Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1996/10/04
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]George, There is more, much more to lens design then just bending light. There are so many different designs allieds,triplets,symmetrical and so on. The main difference is the attitude of the company itself. The Japanese (at least in 35mm) tend to build there lenses to the market and spend very little in Yen on there raw material (glass). Zeiss and Leitz tend to build there lenses to a certain high criteria. They pay a large amount of Marks for there raw material (high refractive index glass). After spending all this money they then decide what the price will be. The optical engineers are trying to acheive something that is almost more important then mere resolution. The color and contrast that a lens can see gives it the "character" you were talking about. This is done with glass makeup (chemical additives) not the phisical shape. The coating may indirectly help this ability by absorbing stray light, but the refractive index and material makeup of the glass gives it character. John