Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/06/28
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Chris Lee jotted down the following:
> I went to a local Leica dealer today where I was looking at many of their
> lenses. I noticed almost all of the lenses, which were supposed to be brand
> new, showed some very tiny "impurities" in the glass. These looked like very
> fine particles suspended inside the glass elements. Although they were only
> visible at certain angles in very strong lighting, I couldn't help but
> wonder what they were. Can someone tell me if these lenses are defective? Or
> these things are supposed to exist in every lens, good or bad?
>
Yep, you've stumbled upon a little known secret outside Leicadom: their
lenses are full of crap and impurities. Actually, the more full of rubbish
they are, the higher the price they command. Their lenses are not actually
ever meant to be placed on a camera and used for photography, and since the
impurities only show up when light travels through the lens, it has no
effect on their real, intended use: to be placed in a hermetically sealed,
climate-controlled, glass collectors case.
So why do we all pay premium prices for Leica glass? Camera snobbism, of
course! A Leica lens dropped 4000ft onto a rock and filled with bubbled,
muck, grease, cracks, and a still focussing ring ('mint-' on eBay) is still
worth more than an factory-new, absolutely unblemished equivallent focal
length lens Nikon or Canon lens.
;) (For those of you still in doubt)
M.
- --
Martin Howard | "Once you understand the process of co-
Visiting Scholar, CSEL, OSU | ordination, it's much easier to avoid.
email: howard.390@osu.edu | Knowledge is power." -- K. Christoffersen.
www: http://mvhoward.i.am/ +--------------------------------------------