Man, if Leica gave away bars of gold, this forum would complain about how their polished.
Why the negativity?
I think most people are missing the first rule of commerce which is to turn a profit.
Ask any seller of goods or services what they charge and this answer might not come out of their mouth, but the thought is . . . as much as I can.
That's not greed, that's capitalism and in todays decreasing margins, survival.
Ask the second question of who you sell to and the response is anyone willing to legally pay.
I have an affinity for Leica. I dig Leica because they are primarily a camera company.
Leica and Arriflex are two of the last venerable camera brands that still survive in todays world of imaging conglomerates.
So many cameras have gone or have lost their camera dna while becoming absorbed into large companies or spreading out into other industries. They're too long to list.
What I don't get about all of this discussion is when did it become a sin to actually enjoy something you want, purposeful or not?
I bought my wife a small Leica with a fixed lens. It's basically a panasonic with a Leica feel and she loves it. I could have saved by buying it's panasonic brother, but she loves her leica and that's all that matters.
I might buy her a T because I think the modern interface it's where cameras will be going and it's the right size and format for what she enjoys photographing.
I know when I put the S2 or M series in my hand it makes me smile and has a tactile feel that is the best of non human touch I can get.
Regardless of all of this the cameras I buy are for commerce and my S2 is not overpriced. Actually in most of our productions we spend more on drives than I did for the S2, which to me is a shocking perspective, because there is nothing fun or sexy about hard drives.
But all this talk about 360 pano selfies has nothing to do with me and though it probably exists I don't know of many professionals that make their living off of selfies, so I take that stuff with a tiny grain of thought, though for personal fun, I can see their advantages, just not in my world.
Leica m8
IMO
BC