Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/03/16
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]
At 4:21 PM -0500 3/16/01, Andrew Moore wrote:
> > > If Cosina had one ounce of honesty, they would list their goods as being
>> > made by Cosina and not by "Voigtl”nder". The products are NOT made by
>...
>> I just really bugs me when they go "Voigtl”nder Germany" on the
>>Cosina stuff.
>> A name is great and it's great to be able to buy it perhaps. I'll
>>sell you my
>> title if you want
>> but this is just DECEPTION.
>...
>
>And then there's "MADE IN GERMANY" on the Leica bodies that are largely made
>in Portugal. And my wife's shampoo advertises all over the bottle that
>it's basically made in Sweden (or somewhere...) and I turned over the
>bottle, and there, there on the other side, at the bottom of the other
>side, away from everything else on the other side, in parenthesis, capital
>letters, quotated, read the following words: *
>
>"MADE IN N.Y., USA."
>
>(Wow, I didn't think *ANY* products were made in the USA anymore. That's
>something to be proud of! Why deceive everyone and make it sound like it
>was made elsewhere?)
>
>Does it ever end?
>
>* credit to Arlo Guthrie
>
>--Andrew
>NO ARCHIVE
Recently I bought a 'Red Dirt' t-shirt in Hawaii, supposedly dyed
with their iron rich soil, which is labeled:
100% Cotton pre-shrunk
Assembled in Nicaragua
of Canadian components
Now I know that Canada does not produce much cotton, and does not
have Hawaiian red soil (which would be the portion above the 100%),
so I guess the component sourced from Canada and sent to Nicaragua to
be assembled is the 'pre-shrunk'.
I didn't look at the label until I got home, but in spite of there
probably being some legality to that label, the sense has largely
disappeared.
So:
I don't really care where Leicas are made, as long as they are made
correctly, and I don't care what label Cosina puts on their lenses,
or that Contaxes are made by Kyocera or where the Rollei name has
drifted to. If a product has an attractive price/performance point
and seems to fit into my kit, I'll buy it. I never bought a Nikon
13mm lens; I did buy the Voigtlaender 12. Seemed to make sense to me.
I would have bought the same 12 if it had said Cosina on the front.
Given a choice between a Voiglaender 12 and a Cosina 12, I would have
bought the one that was cheaper, no matter by how much.
And, since this will be my one and only post on this at times
exeedingly stupid and venal thread, let me say that disparaging Tom
for his reviews of Cosina products seems _really_ silly. I mean, here
he gets to use these things months before the rest of us; many on the
list are interested in how they will fit in with our Leicas and Leica
lenses, and he gives us all the details. Sure, he is sometimes
enthusiastic about them, but then he is enthusiastic about a number
of things. He may not be perfect and have a number of faults (don't
worry, Tom, I don't have enough time to go into details here;-)) but
I believe he does a wonderful service to this list and to the readers
of the Viewfinder in describing these items.
As for relevancy here, the Voigtlaender stuff is all very closely
related to or directly for use on or with Leicas. It seems like it is
starting to become its own system, but it certainly didn't start out
that way. Therefore it would seem to me that it definitely belongs on
the Leica list.
- --
* Henning J. Wulff
/|\ Wulff Photography & Design
/###\ mailto:henningw@archiphoto.com
|[ ]| http://www.archiphoto.com