RE: [Leica] are the new japanese offerings a challenge to Leica?

["B. D. Colen" <bdcolen@earthlink.net>]

Erwin - Bless you for having taken on these lenses. Finally, those of us who
are wondering about their practical value will have some hard data to look
at, and what makes that data particularly valuable, is that it comes from
one who does the ultimate assessment of the Leica lenses.

Thanks

B. D.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> [mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us]On Behalf Of Erwin Puts
> Sent: Friday, July 02, 1999 5:23 PM
> To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> Subject: [Leica] are the new japanese offerings a challenge to Leica?
>
>
> I am about to post the testresults of the Ricoh GR 21, the Cosina 25 and
> the Hexanon 2,4/50 and 1,2/60
>
> A general introduction and an historical review might be interesting.
> In the thirties as we all know, the two firms competing for the optical
> Olympus were Zeiss and Leitz. They used genius, elaborate manual design
> procedures, and exquisite mechanical mounts to produce the first
> golden age
> of lens design.
> In the fifties and sixties, Canon and Nikon joined the competition and the
> four produced the second golden age and in doing so reached a design and
> performance platform early in the seventies. Again, superior engineering,
> optical cunning and daring designs gave us lenses whose performance is
> still excellent.
> Then with the plateau reached two trends combined: optical design became
> automated and the independent lens manufacturers produced low cost
> alternatives to the prestigeous firms.
> The reactions were different. Canon and Nikon followed a strategy to
> produce two series of lenses,one lower cost, one high cost.   Zeiss and
> Leica did not want to go that direction, and insisted on building only
> lenses as good as possibly could be (in their view at least). Contax tried
> to blend the Yashica and Zeiss lenses as a low cost and high quality pair,
> but that failed. Contax users wanted simply the best AKA Zeiss. So Zeiss
> shifted most of the lens production to Asia to lower cost and keep high
> quality. For Zeiss ( as a mega business) production of camera lenses is a
> peanut in the company books, so that move makes sense.
> Leica does not have this alternative, so their strategy is to design and
> built the best lenses ever at whatever cost. But there is a limit to image
> quality to be perceived and appreciated, as the discussions on this list
> amply document.
> In a positive way then the new Cosina and Konica and Ricoh lenses can be
> interpreted as an independent offering of low(er) cost alternatives to the
> Leica lenses (in some cases niche filling as the 2,5/75 shows). This bodes
> well for Leica. More people will buy their bodies and eventually will have
> a mix of Leica and other lenses.
> The important fact is that the rangefinder camera (once pronounced dead)
> gets ever more life injections. And when people start to appreciate the
> imagery possible with Leica lenses, they will buy into this lens line.
> General remarks on the optical quality:
> all four lenses to be reviewed  offer surprisingly  good image quality,
> some even outstandingly so.
> The designers cearly had good examples to work from and could stand on the
> shoulders of many generations of good designers. And the very good
> opticaldesign programs of today also are a bonus. Generally these lenses
> perform as second generation Leica lenses from the period 1960 to 1975.
> Being of lower cost there are of course minor and sometimes major
> deficiencies. Decentring is a major one, as is flare, particularly
> spillover of light at black/white bounderies of very small object details.
> If you use elaborate testing equipment,you will note overall a higher
> aberration content than in the equivalent Leica lenses. The performance in
> the field is the weak point here. Also the mechanical mounts are not
> machined or assembled as well as the Leica ones, but then here Leica is
> worldleader.
> For many picture taking situations and moderate demands these Japanese
> lenses are very good indeed and are worthy of close scrutinity by
> interested buyers/users.
> For all the details you have to wait o couple of days.
>
>
> Erwin
>