[Leica] LHSA meeting in Wetzlar; Leica Camera AG

[henningw at archiphoto.com (Henning Wulff)]

At 9:07 PM -0400 10/11/06, Seth Rosner wrote:
>Hi LUG friends!
>
>I have resubscribed after a fairly lengthy absence to bring you all 
>up to date on what I have learned about Leica Camera AG and its 
>future at the LHSA meeting in Wetzlar ten days ago. Had an 
>opportunity to visit at some length with Andreas Kaufmann whose 
>Company has bought full control of Leica Camera and also with Steven 
>Lee, an American who has assumed a senior management role with the 
>Company. Both are photography and Leica enthusiasts and have a 
>shared vision of where they hope to take the Company. As you 
>doubtless have read, Leica introduced not only the M-8 but also 
>three other digital cameras. The Leica booths at Photokina were 
>mobbed, especially, naturally, that of the M-8.
>
>What is most impressive is the enthusiasm at the factory. All of the 
>feedback from our friends at the Company made clear that there is a 
>new sense of excitement at Solms, that the tacit concern amongst 
>employees for the Company's survival is gone. A truly great sense of 
>optimism invests the place. As several staff members put it, 
>everyone is eager to come to work again.  Evidence of this is that 
>despite the fact that Tuesday 3 October was a national holiday and 
>almost everyone takes off the Monday (2 October) to make a long 
>weekend, production workers on the M-8 came to work voluntarily to 
>ensure that the Company continues to produce enough cameras to meet 
>demand.
>
>I had a chance to read only a very few M-8 comments in the LUG 
>archive and will comment on just one issue, the coding of older 
>lenses for the M-8. I am ill-equipped to answer this technically but 
>as I understand it,  because of the oblique angle at which light 
>rays from shorter focal length lenses reach the sensor, Leica has 
>placed before the sensor a device that adjusts the rays to reduce or 
>elminate that effect. The code on older lenses tells the camera what 
>adjustment is indicated for that focal length. I have been told that 
>this is more important for lenses under 50mm, that the deleterious 
>effect at 50mm is not too great and at the longer focal lengths, the 
>lenses probably do not really need the coding.
>
>The LHSA meeting really was pretty wonderful, on Friday a good day 
>of programs and projection presentations and the banquet at which 
>both Mr. Kaufmann and Steven Lee spoke about their enthusiasm for 
>Leica and briefly about their plans for the future. Saturday visit 
>to Photokina in Cologne, Sunday back to Photoboerse, a massive trade 
>fair, Monday factory visit and visit to Braunfels and the castle, 
>Tuesday a luncheon cruise on the Rhine and a medieval banquet and 
>departure Wednesday. Twenty members stayed on through Wednesday for 
>a Leica Akademie program with the M-8.
>
>Surprising number of our members attended carrying..........digital cameras!
>We're not all old f-rts stroking our - you will pardon the 
>expression - Thambars!
>
>Cheerio all,
>
>Seth

Thanks, Seth. Sorry I couldn't make it. All is better here now.

As for the lens coding re: vignetting - it wasn't severe enough with 
any lens I tried (about 20) to worry about, and I personally wouldn't 
pay $5 per lens even if I could get it done while I waiting and 
having a coffee.

-- 
    *            Henning J. Wulff
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