highdesertmesa
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 Re: Official: Leica Q3 Unveiled, Now Open for Pre-Orders | |
lensfan wrote:
highdesertmesa wrote:
There is some expense tied to the name, but you can't forget that the cost to make these in Germany is exceedingly more expensive than Japan. If Leica moved it's lens manufacturing to Japan, they could produce lenses at a much more reasonable price – probably still double that of a Voigtlander, but not 10x as much.
There is also a big difference in the cost to produce some Leica lenses simply due to the smaller form factor. It's rumored there's only one person working at Leica with the skill to assemble the new 35 APO.
Supply (low) and demand (high) also plays a role.
The cost of the Leica name is not the only driver of the cost of their products.
I don't see how German production adds 5x-10x costs compared to Japanese.
It looks like Leica has been historically very bad at raising talent. Only one person can assemble high quality lenses, only one person can polish high quality glass, etc. If they had two for each - could save a lot on labor costs. Their strategists should pay more attention to succession plan for production line employees. 
I pretty much said the same thing; that moving production to Japan would reduce the price they would still cost more than Voigtlander. I don’t understand the comment about “bad at raising talent”. Only one person can assemble the 35 APO, not the entire line, FFS.
A while back, Leica actually sent a survey out to some of us who own their gear. It was a lens survey on “this versus that” preferences. Most of the questions were about lens designs, but one asked a question about price on the same M lens, one made in Germany at $X and one in Japan at $X. The Japanese production example was much, much less. I don’t know all the reasons why, but if I had to guess, it probably was based on an estimate of having Panasonic, Sigma, or Cosina produce the lens.
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