Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1996/09/20
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Several comments in regard to Stephen Gandy's most interesting post on this topic: First, I would appreciate more information on the adapter your friend recently obtained. I doubt that this is a Zeiss product, but would like more information: the gnomes of Jena ARE innovative, if not always practical! Second, the Contax RF mount was patented in 1931; the life of a German patent was -- and I believe still is -- 20 years, so the patent did not expire until 1951. This patent did not "expire as part of ... reparations", though the US and UK rights WERE forfeit, but NOT those in Japan (thus, the Reid and Kardon cameras do NOT infringe on these patents). The Allied military government in Japan refused to allow any German firm to sue the Japanese optical firms over patent infringements, thus precluding Zeiss, and the others, from enforcing their rights. If MacArthur's boys had not intervened, then both Nikon and Canon would have been severely constrained by being barred from access to Zeiss and Leica research and development. The Leica TM is precisely the same, and, yes, Canon stole that as well. Theft is theft. Like Nikon, though, they got the dimensions wrong, not realizing that Barnack, for reasons now unfathomable, had used a pitch set in inches. See Dechert's Canon RF Cameras for an interesting discussion on this topic. I had stated that those adapters requiring LENS focusing might not work with both Contax and Nikon RF lenses. It depends on the linkage of the lens to the rangefinder cam. Some might work, others might not. I've never tried any of these adapters on a Nikon lens, so I cannot say which work and which do not. All that I have seen and tried DID work on Contax RF lenses. I've used an Orion adapter and have seen three or four of them over the years; I've used and owned a couple of the C&P adapters, though have sold them all since I now have the Zeiss Contax lens line (save for the rather mediocre 8/28 Tessar) in LTM. Your experience and mine simply don't match. I found the Orion adapters I have seen marred by imprecise machining and alignment, and have found the C&P well engineered and constructed. Apparently, your experience doesn't match mine. Marc msmall@roanoke.infi.net FAX: +540/343-7315 Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!