Is Leica in big trouble? New Screwmount Leica?

[kajabbi]

We, in our loosely knit community of Leicaphiles, seem to have an unlimited amount of ideas to save Leica. Make this, Adapt to that,recreate another. The problem is that they can't, or won't, produce items already in demand. It must be that they can't make the new Summilux at the price already quoted.

If only we had a "mole" inside the factory to find out how mant hundreds, perhaps thousands, of these lenses are on back-order.

Now in their "ultimate wisdom, they are, by all accounts, going to announce a Summicron 75. Maybe Cosina will build it for them. It's obvious, they can't build it themselves.

[joel_matherson]

The CL idea as an entry level Leica is a good one as long as it didnt send the company to the wall like the last one was rumoured to have done. I dont think you need a screw mount version, just leave an M mount adapter on any M mount camera and its now a screw mount!

[jimdesu]

Instead of a screwmount leica, they should produce 4/3-system versions of R lenses, and use that as a cash-cow to support the more traditional Leica development. Let some other company concentrate on digital cameras and let Leica continue to make great film cameras.

[dan flanders]

Make all lenses screw mount and sell cheap M mount adapters. One production line, one set of tooling. But this ain't salvation. The German banking system coupled with the socialist thinking even of their more conservative elements combined with antiquated management structures keep imaginative marketing at minimum efficiency and sometimes even less. Germans have a work ethic that compares to the Japanese, but it is not benefited by the management-banking complexities. It's a problem in economics, not design, production, or marketing isolated from the banking-management structure.

[aizan_sasayama]

I know <a href="http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?

msg_id=00Aikg" target="_blank">what they need</a> to make! lol

[jtk]

Leica brand will resurface as a limited partnership controlled by managers from Pansonic or Sony (makers of the new M1 and tied for best of the 8mp prosumer digicams)...bet on it.

[summitar]

Take a look at a Leica screwmount camera or a Contax IIa, for instance. Every knob, dial, metallic component is exquisitely machined. Take a look at a digital SLR or even a film DSR. Every piece except the lens mount is molded, stamped, extruded, not machined. A new Leica screwmount would have to go to the robotic process to produce a reasonably priced body. I sure it would work just as well, but would it be a Leica?