Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/12/20
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 05:12 PM 12/20/97 -0800, you wrote: >If Canon has a patent _now_, I would think that they had a patent then. >You're flipping cause and effect. They are the only company that does it for a reason. And it has nothing to do with patents. It's too difficult for others to do. They don't have the ability to grow the crystals big enough, and flourite crystals big enough to grind into lens elements don't occur very often in nature. And they are brittle, and they are more effected by temperature than optical glass. Those are all the reasons. It's not worth the hassle to other companies. Patents have nothing to do with it. These things I know for a fact. It's in Canon's literature. All you have to do is a bit of reading from the old days (late 70s early 80s when I was a faithful Canon user). ========== Eric Welch St. Joseph, MO http://www.ponyexpress.net/~ewelch Police tagline. Do not cross.