Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1993/01/28
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Zeiss-Opton lenses were made in Oberkochen West Germany shortly after WWII. I don't know why they call it "Opton" but it serves the purpose of distinguishing them from East German Zeiss lenses still made in Jena. Some of the Opton lenses (notably the 50mm f1.5 Sonnar) were recomputed to give better performance, wheras the East German lenses were just coated versions of the same pre-war designs. A while later (around the time international law forced East Germany to abadon the Zeiss name), the word "Opton" was dropped from the names of the West German lenses.