Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/09/05
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]In a message dated 9/5/99 7:50:04 AM Eastern Daylight Time, doug@meditor.demon.co.uk writes: << During the LHSA visit to Solms in April, I asked one of our hosts from Leica how the company could be sure of getting Leica-quality lenses from outside companies such as Minolta without giving such companies full access to Solms design and manufacturing methods. His response was that Leica does not share its design or manufacturing technology with outside companies. If a lens is obtained from another company, then that company has to use its own technology to create a product which met the specification laid down by Solms. >> In the case of the Minolta/Leica R lenses, Leica was always candid about the fact that the designs were Minolta's. The same is true of the 1st-version 28-70 designed and made by Sigma. Leica's official statement at this point is that the current lenses built in Japan are Leica (Solms) designs and only the production is farmed out to Kyocera (although I have personal doubts that the "new" 28-70 differs significantly from its Sigma predecessor). Kyocera is a huge, diversified manufacturing conglomerate (they make, among other items, centrifugal casting apparatus for fabricating titanium dental implants). I am unaware if they even *have* an optical designing group. The lenses for Contax are designed by Zeiss and only maufactured by Kyocera, so it is certainly plausible that Leica does the same. In the case of the 80-200 f4 zoom, whoever designed that lens deserves a pat on the back (ok, and maybe a quick elbow in the ribs for omitting a removable tripod collar). The MTF stats are quite impressive, even with respect to most of the German Leica prime lenses in that focal length range. DT