anyway, they probably run the production line for a while, then assemble the parts as needed. The parts don't rot so they are probably sitting in boxes.

So to answer the ORIGINAL QUESTION XD

Are Leica still "sought after"? No, not in any sense of a large camera company, but this is nothing new. The fact is that Leica is "worth" around 860 millions. So it's not a tiny company, especially when in 2011, it was worth around 400 millions, and in 2004, less than 100 millions.

The bottom line, as I have said so many times, is simply: if you think you like RF photography, spend $1700+ for an M7, and as little as $500 for 50/2, 35/1.7 and try it. If you don't like it, sell it and you will not lose money. If you like other cameras, then don't worry about it. Go out and take photos.