Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/02/05
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Frank, With all due respect, another 75 will not sell many lenses. Low sales, low revenue, equals R&D money down the drain. For most Leica shooters, the absence of a 75 will be of no consequence. Most could fall back on a 50 or a 90. I happen to be an owner a passionate devote of the 75 Summilux, but I think its sales rank right up there with the 135 APO or maybe the 90 macro. Places in the lens lineup that could use help would be a faster 24 designed for digital sensors, possibly a redesign of the 50 Summicron, a new 15 possibly an F4 so smaller and lighter than the Zeiss offering. A redesign of the Noctilux with aspheric surfaces might make sense. Learning to use alternative materials to lighten the lens might make sense. Now, if Leica brought out a new frame set with a unique frame line for the 75 that was free when you bought the new 75 APO macro Summicron, now that might be of some interest. Besides, if a 105 F2 is interesting, then the 105 F1.4 would be even more interesting. Don dorysrus@mindspring.com -----Original Message----- From: lug-bounces+dorysrus=mindspring.com@leica-users.org [mailto:lug-bounces+dorysrus=mindspring.com@leica-users.org] On Behalf Of Frank Filippone Sent: Saturday, February 05, 2005 5:51 PM To: Leica Users Group Subject: RE: [Leica] 75 'cron If Leica is chasing Bessa/Cosin/Voigtlander, they are in deep doo-doo. Back to my argument to fire someone for wrong thinking. A 105 lens ( if you even guess that a digital M is around the corner or in the near future, or in the not too distant future, or in the future, sometime) is dumb. They have not had a 105 lens in what, 65 years? There is a 90 that is popular and there is a 75 that is popular. If you take (any Summicron or ASPH Lux) 50mm lens and multiply by the presumed digital factor of 1.6 you get 80mm AOV. The portrait FL of choice by Leica for 75 years. Why a 105? Multiply by 1.4 and you get... 70MM. The FL they already have in the lineup for 35 film. I am not saying that thi sis not the reason they are doing this, but it sounds .... unlikely. In my mind, there is only 1 logical reason for the lens..... a redesign was needed for some reason of optical glass availability, or just plain cost. Face it, Leica Canada has been gone for a while, and this is the last lens to survive that ex-Canada thing. If I were going to design a new lens to replace the existing, I might just think about changing the design for lower cost ( less optical elements of less costly optical glass). So a 75 F2 makes sense here. The 75/1.4 would then be discontinued. This kind of thinking meets the goal of lower cost ( F1.4 vs F2). It also fixes the availability issues. Frank Filippone red735i@earthlink.net _______________________________________________ Leica Users Group. See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information