Interview with Dr. Andreas Kaufman
The French website Focus Numerique published an interview with Dr. Andreas Kaufman. Here are the most interesting points:
- The waiting list for the Leica M type 240 is currently one year. The delivery time will be shorter at the end of the year.
- The new plant in Wetzlar will be completed by the end of the year.
- For the next three years Leica has a lot of “very interesting products in the pipeline”. New products will be announced this fall and next spring. Dr. Kaufman hinted that new Monochrom devices “would make sense“. Another quote: “we are working on many different solutions for the full format”.
- Leica will not release a DSLR camera for R lenses (they have said this multiple times in the past few years).
- The Leica Mini M campaign was a mistake: “Leica people have learned one thing with this story: Do not play with the M!“
- And finally few comments on the competition (Sony and Fuji):
“The RX1 is a good device. The problem in this industry is that the Japanese driving prices down (except for the RX1). They do not control the distribution and after 3 months on the market, a unit is already reduced after 9 months one sees a new model. We think it is very difficult to make money with this principle. We believe that only Fuji makes money because they had the good idea to copy us. Fuji’s CEO said in an interview to a reporter Reporter: We are devices that resembles Leica because our customers love it!”