Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2007/01/11
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 07:21 PM 1/11/2007, Leonard Taupier wrote: >Hi Marc, > >I have a couple lenses with haze. One is severe, a 400mm f5 Telyt. It >makes scanned photos low contrast but as soon as I run auto levels, >the pictures from it are sharp as a tack, equaling a couple of my >expensive Nikon zooms. > >Wasn't the coating thing a patent issue with Pentax I believe. Nikon >payed and Leica wouldn't. Get the lens overhauled. Long-focus lenses are generally easy to disassemble and clean and a bottle of ROR or the like costs a pittance. If you cannot do it, Van Stelton or his ilk will meet your needs. Why have a lens in your arsenal that is not capable of the best service? Leitz never produced a 5/400mm Telyt. They did produce two different versions, however, of a 5/40cm Telyt. Which one do you have, the first or the second? Erwin Puts and I have fought over the second generation 5/40cm, which I find a really grand lens and which he shunts aside in his own analysis. I guess that I have a pick of the chix one, and so be it: mine is a magnificent lens in my estimation. Pentax has absolutely nothing to do with the patent issues on coatings. in the 1950's Carl Zeiss held the Smakula vacuum-coating patent which did not expire until early 1960. Prior to that, Leitz had to coat its lenses with drip method which left a wet coating. Firms more friendly to Zeiss, such as Schneider, Steinheil, and Voigtl?nder and others had enjoyed the use of the Smakula patent for years. Pentax does have something to do with the development of the parallel Zeiss T* and Pentax SMC multi-coatings, but that has nothing to do with Leitz. Marc msmall@aya.yale.edu Cha robh b?s fir gun ghr?s fir!