Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/03/28
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Fred Ward wrote: > > 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 One fact which has been ignored so far in this thread is that HOYA is a major supplier of raw optical glass to Leica Camera AG! Marc James Small is probably using Japanese glass every day without even realizing it.