[Leica] adhesives

[rangefinder at screengang.com (Didier Ludwig)]

Slobodan's concern is justified, IMO. As it was presumably me starting the 
thread about glued lenses and heating them, I can only repeat what the 
Leica specialist from Karl Ziegler Fototechnik, a reputed camera and lens 
repair company near Zurich, told me: Most, if not all, of the newly 
designed Leica lenses have more or less glued parts or blocks inside. It 
allows smaller and lighter constructions and lowers the engineering and 
production costs significantly; but raises the repair costs on the other 
side. This is, economically seen, good for Leica, but bad for us as soon as 
we have a lens to repair. ALL new japanese lenses were made like that, too, 
he said, manual and AF. It's just the way how lenses are manufactured these 
days, whether in Europe or in Japan.

Thats why I'd say, don't trade in your old pre-ASPH's for the new ones, as 
they might survive them :-)
Didier



>Seeing that thread on glue, heating the optics, etc. was eye opening. It's 
>led to a downward spiral of concern about the ability of the new lenses 
>survivability alongside the M bodies.
>I'm in an internal debate as to at what point do I stop being comfortable 
>with the glue content of what is supposed to be an expression of state of 
>the art engineering, or just another dumbed down product.
>S. Dimitrov
>
>>[...]
>>I'd be VERY suprised if any European instruments are made this way -- it's
>>the Europeans, after all, who perfected the traditional building methods to
>>begin with!
>>[...]
>>Michael