[Leica] When Japan took over, was: Design Thievery

[Lucien <lucien@ubi.edu>]

Marc,

Did you read this ?

Lucien


When Japan took over 
by Peter Hennig

<http://www.photodo.com/templates/display.lasso?show=495>

snip
> The Zeiss lens in the test had been
> manufactured just after the war, when production had been speeded
> up by the occupying Soviet administration, and was not up to their
> usual standards. New tests were done with a new lens manufactured
> the same year as the Nikkor lens and the Zeiss came out better, but by
> a very small margin. However, Nikon had to all intents and
> purposes won the fight. The peculiar situation arose that by winning
> in the test the German lens industry lost its position. It was now
> obvious that you could take pictures with a Nikkor lens that were as
> good as the pictures you got using the lens considered to be the 
> fines in the world, and for a much lower price. 

snip
> You can of course argue that the Japanese came when
> all the hard work had already been done, and critics have spoken of
> the legalised theft of technology. 
> It is clear that only one of the key patents held by the German 
> optical industry could have prevented all
> the Japanese expansion: under normal circumstances, the technique
> of multi-coating a lens would have remained protected for Zeiss
> until the mid-1960s.
> The image of the Japanese camera industry as a gang of soulless
> plagiarists lived on for a long time, even though it was mostly
> unfounded. In a difficult situation where the survival of the
> company was at stake, they had to start as best they could. 
snip