From 1925 to 1990 Leica followed the strategy of producing a few high-end, high-quality camera lines, at first the I,II, III series with minor variations to differentiate the price tags, later the M line was added, then the III was dropped and the Leicaflex and R-range came alongside the M. There is a big question-mark around the R-range as a high-end camera as it certainly showed mechanical quality, but the engineering was a bit contrived to say the least. The mono-culture in product range did not serve the company well and Leitz had to sell his stake in the ownership to the Swiss investor Schmidtheiny. In 1989 Leica expanded the range of cameras with compact cameras ‘loaned’ from Minolta and later Panasonic. The idea was that the company needed to broaden the consumer base and thus to generate more money……

Source: www.imx.nl

Erwin Puts leica