Re: [Leica] Using old lenses

["Dan Post" <dwpost@email.msn.com>]

Marc-
It never ceases to amaze me that the history of something we consider so
mundane as a 'camera', is fraught with intrigue and tales of surreptitious
departures in the dark of night! Sounds as good as a Tom Clancy book!
Dan
- -----Original Message-----
From: Marc James Small <msmall@roanoke.infi.net>
To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
Date: Tuesday, May 18, 1999 11:37 AM
Subject: Re: [Leica] Using old lenses


>At 12:40 AM 5/19/99 +1000, Horst Schmidt wrote:
>>I believe Voigtlander was the first lens manufacturer who managed to
>>calculate a lens.
>
>I'm not certain quite what is meant by this.  Microscope objectives were
>being calculated at both Leitz and Zeiss in the 1870's, long before
>Voigtlander began to adopt modern mathematical design techniques at the
>turn of this century.  Certainly, Paul Rudolph's work at Zeiss predates
>Harting's at Voigtlander by a decade and more.
>
>If you are referring to the Petzval lens, that was designed by Petzval and
>THEN turned over to Voigtlander for production and marketing -- the tale
>told is that Petzval was given a platoon of Austrian soldiers to do his
>maths.  It was after this that Voigtlander pirated the design and moved, in
>the middle of the night, no doubt, from Vienna to Braunschweig to escape
>the process of Austrian law.
>
>(So, you see:  the Japanese are certainly not the only thieves in the
>history of camera lenses!)
>
>Marc
>
>msmall@roanoke.infi.net  FAX:  +540/343-7315
>Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!
>