Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1996/05/27
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You wrote:
>The Question:
>
>I've been told this is so, because even though the mechanism is made
in
>Japan, the actual optical elements are either a) made in Germany by
Leica,
>or b) made in Nippon out of glass blanks sent from Leica's glass works
and
>to Leica's specs; rather than simply being made by Minolta. Others say
this
>is hogwash. That it is an all Minolta design/manufacture effort; and
that I
>am simply being prejudicial against Japanese technology.
>
>Can anyone shed a ray of truth on this?
>
>-----------
>David Young: youngs@IslandNet.com
>
>
Some of the leitz lenses are made by Minolta. If you go to Solms
they have a room full of lenses in Minolta boxes with a sticker fo
Leica. Take for example the 24 f2.8R, it is made by Minolta, but the
shutter mechanism is replaced. Leica does so much work on this
particular lens that by International law it can be stamped made in
Germany. The glass is Minolta in manufacture. I own a number of
Minolta Manual focus lenses, 16 f2.8, 21 f2.8 and the 50 f1.2, and I
also own the Leica 21 R lens. The first time I used the Minolta
lenses, IMHO the photographs looked like what I get using a Leica lens.
And, of course I can only speak about the manual lenses that I have
used and I have absolutely no experience with the autofocus lens.
John N3BVH