Contax is NOT Dead

Here is a statement I received today from Kyocera's PR office:.

*******************
Dear Sir,

No the info on the web is not correct. If you go to www.kyoceraimaging.com
on the home page there is a press release dated February 20th describing
what should have be stated on the web. The info quoted on the web is
incorrect and we are working to have the correct info posted.

Thank you,

Nick Cheremsak

*******************
The release announces the appointment of ToCad as the exclusive distributor
of Contax and indicates that Kyocera is committed to focusing on Contax as
their primary digital imaging line.

Sometimes it pays to go to the horses mouth.

Walt Hanks

 

That is good news. I'd hate to see a quality brand go down the tubes...

George

 

That is good news. I'd hate to see a quality brand go down the tubes...

True, but they should do a lot of innovation in order to keep up with
the competition (there are a lot of competitors...).

VirtualV

 

It's just a name, there hasn't been a Contax for years.

 

The originating website owner can be sued for this.
-Rich

 

You can sue anybody for anything, but to prevail Kyocera would have to show
that the web site owner knew or should have known that his statements were
false. Given that his information was received directly from sources at
Kyocera that would be very hard to prove. I suspect that there is some
confusion and speculation going on within the company and it is getting out
to various people in garbled form. Kyocera would have no justification for
suing people when they can't control what their own personnel are saying.

Then, too, any target of a lawsuit would have to be worth going after. A web
site owner does not necessarily have deep enough pockets to make a lawsuit
worthwhile.

Finally, few camera companies would like a reputation for suing reviewers.
Reviews of their cameras would dry up very fast.

 

That is gratifying to hear, BUT . . .

Doesn't it seem strange that they would shut down their production lines,
rather than sell the entire operation and keep production running?

I'm glad that they have a distributor, but who the hell is going to
MANUFACTURE the stuff?

Am I missing something?

 

If, in fact, they are. The dis-information may well be coming from the USA
distributor, who very likely has a warehouse full of unsold product that
they would like to sell at top dollar. Given the choice of believing the
USA distributor's web or Phil's DPreview web, I find that the latter is the
disinterested, and consequently, presumed honest source of accurate
information. While I would certainly like to see Contax and Yashica
continue, I fear that may not be the case.

 

I hate to agree with anything sounding like even a MINI conspiracy, but I
have to agree with this post.

Until and unless I see some indication that someone is actually making more
Contax cameras, I will consider it a dead company.

 

I think it is highly possible that the message you received came from someone interested
primarily in unloading store rooms full of Contax products...

 

Think what you want. I never cease to be amazed at the ability of Usenet to
create controversy where none exists and find conspiracy in every corner.
Mr. Cheremsak is Kyocera's PR officer, not ToCad's.

Try going to Kyocera's site and finding any announcement of the sort that
was posted by dpreview. You won't find it. Doesn't THAT strike you as odd?

Walt

 

What "conspiracy"??
I'm no consiracy theorist. I'm just aware that one e-mail...from one guy...tht
contradicts a number of articles from legitimate sources is often shown to be just
that--just one e-mail from one guy who is full of crap.

I don't know that this is the case in this instance, but it's certainly a possiblity.

Leaks happen all the time.
Why does that strike YOU as odd?
Again... I don't know which is correct, but both are quite possible.

 

C J Campbell wrote:

It may seem odd to some but I'm aware of one person that sometimes
couldn't care less about any monetary award provided by a favourable
court ruling. Sometimes he sues simply because someone else desperately
deserved to be buried in paperwork for the next ten years - eating beans
six nights out of seven because the attorney fees won't afford better.
If one can't afford to be sued, maybe one should learn to keep their
hands to themself.

 

Thats what he claims anyways.

Wrong. If you distribute information you receive from non-oficial channels
within the company the comapny can perfectly well sue you and win. The sole
exception is if they ordered the information to be distributed themselves.

He might still have house and car and hamster and ...

Reviewers that do significant PR damage are probably not worth having.

 

Are you sure they really did?

That there is a lot of confusion and lack of clear, reliable
information?

 

Whats in a brand name?

I mean - a company does not make better cameras by using an old
brand name they have bought.


/Roland

 

Or it could simply be that they want to keep the matter quiet until the
existing stock of Contax cameras is sold, since they realize that few people
are interested in buying into soon-to-be discontinued products at premium
prices. It's not paranoia, either: If someone told me that a particular GM
car sucked, the last thing I'd think of doing is calling up GM and asking if
the rumor was true.

Sometimes it's not the horse's *mouth* you end up talking to.

 

How do you think this can be accomplished today?

In the USA they have changed distributors. The new distributor, Tocad,
had a table full of new product PR at the PMA Sneak Peak last month and
a booth full of product and a new sales force. That means they plan on
selling something.

The old distributor no longer has a photo sales force or sales
management for photo. What can they sell?

If a product is introduced anywhere in the world today it is on the
internet before it is even introduced to the company's local sales
force. It is almost impossible to keep new product quiet once it has
been introduced anywhere. And no company wants to sit with no sales
waiting for old product to disappear. They can always make loads of
merchandise move by just offering it on QVC or HSC.

 

I'd say Kyocero has kept up the brand name quite well. The lens line hasn't
suffered and they
have addressed film flatness better than any other manufacturer. I'm not
lamenting that 1940s
German rangefinders named "Contax" aren't being made...I just want to see as
many quality
minded companies hang around as it is good whether you own that particular
brand or not.

 

Next time read the entire thread.

1) No one was talking about the introduction of *new* product.

2) The company whose word was in question was not Tocad, but rather Kyocera

3) You missed my point entirely, which was that no one should automatically
trust the word of a company which has a vested interest in some product in
question. My post OBVIOUSLY had nothing to do with whether the Kyocera
rumor of severing ties with Contax was true or not.

4) If you go to
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7859674 , you
will see in a story dated 3/10/05 that Kyocera is indeed ceasing production
of digital cameras, Contax-, Kyocera-branded, or otherwise.

5) The information you provided may be gospel or it may be utter drivel and
no one has any way of knowing which.