Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/08/16

[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]

Subject: Re: [Leica] 35 Summilux (non-ASPH)
From: Marc James Small <msmall@roanoke.infi.net>
Date: Mon, 16 Aug 1999 17:51:25 -0400

At 01:56 PM 8/16/1999 -0700, Henning J Wulf wrote:
>If I am not mistaken (I'm sure I'll be corrected if I am), the Summilux 35
>was one of the very first production 35mm format lenses anywhere to be
>multicoated, and it arrived with the multicoating right from day one. It's
>not multicoated with the number of layers that the SMC Pentax lenses made
>famous, but it has multiple coating layers. 

No.  The 1.4/35 was single-coated only until the early 1970's.  As to the
"fame" of the process, please:  multi-coating was a JOINT effort of both
Zeiss and Asahi, and Zeiss was first into the marketplace with the process,
the "T*" coating first appearing on industrial and technical items produced
by Oberkochen from 1969 onwards. 

We can argue all day whether Zeiss or Asahi first produced commercial
camera lenses with multi-coating.  I'm inclined to give the nod to Zeiss,
by three months, but, at this remove, who cares?  The two companies had
pooled their research and results.

Marc

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