I planned have a trip to Germany, can I obtain a relative good price at leica own hometown. Orelse, appreciate to advise any good reputation shop, name and address Cheers KL

-- KL (klrltl@yahoo.com), March 06, 2002

Answers

There are lots of shops which are authorized dealers, but all of them stick to the pricelist which results in uniformly (high) prices. Equipment from Robert White or US grey market items are much cheaper. Nonetheless there are some very good deals available for used gear, but you'd have to specify more exactly where you're going to. Leica was widely spread some 40 years ago here (esp. screw mounts are easily available). The factor tour in Solms should be great (never been there, but if you search this web site, there are some reports).

-- Kai Blanke (kblanke@iname.com), March 07, 2002.

I don't know where you'll be heading off here to but if you want, I can recommend you 13 (like that number?) stores in Berlin, Wetzlar, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Düsseldorf, Cologne and Munich. By off-line email only, I'm not advertising them here.

-- Michael Kastner (kastner@zedat.fu-berlin.de), March 07, 2002.

I know a place in Karlsruhe... but it would be cheaper to buy in the US.. anyways, if you are interested let me know and i'll send you contact info.

-- Matthew Geddert (geddert@yahoo.com), March 07, 2002.

I seems that the pricing laws in Germany have been relaxed for the first time in almost 70 years! That is good news for camera equipment buyers. I have found that since January, the best prices are often by mail order german houses. Sometimes it is an advantage to know the MO houses prices when going into a retail store. In general, I have found that retail stores will discount a little, sometimes to within the cost of the MO goods + delivery.

Please remember that Germany is still a bit old fashioned as a cash based society, so credit cards are not always accepted. It can also be a disadvantage when paying by CC and trying to negotiate a decent price.

The factory store discounts 2% off of the suggested retail price. Sometimes this is your best bet because they normally have the entire range available and you may pay w/ CCs.

PS Regarding the tour: Be prepared to stand for the entire 3 hours! When I took the tour, the projection room was occupied so I missed the famous slide show. We stood by the bar behind the wall size photo next to the store and Hr.Wecklar discussed general photography philosophies for about an hour. The whole tour moved about 200m for the next two hours. PPS At the end we were given Leica Red Dot pins and got to choose a sample of factory rejected lenses. (I mean one individual piece of glass!)

-- Reto (redcave@schweiz.com), March 07, 2002.

It depends what you want to buy. Some new equipment appears to be cheaper in Germany than in USA and some more expensive. The 90 ASPH and the 21 ASPH are about 10% cheaper right now, and a new M6 and 35mm ASPH about 10% more expensive. I think that Leica has special rebates for dealers in each country at different times. This site can give you some idea of new proces in Germany: http://www.ac- foto.com/ger/produkte.php.

I think you can get better deals on used equipment in Germany. In my experience dealers are more reliable (but I did have a not so good experience with Don Chatterton in the past). However a lot of second- hand is overpriced so you have to look carefully. If you have a look at ebay.de you can get a good idea of who the main dealers are and go to their internet sites.

Good luck.

-- enrique munoz (dem331@yahoo.com), March 07, 2002.

KL, I got my new 180APO Elmarit for 17% below list price at Foto- Gregor in Cologne (Koeln). It's a very good Leica shop. www.foto-gregor.de

-- Michael Schneider (mi_schnei@gmx.net), March 07, 2002.

If you are anywhere near the Dutch border consider the Netherlands. It is generally cheaper than Germany on Leica equipment.

-- Haim Toeg (haim_toeg@bmc.com), March 07, 2002.