Re: [Leica] German made or Canadian made?

[TTAbrahams@aol.com]

 The Ernst Leitz Canada facility was built in 1953 and part of the reasoning 
was to have a modern facility designed to cater to the North-American market. 
It was a scant 8 years after the end of World War II and also the beginning 
of the Cold War. From a point of view of producing photographic equipment for 
the burgeoning US market it made sense and the possibility of tapping in to 
the lucrative military market in US probably played a part. Over the years I 
have heard several reasons why the Canadian site was chosen over a US site. 
One was the requirement for moving highly skilled German technicians to the 
new plant and the US government showed remarkable resistance in allowing the 
"former enemy" to settle in USA. Be as it may be, we could have had a truly 
Made In USA Leica if this had not happened (ELUSA instead of ELCAN!).  The 
choice of Midland was made because of its proximity to Toronto and its 
location on a fairly stable part of the Canadian Shield, an area not too 
prone to earthquakes. This makes sense if you do very sensitive Optical Bench 
testing. The other reason was evidently a fairly selfish one, the Leica 
importer in Canada at the time was Carveth Inc. and Mr. Carveth had a fishing 
cottage at the lake in Midland and having the facility there would allow him 
ample opportunity to go to Midland for high level consultations and fishing, 
and the whole thing would have been a tax-deductible expense. It appears that 
Mr. Carveth lobbied the factory in Germany for the establishment of an 
optical plant in North America early on and he could very well have helped in 
acquiring the site too. This information is very much hearsay and should be 
taken as such. However I doubt that the Canadian Military was involved in the 
project, but I am sure that the US Navy and Air Force was pushing for it.
 The production of cameras and optics started almost instantly. Today you can 
find 3F's and 3G's with Ernst Leitz Midland, Canada engraving (if you are 
willing to pay the high prices they demand) and very early on the production 
of the M-camera was split between Germany and Canada. In most cases there 
were no engravings that differentiated the cameras, only in the serial number 
listing would it appear as an ELC suffix.
 Midland's greatest achievement was its optical design team. The lenses 
produced and designed are among the best optics built. Dr Mandler, who still 
lives in Midland, created optics like the 50/1 Noctilux, the 75/1,4 Summilux, 
the 35/1,4 (early version - and in 1959 this was a remarkable lens), 21/2,8, 
the 90/2 early version and the subsequent ones, all the way up to the current 
90/2 APO-Asph. For a long time the only M-lens made in Wetzlar was the 50/1,4 
(the 21/3,4 was a Schneider design). If this is not remarkable enough add, 
the 180/3,4 Apo, the 100/2,8 Apo-Macro for the R-system and a large body of 
custom lenses for the US Military, lenses like the f1/90, the 28'/f4, the 
strange 12" set up with four matched lenses, covering a 10"x10" plate (each 
lens covering a 5"x5" part of the neg., one lens is an APO-lens, one is 
UV-sensitive, one has a resaue plate in it for doing measurements from the 
neg. and the fourth one is a reference lens. There is also a strange ELCAN 
lens, 12 or 15' focal length with one lens element deep red for Infrared 
photography as well as all of the strange stuff made for the military 
M-cameras, 66mm/f2, 75/2,4 APO, 50/2 ELCAN etc. 
 A lot of the optics we are using on our Leicas has originated in that little 
town, a couple of hours from Toronto. In a lot of cases, the "Made in 
Germany" labels were stuck on lens assemblies shipped from Midland. 
 It should also be noted that the M-camera of today, owes most of its 
existence to Midland. The President of Leica Canada, Walther Gluck saw an 
opportunity and managed to convince Wetzlar that the failing M5 should be 
replaced with a remade M4 and got the M4-2 on the road. We should probably 
give thanks to his foresight and, although the M6 TTL is not loved by us all, 
it could have been worse, it could have been a M5 TTL!
 It is my understanding that Leica Solms has severed the connections with the 
Midlands facility, the last pieces that came out of there were the optical 
system for the first 90/2 APO-Asph and some of the elements for the Noctilux. 
Unfortunately I suspect there is very little interest at Midland to provide 
us with any information regarding what they did. Any time I have tried to ask 
they just say "its classified" - great way of not having to answer questions.
 Leica Midland is also well known for its manufacturing of high quality 
binoculars, sold under the name ELCAN.
 As for which is better, Canadian or German, I never seen much of a 
difference. My biggest problem was 4-5 years ago, when some of the more 
common lenses were assembled in Germany and I found the focussing mounts very 
stiff compared to the Canadian made ones. 
 It would be very interesting to find out more about the Midland Years, there 
are probably reams of information available, but at the moment they are not 
allowing any of it to be published. Pity!
Tom A

Tom Abrahamsson
Vancouver, BC
CANADA
www.rapidwinder.com