I just took two online surveys. It's interesting to try to divine what the companies are searching for. Adobe and Leica...

 Having worked with surveys fairly frequently when I was at advertising agencies it's always very interesting to me to actually be part of a survey. You know from the outset that the company doing the survey is looking for direction or validation from their targeted customers. This morning it was both Leica and Adobe reaching out. And in both contacts it was explained that they identified me as a registered customer of their products.

I could see in short order what the idea behind Leica's survey was. There were no in depth questions about cameras; only about lenses. And what they seemed to be trying to understand was why people choose the lenses they do and how much size, prize, weight, optical quality and innovative features make a difference. But what they were really trying to get at --- in my opinion --- was: are we still in a consumer environment in which there is a good market for lenses that: Are of the highest optical quality possible, regardless of any other parameter. Or, Do actual Leica buyers and users want a different combination of features including smaller, lighter and less expensive version of lenses that already exist across focal length ranges? Another question popped up in which Leica asked if made in Japan versus made in Germany made a difference to buyers. They had a graphic showing two identically spec'd lenses but one labeled "made in Japan" and the  other labeled "made in Germany". They also showed the presumptive prices. The German-made version at around $6000 and the Japanese version at around $3200.

What I'm seeing, reading between the lines, is a decision making process about having more and more Leica lenses made outside of Germany versus a deterioration of the brand as a result. I expect we'll see a lot more "design collaborations" between Leica, Panasonic and Sigma. And some jockeying on pricing and imputed benefits selective to the brand. 

I'm predicting, based on the long survey, that we'll see two lines of SL lenses in the near future. One line will be the bigger, heavier and more premium products which will most likely carry the label "APO" and a smaller, lighter and less costly version of each focal length labeled, "APSH." 

Adobe's survey was more rambling but it was mostly focused on the Lightroom series of apps. I use the LRC or Lightroom Classic almost exclusively and I'm never really interested in the mobile variants at all. The idea of color correcting and retouching, or cataloging images on my phone seem silly and a waste of time to me. 

But at the core, after qualifying the responder, the real impetus of the study seemed to be about finding out two things. Firstly, what the market wants in terms of features that are made possible with A.I. and M.L. Do we want to use text to use features? For example, do we want to be able to type, "Make Sky Darker" and then have the program respond and complete the functions required? And, do we want the program, like a super sophisticated "Spell Check" to anticipate or recommend creative decisions to us in order to improve our images. As in, "Hey buddy, look what I've done here with Naomi's face to make her look "better." "Cool, yeah?" Well, maybe not. But Adobe seems to be trying to find out where people's comfort zones with new tech are and where it's felt they might be stepping over a line.

The second thing they want to find out is exactly where all this created content ends up. Which social media outlets mostly. No questions whatsoever about printing or sharing in print but plenty of questions about how we share our images electronically. And whether we want them to make it easier and easier to go directly from Lightroom to our favorite social media outlet. I think it's all easy enough right now but apparently some folks want to just say outlaid, "Hey Lightroom, toss this image over onto my account at Pinterest!" and then go back to watching TV.

My one piece of advice for Adobe would just be to make image cataloging and storage easier. And my one piece of advice to Leica was to get moving on making me a smaller, slower short standard Leica branded zoom lens. Something like a 35-85mm f4.0 Vario lens. Just wide enough to shoot casually in the street and just long enough to make a flattering portrait. Why f4.0? Well, to make it smaller, lighter, cheaper and equally good optically. Where the rubber meets the road. 

Will they listen? Who knows? Everyone wants everything these days. The on suggestion Leica did ask for was whether or not to build a 35mm f0.95 M lens. That stopped me short. Were they actually considering tooling up and making such a weird optic? Or are they now at the point where they might be reconsidering re-branding a popular Chinese product? That would not be good for the ole snob appeal. 

But kudos to both companies for actually reaching out to discover what actual customers are thinking about. The info might build a better model for further inflaming desire.