[Leica] New Cosina Lenses and more 39mm screwmount Leica stuff (LONG) - PART 1

[TTAbrahams@aol.com]

While in Tokyo these last 9 days I had the opportunity to meet with Mr. 
Hirofumi Kobayashi, President of Cosina Co. Ltd. The meeting was set up by 
some friends of mine in Tokyo; Kaeru Nakayama, Shintaro Yaginuma and Noriya 
Tanimoto. Kaeru Nakayama is a well-known photographic writer in Japan (as 
well as a motorcycle fanatic and expert on ABU-Garcia fishing gear). Shintaro 
Yaginuma is a photographer and operates a studio close to the Ginza with his 
father Keiji and Noriya Tanimoto is the Chief lens-designer for Ricoh Camera 
Co. 
 Mr. Kobayashi was at the Cosina Sales Office in Tokyo when we met (Cosina's 
Operation is located in Nagano, 4 hours by Shinkansen Train from Tokyo) and 
Kaeru, Shintaro and made our way there on Friday the 9th of September. Of 
course, this being Tokyo, we got lost getting there, but in Tokyo you 
calculate meeting times with that in mind. We arrived at 1.30 pm and were met 
by Mr. Kobayashi and two other gentlemen, who, to my great surprise were Mr. 
Fujimori, General Manager, Ricoh Co.Ltd and Mr. Nakamura, Assistant Manager 
Ricoh Co. When I asked what the connection was between Ricoh and Cosina, Mr. 
Fujimori laughed and said "Just friends!" We talked for a while about the 
various things happening in the photographic world and optics and had some 
ice-coffee. Of course we all piled our cameras on the table and the 
discussion quickly went to Leica and what cameras we used. Turns out that Mr. 
Kobayashi uses a M3 and Mr. Fujimori uses a M2. 
 Of course I congratulated Mr. Kobayashi on the success of the first two of 
the Cosina lenses, the 15/4,5 and the 25/4 and then we got down to the real 
stuff. The Export Sales Manager, Mr. Kato, brought out a pile of boxes and 
like children on Christmas we proceeded to unwrap the 50/1,5 Nokton, the 
75/2,5 Color-Heliar and a variety of other things, the 35 finder, the 50mm 
finder and a couple of things that I can't reveal yet! 
 I had specifically asked if I could buy a 50/1,5 and a 75/2,5 prior to the 
official release dates, the 75 was released in Tokyo on the 14th of September 
so it came in the proper box, but the 50/1,5 is not due out for another month 
so it came packed in a Styrofoam pack, not that I minded, anyway.
 Both lenses are in black. I have always felt that it is easier to see white 
markings in a black lens than the black markings on a chrome lens. The 50/1,5 
is a rather fat barrelled lens, somewhat chunky and it does feel like a 
Summilux 50. Just as the three other Cosina lenses I already have, it has a 
very smooth focus mount, absolutely no sticky feel or high spots. The 75/2,5 
is close to a 90/2,8 Tele-Elmarit in size although slightly fatter than the 
later T-E. Both lenses come with hoods and caps. The hoods are interesting as 
they are threaded on the outside of the barrel, rather than in the 
filter-thread. This means that if you put on a filter, you don't extend the 
hood further and risk vignetting. The Nokton uses a 52mm filter-thread and 
the 75 a 43mm filter-thread. The Nokton weighs 243 gram and the Color-Heliar 
weighs 230 gram.
 One interesting fact about the Nokton 50/1,5 is that, according to Mr. 
Kobayashi, this is the first lens for 35mm cameras with 2 Aspherical surfaces 
on the same element (in this case it is on the extreme rear element). The 
Color-Heliar is a conventional design with no Aspherical surfaces and I was 
told that it was not necessary on that slightly longer lens.
 The Nokton has a 6-element design, in five groups and the Color-Heliar is 
also 6 elements in 5 groups. Cosina is one of the few companies left that 
makes their own glass and they have also refined the process for making 
molded large diameter Aspherical elements. These are molded glass elements, 
not acrylic and they do supply other camera makers with these elements.
 I was struck how good both the 50 and the 75 "feel", we all know that 
strange, almost impossible to measure quality, some lenses can have. They 
just feel right and both the 50 and the 75 has that. The 35/1,7 is a very 
competent lens, but due to the larger center elements it has a slightly "fat" 
feeling to it, more like a longer lens that its focal length indicate and I 
have still not become fully comfortable with it. 
 Cosina also makes a set of screw to bayonet adapters, these are machined to 
tolerance equal to what the Leica ones are and they are designed to thread 
the lens on to the bayonet in such manner that the aperture index and 
distance scale mark are correctly aligned on top when used. They also come 
with a nice bayonet back-cap (complete with the three lugs on the bottom, to 
remove the bayonet ring from the camera) and a white soft-plastic cover in a 
nice green box. They are available for both 35 and 50mm lenses (the 75 uses 
the M6/M4P brightlines for the 50/75 setting).
 We talked for hours about the variety of designs and what's to come; the 
Bessa-L with a rangefinder is coming later this year. The 50 finder as well 
as the 75 finder will be available in October, these two finders resemble the 
old Leica 50 SBOOI finder, same type of brightline system and it will be 
available in black or chrome. I also got a 35 finder for my Ultron and that 
is a truly great finder. Brightline, with a close parallax line on the top 
and the same high contrast as the Heliar 15 and Skopar 25 finders. This is 
only available in black and uses the same housing as the 15 and 25 finders.
 Mr. Kobayashi is a delightful man to talk with. It is like talking to a 
camera designer and an optical designer at the same time. He is very 
knowledgeable about both subjects and it is obvious that he is enjoying 
himself. You get the feeling that here is an enthusiast who also has the 
knowledge and access to the facility for making things. There is certainly no 
doubt on whose ideas we are looking at - there is no hint of "focusgroups" or 
Corporate Meeting To Discuss What Should Go Into Production. You get the 
feeling that if Mr. Kobayashi doesn't like it, it is toast, but if he likes 
it, it gets made!  To be continued (see PART 2).
Tom A