Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1996/12/14

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Subject: Re: Summicron & Genealogy
From: Marc James Small <msmall@roanoke.infi.net>
Date: Sat, 14 Dec 1996 13:28:33 -0500

At 12:32 PM 12/14/96 -0400, Dan Cardish wrote:

>I think that Leitz (Leica) never was in the habit of giving names to lenses
>that matched their optical design, unlike Zeiss.


Well, certainly not since Max Berek passed on.  As long as he was alive,
even minor variations (Elmax to Elmar) were renamed.  After he died in '49,
the marketing pros (such as Leitz ever had) took over, and a successful name
was retained despite redesignings.  For the M, the last new names were the
Elmarit and Noctilux:  for thirty years and more, we've had a countless
succession of Summicrons, Summiluxes, and Elmarits which are totally
distinct in formulation.  Even the 'Summarit' on that P&S they make now
isn't a REAL Summarit (a Xenon derivative).

Marc

msmall@roanoke.infi.net  FAX:  +540/343-7315
Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!