Originally Posted by
koh303
Leica, like Linhof, and several other name brands, are owned by wealthy patrons, who pour money into the companies out of some romantic notion of the value of the "prescription craftsmanship/customer service" lamented at length all along the previous 50 or so posts. It has nothing to do with business. Leica has no shown a profit since it was bought out of receivership in 2004? (AGX - help me here with dates) by above mentioned wealthy patrons.
For a while saab had the same deal, but on a large scale of a car manufacturer that may not work. In the case of Leica and Linhof its "not that expensive" (relatively speaking).
As bob has discussed many times in the past, a strong used market, for products that have relatively little wear over time, and massive price differences compared to new, meant that most of this gear is no longer being made new, as there is no market for it.
Leica still makes film cameras, but they comprise less then 8% of everything hey make, all are made at a loss (kind of like saabs of the GM era).
How many 4X5 cameras does linhof make every year? Who knows.
Ebony, Canham and other small camera makers are small operations which are usually a one man show (or maybe one and half), which is the most that type of business can sustain, they work in small scale, following the toyota philosophy (albeit in a small scale level production).
Quality and reputation has nothing to do with it.
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