STEVEN LEE, CEO OF LEICA CAMERA AG, HAS BEEN REMOVED and his job temporarily taken over by owner Dr. Andreas Kaufmann and board financial controller and treasurer Andreas Lobejäger.
This latest Leica change of leadership points to a deep division within the company as to the direction the Leica brand should take.
Once, the Leica brand stood for the best in 35mm rangefinder cameras, represented by the legendary M-series cameras. When the company was sold, it started to venture into digital cameras. Its partnership with Panasonic to allow it to use Leica-branded image stabilized lenses helped the new Panasonic Lumix digital cameras gain instant name recognition in a crowded field and quickly capture market share from the traditional camera manufacturers.
However, when Leica rebranded the Panasonic-manufactured digital cameras as its own, the brand suffered lost prestige because the image quality produced by the Panasonic cameras did not match up to the traditional Leica standard.
Furthermore, Leica introduced the M8, its first Leica-made digital camera to high expectations. It suffered an embarassing setback when its quality control failed to notice image quality problems that showed up as soon as the first M8 cameras were delivered to their owners. Interestingly, most reviewers also either failed to notice the problems or were too excited about the M8 that they glossed over the problems.
Recently, at PMA 2008, Steven Lee indicated that the next Leica M8 upgrade might contain a full frame image sensor. His removal now puts this plan in doubt.
My hunch tells me that Leica does not anymore have the funds and engineering/digital imaging know-how to manufacture its own digital cameras to the high standards that the Leica brand once stood for. The Leica M8 was not the runaway success it hoped for and Lee’s plan to spend more on it did not align with the new owner’s strategic plans. Bottom line: Leica will stick to rebranding Panasonic digital cameras and cash in on the Leica brand. Will the Leica end up as another Polaroid down the road?
Reference: Amateur Photographer
Link to this post:
