Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/01/21

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Screw Mount Lens
From: Marc James Small <msmall@roanoke.infi.net>
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1999 10:36:58 -0500

At 08:35 PM 1999-01-20, David Young wrote:
>
> For curiosity, is the PAM Britar also a German lens?  Once you mentioned
>that many aftermarket LTM lenses blew the Leitz contemporary lenses into
>the weeds, what are the several horrid LTM lenses?
> I recently bought several Nikkor rangefinder lenses (85/2 and 135/3.5) and
>just got the prints back.  To my surprise, they were very good.  I would
>say they were comparable to Leica shots.


The PAM Britar is certainly an American lens (either US or Canada), but
naught else seems to have been recorded about its provenance, and, yes, I
would appreciate further information!

The horrid LTM lenses include a slew of cheap German and Japanese lenses
which appeared in the '50's, as well as a few French and Italian ones, as
well.  I've never been too impressed by the Postwar Ukrainian FED lenses
I've tried, either, though opinions differ on these.

Your two Nikkor lenses certainly should outperform anything Leitz was
making at the same time:  both Nikon designs are based on the epic Zeiss
formulations of Ludwig Bertele, arguably the finest lens designer of his
era.  The 2/85, especially, is a most wonderful lens and is still a
competitive design today.  (The Russians continue to market the same design
as the Jupiter-9, incidentally.)

Marc

msmall@roanoke.infi.net  FAX:  +540/343-7315
Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!