Leica M10
No camera is beyond
criticism, but it seems that Leica is receiving an undue amount of that. The plant in Portugal, for instance, is
receiving a huge amount of criticism, as if somehow Portugal is an inferior
manufacturing area than Germany. These
opinions totally overlook the fact that both Nikon and Canon, for instance,
have many of their cameras made in countries other than Japan. The same goes for Zeiss. While Leica is being criticized for making
some of their equipment in Portugal, Zeiss is being heralded for making some of
their equipment in countries other than Germany.
Of course Leica is a relatively small player in the photographic industry, and well they should be. I have often written about their bench made approach to manufacture compared to mass production. That this is the result of the substantially higher tolerances they demand for their products, tolerances that cannot be achieved with mass production, but tolerance that are necessary to elevate performance beyond what is possible with mass production. That inevitably leads to higher prices and, of course, lower sales volume.
Of course Leica is a relatively small player in the photographic industry, and well they should be. I have often written about their bench made approach to manufacture compared to mass production. That this is the result of the substantially higher tolerances they demand for their products, tolerances that cannot be achieved with mass production, but tolerance that are necessary to elevate performance beyond what is possible with mass production. That inevitably leads to higher prices and, of course, lower sales volume.
Leica V-Lux
Leica X Vario
Leica Q
Leica M7
Sinar p3-df
Yet if we take a closer
look at Leica, we will see that their product line is substantially larger than
that of any other camera manufacturer.
That was further emphasized when Leica acquired Sinar to become part of
their total equipment palette.
While most camera
manufacturers offer only digital equipment, Leica continues to offer analog
cameras as well. But not just that, only
very few other companies offer medium format digital cameras besides their standard
digital offerings, and no one offers anything that encompasses the entire range
from analog to digital, including medium format and large format.
With the addition of
Sinar, Leica is the only company that does so, with 23 different camera models
under the Leica name, not counting special edition models, and 2 large format
cameras under the Sinar label. The Sinar
product line is further expanded by offering a large number of different
digital backs for both of their base camera.
Cameras offered by
Leica/Sinar:
- Leica Sofort
- Leica C
- Leica V-Lux
- Leica D-Lux
- Leica X
- Leica X-V
- Leica X Vario
- Leica X-E
- Leica TL-2
- Leica CL
- Leica Q
- Leica M-A
- Leica MP
- Leica M 7
- Leica M Monochrom
- Leica M (TYP 262)
- Leica M-D
- Leica M-P
- Leica M (TYP 240)
- Leica M10
- Leica SL
- Leica SE
- Leica S
- Sinar p3-df
- Sinarp-MF-L
For complete information on
Leica and Sinar go to:
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Paulomoreira007@gmail.com wrote:
ReplyDeleteDecember 20, 2017 at 12:49 PM
Unfortunately, Leica is one of the preferred targets of the snob brigade. I am Portuguese, I live close to their new factory in Portugal and I have had the honor of visiting the plant and to know a few people from Leica. Only ignorant people in the art of producing a good can say that the quality of the Portuguese Leica factory is inferior. As you correctly stated, quality derives from procedures and internal protocols (like tolerances). To even think that a company like Leica would adopt inferior standards in their now very important factory is simply the apex of stupidity.
No company, from cars to cameras can rely solely on people's skills to ensure consistent excellence. A TOYOTA is made with the same quality in Japan, France or the USA, otherwise, the company would suffer. Just to finish, I would like to remind to those ignorant persons that Leica absorved a great deal of workers from a Portuguese clock maker when they first came to Portugal, more than 40 years ago, the country is not solely skilful in the Port wine production, I'm afraid.
Thank you very much for your comment. I couldn't agree more. The same problem existed when Leica had the factory in Midland, Ontario. The quality of the Canadian products was constantly questioned, even by some Leica owners. Little did they know that for quite a while, all of the Leica lenses were designed by Dr. Walter Mandler in Midland. What most peolle are totally unaware of is the fact that Leica in Midland, ELCAN, produced a lot of things much beyond the known items offered by Wetlar. For istance they produced a lot of items for the US military, much of which was and still is classified. They also developed the lenses for the IMAX cameras and made a lot of x-ray lenses for Picker.
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