Re: Evidence of a Contax/Leica partnership?

["Jacques Bilinski" <jbilin@axionet.com>]

- ----------
> From: Lucien_vD <Lucien_vD@compuserve.com>
> To: INTERNET:leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> Subject: Re: Evidence of a Contax/Leica partnership?
> Date: July 1, 1997 1:52 PM
> 
> 
> Jacques Bilinski wrote:
> 
> <Contax recomends that the user 'rough focus' first on lenses with
floating
> <elements
> <(and probably many zooms, and other lenses that are focused by moving
only
> <groups of elements).
>  
> <I'm not an optical expert but I imagine that once Leica and Contax have
> <decided to go with the 'moving film plane' method of autofocus, they
will
> <take this into account as a design parameter when designing new lenses,
> <likewise other manufactures can  probably design lenses in which the
image
> <degradation caused by the small amount of play in the lenses is
minimized.
> 
>      
> 
> Then whe will have image degradation with :
> 
> 15mm/3,5
> 24mm/2,8
> 28mm/2,8
> 35mm/1,4
> 100mm/2,8 Apo
> Etc...
> 
> Do you think that Leica will accept such a a degradation ????
> 
> 
> Lucien

There would be degradation if the user left such a lens focused at infinity
and then let the autofocus move the film plane back to bring a close
subject into focus (it would be kind of like using a short extension tube
with the lens set at infinity). However if the lens was focused at the
aproximate distance and the autofocus just did the fine focusing the
degradation should be minimized. Maybe the ROM unit in the lens would tell
the camera to warn the user of the requirement to coarse focus when
required. This is all pretty speculative, isn't it?