Re: Summicron 35mm

[Eric Welch <ewelch@gp.magick.net>]

** Reply to note from tys@masadm1.mas.eurocontrol.be 11/01/95 10:16am GMT  
> Looking at Leica's zooms the relationship between price-quality is sure not a 
> correct one. ( Just to say it in a polite way )

Just curious, how much have you used their latest 35-70, 70-210 and 28-70 zooms? I  
too agree they cost too much, but they are pretty good lenses. At least all the  
reviews I've seen say they're good.

>In Holland the inspection was done -to my full satisfaction- by an official
>Leica dealer for about 700 US dollar.

By U.S. Standards, you were robbed. I used to have my R4s repaired, and it never  
cost more tha $125 U.S. Of course, I never needed the electronics replaced. And  
when you compare Leica's quality control to other manufacturers, there's only one  
that comes close. Zeiss. And they're lenses are often as expensive or more so for  
comparable lenses. The 15mm Contax is more than the Leica. The 200 2.0 Zeiss is  
three times as much as the Leica 180 F/2 Apo. Of course there are U.S. prices. 

I remember when I lived in Canada (where I bought my first Leicas) that Canadian  
lenses were more expensive than german lenses. It has to do with how much they  
think they can sell them for in a particular country. Also, at that time, many of  
the Canadian designs were more modern than the German ones. But nowadays,  
everything ends up going through QC in Germany before release for sale. They has  
some slip-ups at Solms when they first started up the plant, but things seem to  
have smoothed over.

Talking to people from Germany on Compuserve who have friends that work at Leica,  
and tour the plant, I think I've heard some pretty accurate information on how  
Leica operates. There is no manufacturer that makes lenses like they do. Especially  
their latest lenses.

For example, a friend of mine was at a lecture at the LHSA convention in  
Louisville, KY last month, and the person talking showed the MTF curves for the new  
280 f/4 Apo telyt. They showed the lens was about as close to diffration limited as  
a lens of its kind can get. And it only costs about $4250 here in the U.S. Pretty  
expensive for the competitior to Nikon and Canon's 300 f/4 which runs under $1,000.  
But the difference is that as you improve a lens' performance, the better it gets,  
the more the difference in the cost has to be. The law of diminishing returns. To  
squeeze out that last bit of performance, you have to pay through the nose.



Regards,

Eric Welch
Grants Pass, OR