Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/06/28
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 02:04 PM 6/28/98 +0900, Tom Kumagai wrote: >I would like to know what is the word "Anastigmat" from "Leitz Anastigmat." I read some book about cameras, >and learned that Anastigmat is a trademark by Zeiss. I thought that it is an another name of Tesser, >but some say, Trioter, the first version Plannar, or any other "high performance" Zeiss Lenes are Anastigmats. The Tessar design was first called the "Anastigmat" from Rudolph's design of this epic formula in 1902 until Zeiss was found to have lost the trademark in litigation in the early 'teens, though the name continued to be a Zeiss trademark in Germany. Hence, Leitz was forced to use this name when they used a Tessar design for the original Leica camera. Once the Zeiss patent expired, in 1922, Leitz then retitled the lens the "ELMAX" for "Ernst Leitz Max berek" and, later, the "ELMAR". The Anastigmat is the Tessar. All of those B&L Anastigmats used by Kodak were Tessars made under license by B&L, Zeiss's American agency to World War I. Marc msmall@roanoke.infi.net FAX: +540/343-7315 Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!