Re: [Leica] Noctilux production and ramifications

["George Kenney" <georgekenney@earthlink.net>]

Aren't any Noctiluxes made in Solms? I have a German dealer who 
says he can sell me one that has "made in Germany" stamped on 
the lens?

Thanks,

G.


On 27 Feb 2001, at 10:49, imx wrote:

> The current Noctilux is produced in Canada, that is a fact.
> It is a fact that the Noctilux has remarkable image qualities. The
> inference that this lens then necessitates production capabilities
> than are beyond the expertise of the Solms plant, is unfortunately
> wrong. Sal's remark that the lenses for the apo 90 are being made in
> Canada is wrong too unfortunately. And so is the inference that
> Raytheon has capabilities beyond the Solms palnt.  Here the building
> of new Leica myths can be observed qute acutely. The bare facts: The
> first 100 lenses of the APO-90 series were made in Canada, but they
> could not get it right. So production shifted to Solms, where all
> APO-90 are being made and always have, with the exception of that
> early batch. The Noctilux is not difficult to make, as it is a lens
> from 1976 with a production and engineering technique that reflects
> the state of the art of those days. The lenses currently made and
> designed in Solms are much more demanding technically speaking. Much
> higher accuracy of the dimensions of the parts and smaller tolerances.
> The reason that the Noct is made in Canada is simple economics and
> production capacity. The production problems with the VE 2.8/35-70
> have also been discussed: in the beginning there were problems with
> the aspherical lens and the mechanics of the zoom movements. These
> were sorted out and the lenses being produced were and are fully
> within specs. This lens is indeed quite demanding to produce but quite
> within the Solms capabilities. The reason to stop the production of
> the lens are economical. It is the right of the management to decide
> how they will allocate production resources. It is the right of the
> Leica community to speculate about those arguments. The uncanny
> propensity of the Leica community to convert mere speculation into
> rockhard facts that will resist any fact based refutation, is however
> wellknown.
> 
> Erwin 
> 
> 
>