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Message: <blockquote data-quote="tittletattler" data-source="post: 1268001" data-attributes="member: 63151">Leica focus wheels:  I loved both of them!  Felt smooth and easy to use, especially the fine focus wheel.Price:  My mates were both shocked at the price of the scopes but then seconds later they saw no irony in the fact that they went on to discuss their £3000 'budget' trip to Cameroon......I do appreciate Graham's comments: "just compare the complex stuff which goes into a camera for that price and then look at a scope -- a few bits of glass in a tube however it is dressed up is not that difficult to make surely". I suppose that it's likely that Leica & Kowa & Nikon etc will sell more cameras  than they will scopes.  So, let's assume, wildly, that Leica spend £2,000,000 on producing a camera and then spend £1,000,000 on producing a telescope.  Camera lenses will sell to people other than birders and I'm going to assume a ratio of 8:1.So, lets assume that 8000 cameras sell for every 1000 telescopes.  The cost of development then has to be recovered from each unit sold. So:£2m / budgeted sales 8000 = £250 for the camera£1m/ budgeted sales 1000 = £1,000 for the telescopeAssume all other costs are equal and work out to be £250 per unit.  Add 30% for retail mark up:So, the camera will sell for £650The Telescope will sell for £1625Of course, if they sell more than 1000 telescopes, then the price may come down as the full cost had already been absorbed into the first 1000 units.....I would think that the same principle would apply to camera lenses:  Canon 500mm for less than £4k anyone?</blockquote>

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