06-03-2014, 12:51 AM
It depends how you calculate margins. Gotta think that R&D and marketing likely cost more than actual cost of manufacture. So the margins on production cost are likely very high - so a marketing program can probably tell them that it makes sense from time to time to offer a deal like this.
What I'm told by someone who used to work for Canon is that while it costs more to make a fabulous L lens than a consumer lens, it doesn't cost that much more (10 - 20% at most - worthwhile savings for the company) but the high cost is just the result of a calculation that selling an L lens for a third of what they charge, even though it would still make a profit on production and marketing (and maybe even design) if they sold enough, wouldn't increase the sales enough to make it a better idea than charging three times as much and selling a bit less.
What I'm told by someone who used to work for Canon is that while it costs more to make a fabulous L lens than a consumer lens, it doesn't cost that much more (10 - 20% at most - worthwhile savings for the company) but the high cost is just the result of a calculation that selling an L lens for a third of what they charge, even though it would still make a profit on production and marketing (and maybe even design) if they sold enough, wouldn't increase the sales enough to make it a better idea than charging three times as much and selling a bit less.