[Leica] The IIIF still works

[hopsternew at gmail.com (Geoff Hopkinson)]

Paul you raise very interesting points. That is a neat synopsis of how Canon
does business (and they are a huge market leader).
Leica Camera certainly has not ignored cost containment, yet there are
unique factors at work. The excellent Summarit (spherical) designs are less
expensive yet demand for the ASPH. designs is double that. The flagship
models of course are more expensive again yet order lists stretch for months
ahead.  Another boundary for M lenses of course is that they must be as
compact as possible and function well with the sensor/film at such a short
register too. To see what is possible optically outside those constraints
you only need to look at the S lenses from Peter Karbe's team. He is on
record as stating that those right now outresolve the current (30x45) sensor
and its next generation too. The additional challenge with those though is
that the central shutters proved harder than expected and they needed to
start again with their own design after problems with the initial
(partner's) components. The space for those does force larger volumes on its
own. That makes life esier for the element s (can be larger) I guess.

Leica camera does use pressed aspheric elements in a number of designs and
has been a leader in producing larger diameter elements (developed with
Panasonic I think).
Nevertheless grinding and polishing of some exotic elements really is one
element at a time. At Solms you can see the retired tooling from where
elements were once ground in multiples. Some of the exotic and expensive
glass types require lead times of at least six months too.

Cheers
Geoff

*Australia, paying for the world's carbon sins, one tonne at a time**.*



On 24 July 2011 01:31, Paul Roark <roark.paul at gmail.com> wrote:

> Mark Rabiner <mark at rabinergroup.com> wrote:
> > ...
> > Optical science has not stood still ...
>
> I had an interesting discussion with a Canon technical rep some years
> ago.  He made the point that most R&D went into not making lenses
> sharper per se, but rather making them "affordable" while still good
> enough.  That reality even affects Leica -- although at a higher
> price-performance point.
>
> Along this line, it appears one of the main advances may be in making
> molded aspherics better.  One simply can't make a top notch, very wide
> or very fast lens with only spherical elements, and the cost of
> grinding one aspheric at a time is even out of Leica's cost structure.
>  I think what we'll see, going forward, is the move to more and more
> aspherics -- not just a single element per optic.  In line with this
> thinking, I'd guess that the slower telephotos, where aspherics are
> not needed, would be the area where the older Leica lenses can best
> match the newer ones (at least in a low flare situation).
>
> I think one of the advantages the M series will continue to enjoy in
> terms of performance is the ability of the designers to ignore the
> requirements of AF and IS, which has to be a huge part of current
> optical design for the mainstream companies.
>
> Paul
> www.PaulRoark.com
>
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