Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/07/30

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Subject: [Leica] Re: Lens Design and History
From: "Jim Bielecki" <bieleckj@freeway.net>
Date: Fri, 30 Jul 1999 21:01:50 -0400

> What Voigtlander did to Petzval or what Nikon and Canon did to Zeiss and
> Zeiss Ikon and Leitz was not a case of improving on an existing product.
> It was a straight theft.  No improvement.  No further research.  Just a
> direct copy.

I'm hardly an expert on this subject but an old Canon brochure I have from
the 1957 states, regarding their 50mm F1.5 lens, "A super speed standard
lens originating from the so-called "Sonnar" type and embodying original
ideas of Canon's lens designers."

It doesn't mention if they improved on the "tessar" derived 50mm F3.5 lens
they also made during this time period.

Jim Bielecki