I feel out of the loop here.

I know that Leica has stopped production of the 28mm f/2.8, but why is it that some photo dealers like Rich Pinto are exclaiming:

"For Sale, Leica 28f2.0 ASPH, only a few left!"

And Delta International, King of the Grey mail order photo houses, has removed both the f/2.8 AND the f/2 ASPH from it's website? Not even a trace of that focal length left there. Unusual for them. When they are out of stock on something, they just have an "email for information" thing on there. But in this case they removed the entire thing. Too weird, eh?

So, what's up? I'm starting to feel paranoid, like I should buy one while I still can or something! Is it a plot? :^)

Thanks, experts!

www.stevehoffman.tv

-- Steve Hoffman (shoffman2@socal.rr.com), April 26, 2002

Answers

Leica is coming out with a 28mm Summilux f/1.4 ASPH.

-- unni (bbestbuy@sohu.com), April 26, 2002.

1. i can find no other examples of major mail order dealers who have deleted the 28 summicron listing.

2. the main leica website (germany), on its wide angle page, spotlights the "new" 28 asph summi, explaining in detail all of the design achievements. it does not sound like a lens a that has been discontinued.

3. why did acoustic sounds pull that crazy stunt with better records over the ccr package deal?? isn't that an obvious case of price fixing??

-- roger michel (michel@tcn.org), April 26, 2002.

Roger,

I know you didn't mean to, but you cracked me up with that last answer. Been hanging out at my Forum, eh? Well, in business, you can't undercut your own distributor, and Acoustic Sounds is in a funny position, being both the "Record Company" and the "Distributor" at the same time. In either case, it was only a couple of bucks. Are you a fan of Creedence?

Getting back on topic, I think that most Leica mail order distributors have a goodly supply of the 28mm on hand, whereas Delta always has just a few of anything. And of course the Leica site is a bit, er, slow sometimes!

-- Steve Hoffman (shoffman2@socal.rr.com), April 26, 2002.

Leica makes their items in batches. When the batch runs out and the backorders start piling up, they run another batch. Lenses being out of stock at Solms is very common. Once they were out of 35/2Aphs and dealers were scrambling to find them anywhere they could.

-- John Collier (jbcollier@shaw.ca), April 27, 2002.

Unni, are you yanking my chain. If not, where did you get your information about a 28/1.4? How in the world would that work, what with the size of the front element that would be necessary.

-- Marc Williams (mwilliams111313MI@comcast.net), April 27, 2002.

steve -- i was joshing of course. but actually i do think it was a sherman act violation. needless to say, distributors/mfrs. get away with this all the time since retailers can't be suing at every turn. it's costly and none to good for distributor relaions generally. altho it's a debatable point, i'm not sure that MAP rules are legal. this clearly went beyond that, however, to real restraint of trade. now, back on topic, nils assures me that the 28 f2 is still a production item. and MARC, why would a 20mm front element be so outrageous??

-- roger michel (michel@tcn.org), April 27, 2002.