Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2007/08/13
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 02:39 AM 8/13/2007, Mark Rabiner wrote: >The *t is in reference to the coating. >Which they invented with the help of Pentax. >Who called it Super Multi-coated Takumar I forgot. > Hush your mouth, boy, and tell the truth! This is EXCEEDINGLY old turf on the LUG. The process is that of a vacuum-coating technology for lens coatings. Zeiss developed this in 1935 thanks to Dr Alexander Smakula and started cranking out commercial product using this in 1937. Wollensak and Kodak in the US and Ross in the UK developed identical methods at the same time. Multi-Coatings were a logical development but took decades to perfect. In the later 1960's, when Zeiss was really desperate to quite making photographic lenses and the Zeiss Foundation wnted to both kill of Zeiss Ikon but still to maintain a Zeiss presence in photography, there was a four-year wooing of Zeiss by Asahi and of Ashai by Zeiss. In the end, the deal fell through for reasons not germane to this discussion but leaving both companies in control of the multi-coating technology they had developed in common and Asahi got the Zeiss-developed K-mount. Who was first here on the marketplace will never be known. Zeiss started cranking out T* scientific nad technical gear around 1969, and Asahi but out its SMC gear around the same time. Go figure. Both claim priority but we probably will never know and, in the end, who cares? It is the historical record which is important, not that of hysterical advertising hype. Marc msmall@aya.yale.edu Cha robh b?s fir gun ghr?s fir!