Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/05/03
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]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