Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/02/25
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 09:42 AM 2/25/2000 +0000, Mike Johnston wrote: >David Douglas Duncan was very clear >that he switched to Nikon lenses because their sharpness blew him away, >and he got other Korean War photographers to do the same thing for the >same reason. The superior sharpness of Nikon lenses was what established >the company in America. This is a part of the historical record. You're >grafting current perceptions onto historical situations. Mike This is simple horse-shit. American editors did not trust Japanese lenses, so Duncan and his ilk made this huge production about their "quality" to assuage concerns from the boys who were paying their way -- this, after all, was in an era when most editors didn't trust MF at all, much less 35mm gear. The Japanese lenses were direct thefts of Zeiss designs, no better and no worse than the originals. BUT they were cheap -- $10 or so for a 1.5/5cm as opposed to several hundred dollars for a Zeiss Jena lens and more than that for Oberkochen, if you could find one. These guys OWNED their own gear. If I were going into a combat zone and had the choice of risking a $200 lens or a $10 lens, both of equal quality, I know where my heart would be! And if I had to rig a "test" to allow the folks with the check books to go along with this, well, so be it. Popular Photography contacted Dr Bauer, the head of Zeiss USA for his comments. He tried to explain this to them but, alas!, Pop blew this one, as they have so many other issues over the years. Marc msmall@roanoke.infi.net FAX: +540/343-7315 Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!