Re: [Leica] Voigtlander Prominent

["Timothy A. Swan" <timswan@blazenetme.net>]

Marc, 

Fact is, those Cosina-made Voigtlander lenses outperform their Zeiss-made
namesakes (and most Leica lenses until 5-10 years ago) in every way except,
perhaps, construction. Just as modern Leica lenses outperform their
namesakes from 40 years before. We can argue about "glow", or bokeh or a
bunch of other subjective lens measurements, but for objective things like
sharpness, contrast, and color the Cosina lenses are extremely fine tools.

Tim
- -- 

> From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us (Leica Users digest)
> Reply-To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> Date: Wed, 8 Mar 2000 11:50:44 -0800 (PST)
> To: leica-users-digest@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> Subject: Leica Users digest V16 #21
> 
> Date: Wed, 08 Mar 2000 13:25:04 -0500
> From: Marc James Small <msmall@roanoke.infi.net>
> Subject: Re: [Leica] Voigtlander Prominent
> 
> At 09:52 AM 3/8/2000 -0600, Michael Bell wrote:
>> Can anyone tell me anything about this camera?  How old is it? How
>> does it compare to a Leica.  Judging by recent discussions (that I've
>> not really followed closely) the lens at least seems to be reasonably
>> well regarded.
> 
> First, the recent discussions have been about Cosina-made "Voigtlander"
> lenses which have nothing in common with the fine lenses for the Prominent
> save for the names.
> 
> The Prominent was a Postwar camera system made by Voigtlander to rival the
> Leica, Contax, and Ektra systems as professional and advanced-amateur gear.
> It is a rather clunky camera body with some sterling lenses, though the
> selection is quite limited.  Production was in the middle 1950's.
> 
> The 1.5/50 Nokton was especially fine and quite highly regarded.  Zeiss
> considered making this the standard lens on the "Contax IV" which was only
> to be made in prototype form.
> 
> Marc
> 
> msmall@roanoke.infi.net  FAX:  +540/343-7315
> Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!
> 
> ------------------------------