Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/05/09
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Hi Everyone, Perhaps I can settle the issue of where the 90 APO ASPH is manufactured. The preproduction examples shown at Photokina were made in Canada. I was surprised to see this, as everyone knows, the Midland plant is no longer owned by Leica. The 90 has a much larger diameter aspherical lens element than all of the other ASPH lenses. This requires a different manufacturing technique than the press forming method used in the smaller diameter elements. Midland made a successful bid to manufacture the new lens. Apparently, production started in Canada, but difficulties (?) of some type arose and there was some friction between Midland and Solms. At some point the decision was made to shift production to Solms. So now we have a situation where some lenses were made in Canada and released for sale, but now that production has been shifted to Solms, the lens is now German. And we now apparently have German lenses in boxes marked Canada. Seems like fertile ground for new instant collectibles! BTW, I also heard that one of the preproduction 90 ASPH's was stolen from Leica at Photokina! Bill Rosauer