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Author Topic: Leica S lens price increase  (Read 11371 times)

JV

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Leica S lens price increase
« on: June 11, 2014, 07:58:43 pm »

At times I am very very tempted by the Leica S… but then I read stuff like this:
http://leicarumors.com/2014/06/11/another-leica-lens-price-increase-coming-on-july-1st.aspx/

and I wonder what these guys in the Leitz Park are smoking…

The 30-90mm zoom went from $10,900 to $11,400 in January and now 6 months later from $11,400 to $11,750…

Hopefully this will be compensated by a decrease in price of the body with the rumored upcoming CMOS Leica S.

Not crossing my fingers though...
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paulmoorestudio

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Re: Leica S lens price increase
« Reply #1 on: June 11, 2014, 09:13:50 pm »

It is a funny wild world at the top...They are getting over 16 grand a piece for manual Summicron-c cine lenses.. the Summilux-c lenses are somewhere in the mid-twenties... so for a larger format, auto focus Zoom...even 12g's must seem a bargain in their world view.  Look, if I was getting just my rates from the 90's I would go for the whole system, but I am not... until then I will enjoy my vintage R lenses on a less than S2 body. I think Dr. K is great and has pumped vitality into the brand, they are aspirational and at the top of their game, setting the bar for others to follow. So what they are smoking is achievement and success...well done.
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BernardLanguillier

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Re: Leica S lens price increase
« Reply #2 on: June 12, 2014, 12:53:09 am »

Those prices make the Zeiss Otus look like a total bargain... except that the Otus opens at f1.4 and probably performs as well as f1.4 as the 70mm at f2.5! ;)

The most puzzling one is indeed the 30-90mm f3.5-5.6 at the same price as the latest 400mm f2.8 from Nikon/Canon... I am hesitating between sad and hilarious.

Cheers,
Bernard

eronald

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Re: Leica S lens price increase
« Reply #3 on: June 12, 2014, 04:52:20 am »

Those prices make the Zeiss Otus look like a total bargain... except that the Otus opens at f1.4 and probably performs as well as f1.4 as the 70mm at f2.5! ;)

The most puzzling one is indeed the 30-90mm f3.5-5.6 at the same price as the latest 400mm f2.8 from Nikon/Canon... I am hesitating between sad and hilarious.

Cheers,
Bernard


Balloons go up, then they deflate.

We're now watching the ascent of the "super 50". The only bargain to be had here is probably the "Sony" AF Zeiss 50, which you can get for less than the price of the Otus ... with the camera body thrown in for free.

Who cares? Here is what a luxury point and shoot can do for you for about $1K:
http://www.sigma-global.com/common/cameras/dp-series/gallery/dp2/images/02.jpg

The color Moiré is very restrained, image looks plenty sharp.
Can a $25K S+lens really beat or even approach this in sharpness, and without becoming a Moiré textbook demo? I have my doubts.

Edmund
« Last Edit: June 12, 2014, 04:59:23 am by eronald »
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BernardLanguillier

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Re: Leica S lens price increase
« Reply #4 on: June 12, 2014, 07:51:59 am »

Who cares? Here is what a luxury point and shoot can do for you for about $1K:
http://www.sigma-global.com/common/cameras/dp-series/gallery/dp2/images/02.jpg

The color Moiré is very restrained, image looks plenty sharp.
Can a $25K S+lens really beat or even approach this in sharpness, and without becoming a Moiré textbook demo? I have my doubts.

Sharpness is of course not everything and superb images are typically resulting from great sharpness and great look combined (the Otus is king here).

But I share you views that it it unlikely the current Leica 22,000 US$ S with its best 9,000 US$ lens can do better than the Sigma quattro... with an Audi quattro thrown in for free.

Cheers,
Bernard

Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: Leica S lens price increase
« Reply #5 on: June 12, 2014, 02:14:19 pm »

JSNphotography

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Re: Leica S lens price increase
« Reply #6 on: June 12, 2014, 02:17:11 pm »

I find the different opinions/attitude on pricing on these forums amusing. In some threads you have people bashing Leica/Phase One/etc. about their perceived to be too high lens/camera/digital back pricing. Then in another thread you have people congratulating a photographer because he was paid a decent fee by a stock agency. Why not bash the individual for selling stock images at a higher fee? He surely could have sold the same image for a fraction of the cost on a competing stock site.

Everyone is in business to make money. If you don't want to pay the higher price for a product you don't need to. But that doesn't mean the company offering said product is doing something wrong.
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MrSmith

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Re: Leica S lens price increase
« Reply #7 on: June 12, 2014, 02:54:05 pm »

Leica owners do not care for such trivial price increases, they mean nothing to them.
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Mike from Zekar

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Re: Leica S lens price increase
« Reply #8 on: June 12, 2014, 03:04:35 pm »

Man I love leica, but wow I can get a lot of gear for that price point. I could almost equip a second shooter with all they need for the price of a single lens! But man would I love to play with that lens for a few days. :)
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bcooter

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Re: Leica S lens price increase
« Reply #9 on: June 12, 2014, 03:22:00 pm »

Man I love leica, but wow I can get a lot of gear for that price point. I could almost equip a second shooter with all they need for the price of a single lens! But man would I love to play with that lens for a few days. :)

Buying an S2 and Contax lenses with the adapter will come in at about the same price as the new pentax 645.  Not a bad deal considering the fine build quality of the leica and the Contax Zeiss lenses and since it shoots a dng will process in any software.

IMO

BC
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Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: Leica S lens price increase
« Reply #10 on: June 12, 2014, 03:26:03 pm »

There are days when I can not fall asleep for hours, tossing and turning until dawn. Those are the days when Lamborghinis and Bugattis of the world increase their prices by a whopping 3-4% (the same as Leica apparently did).

jerome_m

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Re: Leica S lens price increase
« Reply #11 on: June 12, 2014, 04:17:43 pm »

You might want to check what a Leica S can do when printed really large:

http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/2014/06/the-leica-s-series-print-offer-jack-macdonough.html

Any digital MF camera can produce prints of that size that look sharp when watched with a magnifier.
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Telecaster

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Re: Leica S lens price increase
« Reply #12 on: June 12, 2014, 05:22:36 pm »

How many times does the obvious need to be said? Leica is a small company that targets an affluent market. High prices are a deliberate (not to mention successful) strategy. Maybe a discussion of the economic forces involved in this would be both informative and useful. [I'm quite certain that displays of self-righteous indignation are neither.]

-Dave-

On further reflection the sentence above in brackets is over the top. I won't delete it as I did write & post it, but it certainly doesn't add anything informative or useful to the discussion.
« Last Edit: June 12, 2014, 11:43:50 pm by Telecaster »
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Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: Leica S lens price increase
« Reply #13 on: June 12, 2014, 05:46:54 pm »

Any digital MF camera can produce prints of that size that look sharp when watched with a magnifier.

Are you saying that, say, Mamiya lenses deliver the same quality as Leica lenses?

eronald

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Re: Leica S lens price increase
« Reply #14 on: June 12, 2014, 06:07:24 pm »

J,

 Everything you say is true; besides which the Pentax is a good camera but not a fun camera. On the other hand the Pentax will probably do 6400 ISO and LV which the Leica cannot.

 For myself, I am starting to think all these cameras are obscenely expensive, and obscenely heavy.

Edmund

Buying an S2 and Contax lenses with the adapter will come in at about the same price as the new pentax 645.  Not a bad deal considering the fine build quality of the leica and the Contax Zeiss lenses and since it shoots a dng will process in any software.

IMO

BC
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JV

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Re: Leica S lens price increase
« Reply #15 on: June 12, 2014, 11:11:11 pm »

How many times does the obvious need to be said? Leica is a small company that targets an affluent market. High prices are a deliberate (not to mention successful) strategy. Maybe a discussion of the economic forces involved in this would be both informative and useful. I'm quite certain that displays of self-righteous indignation are neither.

-Dave-

Dave,

Not so much self-righteous indignation but I don't understand what Leica is trying to do.

There was another price increase last year in May which also affected the 30-90mm zoom.  At that time it went from $9,950 to $10,900.

So in slightly over a year the lens went from $9,950 to $11,750, that is an increase of $1,800…

Either the lens was incorrectly priced from the beginning which I doubt, or Leica is just greedy, or they are not doing so well as everybody assumes and need the money desperately… Not sure.

Either way as a potential Leica S customer I am looking at this and thinking what the heck, not quite sure what to make of it…

Thanks, Joris.
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Telecaster

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Re: Leica S lens price increase
« Reply #16 on: June 12, 2014, 11:32:01 pm »

So in slightly over a year the lens went from $9,950 to $11,750, that is an increase of $1,800…

Maybe Leica is just trying to jumpstart sales.   :)

Note that I'm only half joking.

-Dave-
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sgilbert

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Re: Leica S lens price increase
« Reply #17 on: June 13, 2014, 12:51:10 am »

Maybe Leica demand is outstripping supply, so they're raising prices. 

That's the way the market theoretically works. 

The problem with being a fan of a company is that they don't necessarily reciprocate your affection.
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jerome_m

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Re: Leica S lens price increase
« Reply #18 on: June 13, 2014, 01:09:48 am »

Quote
Any digital MF camera can produce prints of that size that look sharp when watched with a magnifier.
Are you saying that, say, Mamiya lenses deliver the same quality as Leica lenses?

I am saying that they can produce the same level of sharpness on a 24x36" (61cm x 91cm or A1) print, which is the size on offer. First, this kind of image is a test of sharpness and only sharpness (and there are more qualities to a lens than sharpness), second this is a landscape picture so one can stop down a bit and third the print is not that big.

I am not criticising the lens, I am criticising presenting that picture as a valid test.
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Chris Livsey

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Re: Leica S lens price increase
« Reply #19 on: June 13, 2014, 02:41:55 am »

The problem with being a fan of a company is that they don't necessarily reciprocate your affection.

It seems to me that for a number of "leaders of opinion", "bloggers we love" they do reciprocate affection shown, its just the rest of us picking up the tab that feel the pain.
That pain though is mitigated when I see my venerable M8 bought in 2007 for £2500, new, still brings almost half that S/H whereas the H3DII 22 listed at £14,687.50 in 2008 can be picked up for around £2,000 now. (Actually I've seen a II version for that price with 9,000 clicks) What happened to "protecting the investment" ?

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