Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/05/03

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Japanese Optics Yet Again
From: LRZeitlin <LRZeitlin@aol.com>
Date: Sun, 3 May 1998 14:54:08 EDT

I think you have made my point quite adequately. If Japanese lenses were the
performance equivalent of German lenses at significantly lower prices than the
value of those lenses to the photographer was appropriately higher. And while
it is true that the German optical industry was responsible for many
innovations in design, an equal number were copied from French and English
designers. Indeed, the mose significant small camera lens design of all, the
anastigmatic triplet, the precursor of the Tessar, the Xenar, and even the
Sonnar (and ubiquitous on most P&S cameras to this day) was invented by a Brit
(H.D. Taylor, 1893). Obviously the British patent had expired when Leitz so
shamelessly exploited the concept in manufacturing the Leica.  :-)   LarryZ