Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1996/06/17
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]The editor of RFinder magazine, Joel Tlumak, first acquainted me with this situation by sharing with me a Japanese test of respective types of Summicrons. To put it bluntly, the current production Summicron is no mean performer and is worthy of the Leica moniker -- but the rigid chrome and NF designs are generally regarded by users as yielding more satisfactory results, and this Japanese test quantifies this. I do have a copy of this report. I'll see if I can dig it and post it to the List. The long and the short of lens design since World War II in the US, Europe, and Asia has been a dynamic concentration NOT on improving quality so much as reducing production costs. Many of the lenses from the 1930's hold up quite well to modern designs and some -- the 1.5/50 and 2/85 CZJ Sonnar designs and the various Voigtlander Heliar models -- are quite competitive today. But these lenses were extremely expensive to build, as they required a lot of hand labour to grind, polish, and assemble those six and seven elements. As labour costs boomed in all countries from the 1950's onwards, manufacturers became quite conscious of the need to reduce production costs. Therefore, there has been a concerted effort -- pioneed, for once, by Leitz and not Zeiss -- to use computers to reduce lens production costs while maintaining acceptable quality. Thus, the eight-element 2/35 Summicron gives way to six elements, and so forth. It's NOT intended to reduce quality but, sometimes, that's what happens. There's been a discussion related to this on the Rollei List dealing with the changeover by most manufacturers from engraved to painted serial numbers and data on the lens ring. I have no current Leica lenses on hand to check, but my APO-Televid DOES have engraved numbers. As time goes on, engraving is dying out -- costs too bloody much in today's marketplace. I'll stick to my NF lens! Marc msmall@roanoke.infi.net FAX: +540/343-7315 Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!