http://biz.yahoo.com/djus/040206/1343000667_1.html


Leica To Develop Digital "M" Camera - Source

Friday February 6, 1:43 pm ET

FRANKFURT (Dow Jones)--Germany's Leica Camera AG will begin development of a digital camera for the company's key "M" series lenses, a person close to the company said Friday.

The company will use proceeds from the sale of EUR15 million in convertible bonds to finance the project, the person, who declined to be identified, said.

The "M" rangefinder camera is one of Leica's flagship cameras, and its introduction in the 1950s helped make Leica a household name in both professional and amateur-enthusiast photography.

Leica has said in the past that "M" lenses weren't suited for digital sensors, as the lenses - originally designed for film - cause image distortions on the border of a digital sensor. A new type of "microlens" digital sensor will solve this problem, the person close to Leica said.

A digital "M" is sorely needed by Leica, which announced earlier Friday that it would have to cut capacity in order to cope with difficult business conditions.

The announcement came together with its third-quarter earnings. Net profit increased to EUR2.9 million from EUR564,000 the previous year, while revenue declined to EUR30.6 million from EUR37.4 million against the previous year.

Personnel costs will be reduced by 20%, and the company will take a one-time charge of EUR4 million for the fiscal year ending March 2004.

"Definitely, layoffs will happen," said Gero Furchheim, head of corporate communications at Leica.

The charge also means the company likely won't break even by the end of the fiscal year, as it had previously hoped.

Leica had said previously that layoffs were something it would do only if absolutely necessary. Its products and the people who make them are highly specialized, and difficult to replace quickly.

"Those specialists which we need for the innovation (strategy) we will keep, that is clear," Furchheim added.

Besides the plans for a digital "M" camera, Leica plans to release a compact fixed-lens digital camera in mid-February, and a digital sensor back for its "R" series of single-lens-reflex cameras in the fourth quarter of 2004.

-By Oliver Biggadike, Dow Jones Newswires; +49 69 29725 500; oliver.biggadike@dowjones.com

이 기사를 읽어도, 왠지 Digital M에 대해서 회의적인 시각으로 바라보게 되는건 무엇 때문인지 모르겠군요..

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