RE: Too hot to handle in POP

[John Irvin Buford <jbuf@ix.netcom.com>]

Test reports mean nothing, I will read a lens test report when I am going 
to buy a lens that I will be using to photograph resolution charts.  I 
have always been told that ultimate goal of the Japanese lens houses 
is to make a lens that is as sharp as possible (i.e. having the 
higehst resolution or resolving power).  These qualities test well.  
Especially if the folks that design the test have the same mind set as 
the folks that designed the lenses.  Whereas, the European designers have
a different set of parameters in mind when they design a lens.  In 
practice it comes down to this: IMHO I find a real difference between the 
results that I get with Leica lens.  They have a certain 3 dimensionality 
that I do not find in most other lenses.   And I find that both M and R 
lenses give me this feeling.  

	AS an aside a bit of interesting trivia about Japan and it's 
optical industry.  During Hitler's regime, a group of German Jewish 
optical scientist's Applied to a number of different governments, thay 
wanted someplace where they could go as a group and continue working.  
They were rejected by most of the world powers, but japan gave them a 
home, and provided them with the rescoures they needed to work as a 
group.  IMO this is one of the reasons that Japan today dominates the 
world optical industry.

John