New Leica Web-Site

Mark Norton · 07-17-2006

New Leica web-site at the usual address. Little new, but slicker presentation and we've lost the ability to track repairs online. You're even more at the mercies of Solms now.

Personally, I am not at all comfortable with Leica defining their products into 3 groups - Photographic, Nature Observation and Hunting. The products listed in the last two categories are pretty much identical and while there are those who think nothing of putting a rifle bullet between the eyes of a reindeer, I am not among them.

I guess the next thing Leica will be doing is laser guided rifle telescopic sights. With APO and ASPH, naturally. You'll get an accurate colour rendition of the blood...

Nachkebia · 07-17-2006

I like old one more, design wise.

Socke · 07-17-2006

Mark, some of us eat meat, and better a deer which has been shot dead in an instant while grasing as a pig which has been driven around europe without food and water on a hot day, frighened to death and druged so it doesn't die by a rupture before it reaches its final destination.

Mossy was wrong, meat isn't murder, it's torture!

Nachkebia · 07-17-2006

Mooozzzzz! Meat is murder!

SteveM(PA) · 07-17-2006

I don't eat my friends!

Mark Norton · 07-17-2006

I eat meat and I support the humane treatment of animals in so far as that is possible. What I don't understand is Leica creating two sections of the web site with the same products listed.

Socke · 07-17-2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark Norton

I eat meat and I support the humane treatment of animals in so far as that is possible. What I don't understand is Leica creating two sections of the web site with the same products listed.

that must be one of the mysteries in marketing, a hunter can buy one Trinovid for his oberservation needs as a hunter and one for his wife for here observation needs as a nature lover :-)

And as far as I've seen so far, there are no gunsights anyways.

dcsang · 07-17-2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by Socke

Mossy was wrong, meat isn't murder, it's torture!

Ya.. and November spawned a monster in the shape of this child..

that being, the new website

I leica'd the old one better too. This one just seems too "sterile" (for the lack of a better word).

Sing Me To Sleep,
Dave

Nachkebia · 07-17-2006

you can indetify that there marketing is changing, no more black and white pictures on the web site! digital orienting! this sux

BJ Bignell · 07-17-2006

I like the new website, much easier to find information. And, I just learned that there's an M7 starter kit, which makes it so much harder to resist the dark side.

Interesting note: I thought I would look up a dealer, to see how much that starter kit costs (and for other items in general). There isn't one in Canada, so I scrolled to the bottom of the list. There's apparently no official dealer in the USA, either... Am I missing something?

lubitel · 07-17-2006

IMO the old site looked a lot better. it had a lot of character, right now it looks pretty generic... nice, but nothing special.

jaapv · 07-17-2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark Norton

I eat meat and I support the humane treatment of animals in so far as that is possible. What I don't understand is Leica creating two sections of the web site with the same products listed.

I do understand; it is the dilemma of nature conservation. If you have visited as many nature reserves as I have you get very aware of the vast gulf between the hunting crowd and the photographic safari crowd. It is economic suicide to situate a tourist lodge in an area where shots can be heard. But when one delves into the whole conservation issue, it turns out that the two are complimentary. Nature reserves can only exist on the revenue from hunting. A hunting trip in Africa might cost you 100.000 $ or more for a few weeks. A licence to shoot an elephant will bring a wildlife revenues in the order of 20.000 $. Moreover the hunting concessions will be grouped around the reserve proper, making that a lethal gauntlet to run for poachers. The photographic concessions bring large revenue as well,for instance the standard cost of staying in a Botswana Safari camp is 750 $ a person a night and more, financing the national parks, providing employment for local people, preserving the wilderness for National Geographic and the like. On the whole I personally don't like hunting and cannot imagine myself shooting an animal for fun, but I'm glad the hunters do exist and contribute to the preservation of nature.
Obviously someone in the Leica marketing department has noticed this dichtomy and very intelligently decided to keep the groups seperated.

dcsang · 07-17-2006

To try to continue the initial Mozz mania...
I'm sure that this new site is causing.. *ahem*.. Panic on the streets of London, panic on the streets of Birmingham, I wonder to myself 'could life ever be sane again?'

But ya.. it does look generic.

Dave

dadsm3 · 07-17-2006

I'm not a hunter, and maybe Europe is different, but there are many parts of North America (even some urbanized) that are literally infested with deer, because there is a lack of natural predation. They not only finish off any gardens and flowers available, cause huge forests to be deserted by people because of deer tics, but are in fact a very serious highway safety concern. One of the leading causes of premature death in Newfoundland is by cars hitting moose. There's nothing wrong with people taking some of these animals for the table when overpopulation threatens the native ecosystem, the health of the general animal population, and people on the road.
In Ontario a proliferation of Canada geese and cormorants and their highly acidized droppings have basically wiped out fish life in many lakes and ponds, defoliated entire islands, and rendered parks unuseable for people. Forget even sitting on the grass. Egg spraying doesn't work, they just lay more.
Could the numbers of predators be increased to manage the populations? Sure, but cats, dogs, and even kids are far easier prey for a coyote to catch than a deer.
If people thin these animals by taking some to eat it sure is preferable to an organized cull.
In Canada we are internationally criticized for seal hunting, but since the pressure the seal population has exploded, wiping out the fish stocks and fouling beaches. The numbers are staggering, literally millions...perhaps some bleeding heart European nations would appreciate it if we dropped off a half a million of them at one of their major rivermouths. Clubbing baby seals is no longer done, just a myth perpetuated by animal rights extremists....people who are so idealogically driven they can't (and don't) distinguish the difference between proper, managed hunting and shooting the last carrier pigeon or Tasmanian tiger.
Although it is in many cases man's fault these animal population imbalances exist, it doesn't mean we shouldn't manage them and let them proliferate ad infinitum. The alternative is disease, and the extinction of other animal species.

SteveM(PA) · 07-17-2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by dcsang

To try to continue the initial Mozz mania...
I'm sure that this new site is causing.. *ahem*.. Panic on the streets of London, panic on the streets of Birmingham, I wonder to myself 'could life ever be sane again?'

But ya.. it does look generic.

Dave

I think it's gruesome that someone so handsome should care, dave

dadsm3 · 07-17-2006

BTW, the lake trout I'm holding in my avatar was released.........

Nachkebia · 07-17-2006

Oh, There Is A Light And It Never Goes Out
(this is about Noctilux)

Socke · 07-17-2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by dcsang

To try to continue the initial Mozz mania...
I'm sure that this new site is causing.. *ahem*.. Panic on the streets of London, panic on the streets of Birmingham, I wonder to myself 'could life ever be sane again?'

But ya.. it does look generic.

Dave

but not as bad that I would want to jump in front of a green double decker bus

photogdave · 07-17-2006

Where are you located? You can try Leo's Camera Supply in Vancouver.
604 685-5331

anaanda · 07-17-2006

From the Leica website...
"The entry-level set is your ideal first step into the wondrous world of the M system - at an attractive price. "

I didn't know $4395 was an attractive price??

venchka · 07-17-2006

On the right side of Canada...

Leica Boutique

RdEoSg · 07-17-2006

Well I'll say one thing. I love the fact that I can now look at lenses on the site itself with out having to either download the pages or open another program to view them!

EDIT: On second look, still have to download a pdf for the specs... Very annoying I must say! Just put the damn pages on the site with an option for pdf as well!

So they design great cameras but obviously not websites is that the concensus so far? :P

erikhaugsby · 07-17-2006

I don't like it--it seems far too "happy" for me. Maybe just the blandness of the white (vs. the previous red&orange&green&other colored boxes) is taking its toll...

kshapero · 07-17-2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nachkebia

Mooozzzzz! Meat is murder!

Carrots are murder!!

jaapv · 07-18-2006

Their dealer locator is pretty useless too. Just suppose I was driving through the city of Wetzlar tomorrow and wanted to pick up a couple of R9's/DMR's, some M7's and a bunch of lenses. I'd want to know a dealer there. So I dial in "Wetzlar" Now the site demands to know a "start adress" What the .. has that to do with my query? I flew in from Timbuctoo today.And a postal code . Am I the German telephone book? So I guess I'll buy nothing tomorrow....