Leica 1 California Museum of Photography
Over at the Leica Forum there is a lengthy thread about people waiting for the Leica Q2 which is on backorder. People have been saying bad things about Leica, Leica stores, camera stores, and Jews ( B and H Photo ). Most of it revolves around not enough cameras being available for the demand. I was told by a manager that backorders will not be completely filled until late fall. Not uncommon for a popular camera to be hard to get. I remember when the first commercial autofocus camera the Minolta Maxxum was introduced and it was impossible to get. Also when the Nikon F4 was introduced in 1988 I witnessed a movie producer and a housewife pay a camera store salesman to be put at the front of the list to get the first cameras from a camera store. In the mid 1980’s when the M6 was released my wait for a camera was 7 months after it was announced.
The desire to get the latest is not limited to the photography world but I am amazed at the anger from people who want to part with $5000 for a camera. Many of the posters had only recently registered for the forum ID just so they could complain on the forum. Some think the lack of cameras is a deliberate attempt by Leica to increase demand. Others say Leica should have had a warehouse full of cameras ready to ship upon release date.
It was not that many years ago that I was told that Leica was only making 100 of a certain flagship camera a month. People don’t realize how small Leica is as a company. I have heard that there are only about 200 workers at the Wetzlar plant. Leica equipment is sold all over the world, not just at your local camera store. This craftsmanship that we love so much about our cameras is made possible by a very small but dedicated group of workers. And just because Leica doesn’t announce how many cameras are going to be shipped each week doesn’t mean that they don’t care about the desire of customers to buy their product.
First let’s get some perspective. This is not a cure for cancer. It is a great camera, I have one, but waiting for YOUR camera to ship is not the end of the world. Leica, like Apple, is one of the few companies that I think really feel that what they do is meaningful to people’s lives. Leica invented 35mm photography and they take that responsibility serious. So sign out from the forum and go take photos, that is what cameras are for.