Leica is in trouble. Apple should come to the rescue
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0502/05...ialtrouble.asp
I know this sounds crazy but Apple should pick Leica up and "refurbish" the company. Get them back on track in the Digital Market. They still have some of the best lenses in the world. Their IP has to be solid. Imagine this.
Apple buys Leica-
Develops a hard drive based HD camera using FW1600 or some other fast technology. All they need is a sensor, a great lens and one hell of a high bandwidth subsystem. Once they build Leica back up they sell the company off. This aquisition would be peanuts to Apple right now.
Quote:
German website, Spiegel Online, has reported that Leica is in financial crisis after many banks cut its credit lines following an announcement last week, which said it stood to lose half its operating capital. The company, which introduced the first 35mm still camera in 1924, is also expected to close the financial year with an operating loss of ?10 million (approx $13 million). Last year it reported a loss of ?1.6 million (approx $2.1 million). Shareholders will hold a meeting on May 31 to discuss the future of the company. Spiegel Online says that Leica has missed the boat where digital photography is concerned and it is also suffering due to the low rate of the US dollar versus the Euro.
German website, Spiegel Online, has reported that Leica is in financial crisis after many banks cut its credit lines following an announcement last week, which said it stood to lose half its operating capital. The company, which introduced the first 35mm still camera in 1924, is also expected to close the financial year with an operating loss of ?10 million (approx $13 million). Last year it reported a loss of ?1.6 million (approx $2.1 million). Shareholders will hold a meeting on May 31 to discuss the future of the company. Spiegel Online says that Leica has missed the boat where digital photography is concerned and it is also suffering due to the low rate of the US dollar versus the Euro.
I know this sounds crazy but Apple should pick Leica up and "refurbish" the company. Get them back on track in the Digital Market. They still have some of the best lenses in the world. Their IP has to be solid. Imagine this.
Apple buys Leica-
Develops a hard drive based HD camera using FW1600 or some other fast technology. All they need is a sensor, a great lens and one hell of a high bandwidth subsystem. Once they build Leica back up they sell the company off. This aquisition would be peanuts to Apple right now.
Comments
The Leica name will never go away.
If they were going to buy a camera company, I would rather that Apple bought Contax and made a digital version of the G2.
Originally posted by Telomar
I'd expect it would be more likely that Panasonic would buy them. Keep the name and rework the company.
Yes I'd agree with this. In fact I'm suprised Panny hasn't already done so.
It's plain tech economics, and Leica chose not to mind it.
Originally posted by Splinemodel
The bottom line is that Leica is dead.
Not sure about that, they still have a very healthy medical microscopy business, and anyone taking over would have to maintain their high level of precision.
(Although I am sure Panasonic would be more than capable.)
Originally posted by hmurchison
I know this sounds crazy but Apple should pick Leica up and "refurbish" the company. Get them back on track in the Digital Market. They still have some of the best lenses in the world. Their IP has to be solid. Imagine this.
apple should buy every company ever started so we can buy everything only from them. it'll be great right? relying on ONE company for everything.
</anti-communist rant>
Originally posted by ipodandimac
apple should buy every company ever started so we can buy everything only from them. it'll be great right?
hell yeah, apple should buy everything else and try and get those right... because remember, if they don't get it right, there will always be a competitor who offers an alternative choice...
apple should be given the chance to put their know-how to get shit right that ain't right... for the good of mankind
no one is asking them to go and bomb redmond or anything
</sane rant>
Originally posted by Splinemodel
The bottom line is that Leica is dead. The "black art" of lens making has been entirely demystified.
I can tell you that's not really all that true. Glass science is still very much a black art and very often people just follow existing recipes for success with very little knowledge on what exactly makes it successful.
Originally posted by e1618978
There are enough rich Leica fans out there - it is guarenteed that some millionaire will buy them as a hobby business if no real company does.
The Leica name will never go away.
If they were going to buy a camera company, I would rather that Apple bought Contax and made a digital version of the G2.
wtf is Leica?
Originally posted by slughead
wtf is Leica?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...876615871&rd=1
Originally posted by Telomar
I can tell you that's not really all that true. Glass science is still very much a black art and very often people just follow existing recipes for success with very little knowledge on what exactly makes it successful.
Number crunching power of modern computers, easily accessible tools (matlab, mathematica, etc), and mature mathematic models makes lens making and "glass science" something that can be developed awfully quickly by any company that cares. Even in the 90's, doing a comprehensive [ultra-precise] ray trace on a computerized lens model could take weeks. Now it takes minutes, maybe hours. Additionally, automated manufacturing has gotten much, much more precise. Leica has always made a big deal about the craftsmanship of their lenses. That's wonderful, but now a robot can make a lens that's negligibly worse than a Leica lens.
And even professionals find it hard to justify spending 10 times more for 1% improvement.
Originally posted by e1618978
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...876615871&rd=1
i think its funny that you posted an ebay link to tell him what leica is. simple, but effective.
Originally posted by ipodandimac
i think its funny that you posted an ebay link to tell him what leica is. simple, but effective.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=3876239645
This one is even nicer - milled from a solid block of titanium! Too bad it is $10K
Originally posted by Splinemodel
Number crunching power of modern computers, easily accessible tools (matlab, mathematica, etc), and mature mathematic models makes lens making and "glass science" something that can be developed awfully quickly by any company that cares. Even in the 90's, doing a comprehensive [ultra-precise] ray trace on a computerized lens model could take weeks. Now it takes minutes, maybe hours. Additionally, automated manufacturing has gotten much, much more precise. Leica has always made a big deal about the craftsmanship of their lenses. That's wonderful, but now a robot can make a lens that's negligibly worse than a Leica lens.
And even professionals find it hard to justify spending 10 times more for 1% improvement.
it's more a question of financial management, i think, for Leica. in the past 5 years they would have, well, should have, said, are we gonna compete or go high-end niche and keep the business running..... i think they might have tried to do both and well folks, hmmm.... end of an era.
I know during the tech boom there was a waiting time to get my one little dissecting scope from Leica because the chip manufacturers were ordering them by the dozens. I'm sure the slow down in silly valley has affected that end of their business as well.
On topic, I think Apple buying Leica is way off in left field.
Leica cameras, however, lost it, They were the absolute best until after the war (WWII) when the Japanese took over the lens manufacturing business.
Leica essentially lost it starting after the end of the war.
can't remember if i used leica, zeiss or nikon... i do remember constantly falling asleep at the microscope and hitting my nose/face on the eyepieces because i had some nasty-ass methodology to follow, counting fluorescent cells.... OVER and OVER AGAIN..... zzzzzz boring..!
well in 2000 i managed to move from melbourne to san francisco to work in web design for a few years...
well anyway in 1999 we were doing RNA injections into developing frogs so i managed to see some pretty f8cked up glow-in-the-dark tadpoles
guess i am/was not cut out to be a 'wet' biologist
Originally posted by sammick
Leica cameras, however, lost it, They were the absolute best until after the war (WWII) when the Japanese took over the lens manufacturing business.
Leica essentially lost it starting after the end of the war.
There's a lot more to a professional-level camera than the lens. Pros want something that can stand up to considerable abuse and still deliver consistent results. I've got a Leica M3 made in about 1956 (passed down to me from a family member) that I keep because it is just about the pinnacle of manufacturing-as-art when cost is no object. I'm talking about its ruggedness, its surprising heftiness for its size (the thing is *dense*), its whisper-quiet shutter, the silky precision of its controls. It's a scientific instrument for consumers.
Of course a newer camera is more usable: mine doesn't have a light meter, a motor drive, a zoom lens, or any niceties to help me figure out how to make an exposure. Leica owners (actually, most camera owners of that era) were expected to know how to make photographs: you bought books or you took classes.
You're right about the Japanese surpassing the Germans, but it really wasn't until the Nikon F SLR was introduced in the early 1960s. The Nikon body was metal, it had excellent optics, and it was much more "modular". Accessories like light meters, motor drives, viewfinder screens, and a huge range of lenses could all be added easily. And it was rugged and less costly than a Leica. It also had a really smart feature: the viewfinder showed precisely 100% of the image that would be on film - most other SLRs showed about 85-95%. For news photographers this was a major benefit because they wouldn't have to crop pictures in the darkroom (they could "edit in the camera") and thus it reduced the time from taking a picture to getting it into print. That's one big reason why, if you see a picture of a group of press photographers in the late '60s, almost all of them are using Nikons.
Family heirloom status because it was presonally engraved.
The shutter ribbon now has a few pinholes in it, so i would be looking at
quite some expense to have it replaced.
Anyone know where I might find a qualified Leica repair facility
in the Washington area?