Nothing is sacred.
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That would be sad; that it’s even being considered is a sign of the (depressing) times…
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you are right, in capitalism, the only sacred thing is money.
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It’s worrying seeing another european brand go out like this. First Hasselblad and now Leica. I can’t say I’m that saddened, they have long abandoned the consumer market, focused on luxury products that most people can’t afford. I would’ve liked to see an european brand do both but here we are.
I feel for the people that might lose their jobs, I know there was a Portuguese factory that made a lot of parts for some cameras, that were then shipped to Germany. Maybe the parent company will keep the existing production scheme to be able to still claim the “Made in Germany” tag.
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Why do you think that they would “go out”? The deal is not finalized, but I am assuming that the intention is to keep the brand in production.
IMO Hasselblad was revitalized since DJI purchased it, two new cameras (arguably the first one was in the pipeline already), and a ton of new lenses. And they dropped prices. The X2D 100C mark ii is cheaper than the mark i.
Personally, I wish a Chinese company would buy Panasonic’s micro 4/3 division. They could not do worse.
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Don’t get me wrong, I am not against chinese companies at all. A lot of them are now high quality and provide better products than their western counterparts and I own many of them. I am just saddened that Europe is slowly staying behind on some industries, even ones as niche as photography. Is it too much to ask for an affordable European camera brand?
We have seen what happens when an EU company gets bought out by China. Even if they keep releasing products often production, design, engineering etc is moved to china and over a decade all that’s left is the brand name.
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Possibly yes; depending on whatever “European” means in this context. “Made in Europe” probably means premium prices, “Designed in Europe” should be doable but since 90% of the industry is located in Japan, Europe has no comparative advantage even among developed countries.
In any case, Leica was never targeting the affordable segment, not by a long stretch, so from that perspective nothing changes.
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Yeah I mean designed in Europe. Even a lot of the Japanese brands no longer produce only in Japan and have diversified to some other Asian countries. We clearly have the optics knowledge, but I assume selling optics to consumers is not as profitable as doing it to companies and industry at the end of the day, so we stay clear from that.
I think that every country with a decent higher education in engineering has people who know the optics part. It is just physics/engineering after all, all the knowledge is out in the open, there are FOSS optics suites you can use in lens design, etc. It is no longer the bottleneck, and China must have thousands of engineers at least who can do this.
The key part is manufacturing something you designed within tolerances and budget.
I am curious what the buyer plans to do with Leica. It would make little sense to use the brand for budget equipment, I am assuming that they will take a similar route to Hasselblad.
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When I meant knowledge I was including manufacturing as well, I apologize I wasn’t very clear there.
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Never been there, but aren’t cows still sacred in India?
But yes, after Swedes sold SAAB and Volvo…