It seems Willoughbys who posted they had the new Leica APO Summicron in stock yesterday were not being truthful. They do NOT have the lens in stock. I did see Kurland listed two in stock and supposedly Amazon is getting them in the next week. But Willoughby’s DO NOT have this lens in stock as they said. I spoke with Ken Hansen and he does not have any as of yet so it seems Willoughby’s was using slimy tactics by showing an IN STOCK status when they were NOT in stock.
The new Leica 50 Summicron 50 APO is IN STOCK NOW at Amazon and sold by Willoughby’s who have a 4.9 star rating (which is SUPERB). They have 19 lenses IN STOCK at the time if this posting. MAN OH MAN if I only had the cash. I have seen many unpublished images form this lens and they were beautiful. A mix of the classic cron and 50 ASPH with a little but “extra”. If i had the cash I would buy one but sadly I do not so maybe some of you out there have been waiting…get it at the link below:
Don’t bother with this place. Lived in Manhattan 15 years and have gone in this store. Not worth it. Go with Steve’s recommendations and/or my fav Photo Village. GREAT shop in Manhattan with tons of used Leica gear too.
ACTUAL FACTS: I ordered one last night on Amazon. This morning I canceled the order if the product was not in stock. I got a nice email from a VP at Willoughby’s saying the stock level was erroneously posted at Amazon and they apologized, put me on a list for the lens, and offered me a small discount on any Leica product. I’d say this was good faith.
wow a discount off of pumped up pricing!! switch and bait with class! sweet!!!
I just called Willoughby’s and they definitely do not have this lens in stock.
Right…they had Leica M9s when they was first released as well. Listed as in stock, I bought one, they never had it, took me over a month to get a refund. B&H doesn’t have this lens yet but they have 19?? Not a chance.
READ THIS!!! <<<-
Willoughby's is not a reputable camera store. Search on the net for reviews on this store. Check reseller ratings. Can't believe this blog post is even up here….
http://www.resellerratings.com/store/Willoughby_s
Steve, I'd go ahead and just delete this blog post or put an update here. Do the research and don't steer folks to this scam shop.
The MM is the only camera that can resolve enough resolution to benefit.
The M at 24MP but Bayer probably won’t benefit nearly as much as the MM.
I was in their store several times and am seriosly wondering where they got the good rating from.
I was wondering too. Willoughby’s has always been at the forefront of inflated prices at Amazon. Every Leica item in the past from Willoughby’s on Amazon was much more expensive than the regular price. I had not seen that with any other official Leica dealer. Wouldn’t surprise me if this just leads to a preorder, especially now that the price seems to be on target. 19 lenses also seems to be a high number for one store, but what do I know. I had good experiences in the past with Kurlandphoto. The only thing I don’t like is that everybody is giving an instant discount on the M9s but Kurlandphoto seems to hand out gift cards only. DIrk
I had the same experience with Amazon/Willoughby’s a month ago. They advertised the Monochrom as “In Stock”: completely untrue. They were fishing for pre-orders. The store needs to clean up its act.
what a dirty dirty trick!!!
They need to start making some Monochrom cameras….
They don’t have any in stock, they are just taking pre-orders. Here is the fine print: “Important Notice! This is a new item, We are accepting orders and they will be filled in the order they are received. An authorization for this product will be processed upon placing the order. Your order will only be charged at time of shipment.”
If you read it says “IN STOCK” and orders will be filled in the order they come in. So if you are the 1st to get the order in you will ship. Kurland has two in stock and I have heard Amazon is getting a bunch next week but they had lots of pre-orders. The M-E hits next week as well. Popflash will have some Tuesday. I think all of these items are hitting dealers for the most part Mon-Tues
But the best thing to do would be to call them tomorrow and ask when they open up. My guess is they are getting them Mon-Tues and plan to ship then. Also good to check with Ken Hansen, PopFlash, Dale, etc.
Personally I never liked the 50 cron. I found the bokeh too harsh. Lenses are very much about personal taste and the cron was not my thing. The form factor I liked a lot but I am happier now with the Lux. Ideally people should try them before they buy but with today’s shortages in supply people can only buy them based on other people’s impressions and recommendations. This new lens may render differently from the old Cron but at 7k it is in a ridiculous price range. The problem is that no matter how ridiculous, or maybe because it is so ridiculous, they will sell them like hot cakes. D!RK
Seems unrealistic. Who else will load up any other Leica M lens in a quantity of 19 at once?!
what they say is true! whoever order this lens jave more money than brains! shame on them? no, shame on YOU!!
It is pretty funny how you are just doing business… I really did enjoy your opinions on the new M10 (ok, Leica M) while you didn´t even touch it 🙂 amazing!
In fairness to Steve, if he didn’t plug some sponsors and try to get some clicks on links (all of which are of course photo relevant gear too mind you that people here often are on the lookout for) how would he cover the expense of this website ?
Time aside, a popular website takes up a lot of bandwidth and that doesn’t come for free. There are pay for view sites on the web that are free of ad links and sponsors but then so many people spew venom about how there is no way they are paying money to read someones opinion.
Can’t have it both ways and until someone wants to step forward and pull out the checkbook to cover the operating expenses of the site, I think some ad links can’t be avoided.
All in all its still a pretty good deal for the average viewer. You can come here, read reviews, post to message boards etc, all for free and with no obligation to buy anything and for those who are looking for some of the in demand items, its really a win/win as they get a heads up on hard to find items and Steve gets some revenue.
I know that I bought my EM-5 because I noticed a message here that B&H had them in stock. B&H didn’t notify me, I didn’t spend all day checking store websites for stock, I just happened to come to this page and saw the stock alert and then clicked right over to B&H and placed the order for the camera I’d been waiting 2 months on.
Like I said, pretty win/win in my book
That’s crazy! One retailer would get 19 of these! Seems like a mistake…