No regrets for choosing Canon Lens

**taneepak** · 02-07-2007, 07:39 PM

I have heard that Leitz has engaged an American Chinese as their new CEO. He has some crazy ideas that sound more like what Nikon and Canon went through 40 or 50 years ago, and that is to be big you must cater to the masses with more fighting grade models but still keep the No.1 position for the top model.
This doesn't sound good for me. I have a feeling that all my Leitz equipment will not appreciate in value at a rate I have been accustomed to. Maybe its time to call for a Big Sale sooner than later.

***kwun*** · 02-09-2007, 03:23 AM

i remember reading somewhere that Leica is close to bankruptcy? if that is the case, perhaps a change in strategy is needed.

**DinkAlot** · 02-09-2007, 03:44 AM

I can't find any info on Leica right now but yes, Leica is in deep doo-doo. It had record sales in 2005 but still lost ~$18 million. Not sure what current state of Leica is but I hope they make a turnaround.

**taneepak** · 02-09-2007, 05:18 AM

Leitz nearly went bankrupt many times but some group or groups would always saved it and take it over.
For those who may not know, Leitz or Leica invented the 35mm format camera that is in use today by the industry. It was invented in 1913 by Oscar Barnack of Leitz. Another German giant, Zeiss, caught on and the two, Leitz and Zeiss were the leading lights then. Then came the Canon and the Nikon who unashamedly copied everything from Leitz and Zeiss, respectively, that you could use Leitz lenses on Canon and vice versa and Zeiss lenses on Nikon and vice versa. Then came the slr with Nikon coming out with a beautiful Nikon F Photomic slr in the late 1950-60, and I was one of the first to own one. Leitz dismissed Nikon's effort and insisted on staying the uncompromising quality course. But Zeiss saw the writing on the wall and came out with a superlative range of cameras called the Contarex with lenses that can put today's lenses to shame. I have about 3 of the Contarexes, including one with a removeable back to change to a different type of film in mid-roll and another one that you can take off the pentaprism, plus about 4 lenses, including that was designed for the Olympics in Germany at that time. But Zeiss just went overboard and they cost many times more than the Nikon F Photomic. The Contarexes went out of business because no many people could afford to buy them plus the fact that American photo-journalists covering the Korean war went for Japanese gear like Nikon and Canon, and the rest is history.

***Cheung*** · 02-11-2007, 05:55 AM

Interesting reading!

**Yogi** · 06-04-2007, 07:48 AM

Originally Posted by taneepak

There are poor Canon lenses and there are excellent Canon lenses that go through the same Canon factory, and herein lies the problem. In contrast there are no poor Zeiss or Leitz lenses because they are all consistently excellent.
Lens quality depends on the type of glass used, especially glasses of very high index with much reduced or even anomalous color dispersion, its design (which uses a super fast computer), and the most important of them all the mounting of the many elements into the assembled lens and the compromises one has to make for a singles lens reflex camera (this is why a quality rangefinder camera like the Leica M will always outperform its Leica single lens reflex camera).

I completely agree. There have been heaps of good and bad lenses from canon more so when they changed mounts and the cheap plastic lenses that they used to produce was a disgrace. Canon has never been brilliant for quality of their glasses [excellent in technology eg USM] and is the reason why nikon used to dominate them in the manual market. For that matter so much was copied from Minolta who made excellent lenses and bodies in the good old days. RIP Minolta...

Speaking of making glasses, i think there were only three glasses were made by nikon which used the asph front element which was hand ground eg 20-35 f2.8 and none by canon.

As we know Leica is a Leica. Nikon even tried a rangefinder and i am sure not many ever heard about it! If you are loaded and have a good dry box, go ahead and buy a leica before they shut down. It would indeed be the worst day if Leica has to close shop. First Minolta and now Leica... Hope it does not come to that!