Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
01-29-2009, 01:43 PM
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Leica used to be a manufacturer of raw glass and polished pressed lenses. This business was sold to Corning around 1990.
Today, rumors are that Leica gets its raw glass (for sperically and aspherically grinded lenses) from various suppliers, probably from Germany, and polished pressed lenses from Hoya.
BTW, raw glass isn't cheap: 1 kg is about 1 k$.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
01-29-2009, 11:52 AM
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Just a few words about Leica here.
Leica (from Leitz Camera) is a big name compared to the current, actual, comany, called Leica Camera AG. There are many other Leica companies around now which I am not talking about here. So, in the following, I use Leica as a synonym to Leica Camera AG.
Leica has a turnover of about 100 million € only and about 1000 employees. It used to be somewhat larger. What is interesting however, is who owns Leica:
Dr. Andreas Kaufmann (54). He made some money in Stuttgart (he started his career as a school teacher, later co-founded some companies and became member of Leica's supervisory board). Kaufmann is Leica enthusiast, we would say, Leicaxian ;) With the help of his brothers (together, they are SOCRATES Privatstiftung in Vienna, Austria), he founded ACM Projektentwicklung GmbH in Salzburg, Austria. ACM then bought all Leica stock (2006 to 2007) and Andreas Kaufmann is now 96% owner of Leica.
Initially, he tried the "American way of management" and hired Steven K. Lee (former position: Best Buy Co., Inc. Minnesota) as CEO. This failed because too much value was destroyed. Now, he acts himself as Leica's CEO and opts for longer-term strategies and a withdrawel from the stock market (and its short-term consequences). He now wants to succeed with both, agile management immediately reacting to market forces, and long-term quality creation "made in Germany" paired with engineering excellence this region in Germany is famous for.
Those guys feel quite strong now and have a vision. Their Leica S shows it. Looking at their range of products (high end compact with Panasonic, rangefinders, Leica S, announced full frame Leica-R) and their size (they are tiny compared to Pentax) I can only say that their real capital must be human resources.
Given all this background, I have a hard time to see how a camera maker with an agile management full of ideas could cooperate with a Japanese camera maker who has severe problems to listen. On the other hand, Panasonic (Matsushita) is Japanese, too.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
01-29-2009, 07:02 AM
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Leica D-Lux 4/Panasonic LX3 seem to be little gems indeed.
What I find puzzling: Street prices in Germany are:
- Panasonic LX3: 350 €
- Leica D-Lux 4: 700 € (2x)
for almost the same camara. Is it the same in other parts of the world?
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
01-29-2009, 06:52 AM
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Despite all what has been said already, one more thing...
IMHO, this story tells us a hidden truth:
- The default behaviour for Ned (as President of Pentax US) would be to not blog about a competitor (Panasonic) -- as he definitely knows -- but he did, so he did for a reason, consciously or subconsciously.
- Because Japan doesn't listen to what even executives (not to mention customers) in the rest of the world say, anyway. Maybe, they now for one time in their life, do. Which would be good news.
(I don't even think that this was strategic by Ned. It's emotional. But for the same reason. Pentax Japan cannot entirely satisfy his photographic obsessions. While they should be able... Maybe he brought the camera to show in the executive meeting in Tokyo and they didn't take him serious enough?)
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