Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/03/28
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I too am mystified by the all-encompassing statement by Marc Small that the Japanese do not have the raw materials and thus do not make their optical glass. No doubt some companies in Japan buy glass from others. But the raw materials to make glass are available to all, even when we are talking about the exotic glasses. Canon, which pioneered lenses with fluorite elements (such as the superb 300mm 2.8), made the glass for those early classics and still makes glass. And I am reminded in the 1970s when I photographed the last countrywide article in National Geographic on Japan that I spent several extremely interesting days inside Minolta factories. They proudly showed me their glass-making operation from start to finish; from mixing raw materials, to melting, to chunks of glass, to blanks, to polishing, to assembly. They certainly were not buying glass from Europe or elsewhere. I think this thread should best be laid to rest. Fred Ward