Bit of late start today, but still Monday. After breakfast, getting the wood fire going and attention to Scout - the wonder dog - able to settle down to usual morning photography tasks.
Started off checking e-mail and usual web pages-newspapers, photo and non-photo blogs. Nothing out of the way until came to The Online Photographer blog. .
Could not believe what I read. You now could pre-order a Leica M Digital Rangefinder Camera. Now, this was not a surprise, as the camera was announced earlier in the year.
What caught my attention was the price - $6950.00. Almost $7000. A mistake, no. The correct price,yes,
Note - no lens, just a camera body. You will need to purchase or own a usable lens in order to photograph with this camera.
Now, you can purchase a rather good used car for $7000. You can buy 7 bicycles each costing $1000. You could buy 35 tennis rackets each costing $200. You could buy 28 Panasonic Lumix DMC G3 Digital Camera bodies each costing $250.
May recall the Panasonic G3 was my camera choice, purchasing three bodies to use with my three lenses. For the cost of the Leica body, able to buy 25 more Panasonic bodies.
Not sure I understand what Leica is thinking. Digital products have a short life and are updated about every 18 months. A $7000 camera body replaced in 18 months means that each month use is worth about $390. A month of Leica cost $140 more than 18 months of Panasonic.
What folks will tell you is that the Leica image quality is superior to the Panasonic image quality. Don't believe for most uses - web pages, face book, blogging, and even photographic prints of reasonable size - you would be able to tell the difference between the two.
Leica is prestige. Panasonic is not. As with automobiles, bicycles and tennis rackets prestige is important to many. If prestige is important to you, then only a Leica will do. If prestige is not important, then a Panasonic will do.
Do things that seem to make good sense and sleep soundly.
$7000. Really?
.
No comments:
Post a Comment