I fundamentally disagree... Leica cameras are a textbook Veblen good. They had sales of €365 million last year, what possible maths supports them being such a low volume producer with a sales figure like that?
Regardless of whether they're bought as jewelry or by enthusiasts, they're still status symbols; their sensors don't outperform the market leaders and their lenses are not physics-defying miracles. There is no functional ability of these cameras that can't be done elsewhere at much lower prices. There is no practical reason to buy a (modern) Leica camera.
I'm not saying there is anything wrong with wanting one or buying one, but let's not pretend that the prices make any sense objectively, any moreso than a Land Rover does for the school run or a Rolex does for telling the time.
As I understand it Nikon's
camera revenues are maybe 50 times Leica's US$300 million - if you look at the average unit cost obviously Nikon produce many many more units than Nikon.
Leica indeed seem to be on the up, starting when it de-listed, but this has not always been the case and Nikon have been up and down in the last few years ... US$300mm is not a high Revenue figure
Both manufacturers produce other equipment,
without any doubt, in relative terms
" the selling price of the M cameras reflects the high costs of low production runs and the the high element of specialist labour included in their costs versus the mass market and large product range of say Nikon or Canon who produce many of their products in low labour costs countries"
I stick to that statement
been trying to think of comparisons, but they are all German
I was until a few years ago an active fan of BMW Motor Bikes - I have had maybe 12 different models, from the R60/5 to the R1250GSA, (I still have 3 that I cannot part with), - if you look at the history since say the early 1950's you will see that they cost 2 or 3 times the prices of British and then Jap Bikes, but their design and sophistication changed very little particularly post war to the mid 1980's, i.e. with the Airhead Models, but even today the basic design has remained with Oilseeds and Hexheads
The BMW motor cycle division has always been a low production, high cost operation, but IMHO their Bike have always been the best in the world.
Do you think that they were bought mainly as status symbols by the rich - they were/are twice as heavy as Jap Bike, twice as expensive and far less sophisticated - I certainly did not buy them as such and much preferred as used BMW to a new "Rice Burner"
The price of even the basic VW Beetle was more expensive than a far more kitted up British car as were the BMW 2000 series produced in the 1970' and 1980's - these German manufacturers had up and down financial performance - but they had faith in their products and design and they kept going and history has provided them right ...... people still bought them and they were not celebs
Compare this with what happened in the UK
