Re: Evidence of a Contax/Leica partnership?

[Kari Eloranta <kve@dopey.hut.fi>]

If I understand it correctly the Contax way of doing autofocus is
suboptimal. Meaning that one achieves better optical performance
if in focusing the relative positions of the elements in the lens
are changed instead of just changing the distance of the whole lens
from the film plane. Leica is all for the ultimate optical performance,
in R anyway. Why would they go for the Contax solution?

Their official line is that you cannot build AF lens to their level
of mechanical precision. The motors needed to overcome the friction
from the tight tolerances would need too much power. But to me it
seems like this should be eventually possible whereas you can never
overcome the fundamental shortcoming in the Contax solution.

Any comments from optical experts?


Kari Eloranta