[Leica] Nikon mount Zeiss lenses?

[drodgers at casefarms.com (David Rodgers)]

Frank,

AF is pretty amazing today. The technology is better. Lenses are better.
Te compromise gap is lower. There are high quality AF WA lenses -- zooms
in particular -- that were unthinkable a few years back. 

What's missing still, though is compactness. And that's more a function
of the system. A small lens on a big DSLR doesn't shrink the bit DSLR. 

On second thought, I use a 45P Nikkor, quite a bit on my DSLR for the
sake of compactness. Unfortunately, I've forgotten to focus the MF 45P
more times than I'd like to admit. It's difficult for me to mentally
switch between MF and AF on the same body. 

For that and other reasons I won't be switching lenses on my DSLR
anymore, unless absolutely necessary. I have a 17-55/2.8 DX, which meets
95% of my needs. Unfortunately, I just spent $180 to have a
dust-spec-from-hell removed from a CCD. It included a CLA I didn't
really want or need on a now obsolete body. 

Normally I clean the CCD myself, and I'm super careful about dust, but
this thing appeared out of nowhere (obviously the result of a lens
change) and would not come off. I was even tempted to try nail polish
remover, but that likely would have led to more than a $180 bill. 

On a brighter note, I ran across a fully functioning MR meter, still in
box, last weekend and I bought it for my 1954 M3 (my first Leica). The
camera and meter are obsolete, but still in use by me. It cost less to
convert the M3 from DS to SS than it did to remove the dust spec from my
DSLR. I like low maintenance cameras. There's one good reason for MF. 

DaveR

-----Original Message-----
From: Frank Dernie [mailto:Frank.Dernie@btinternet.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, December 20, 2005 2:50 PM
To: Leica Users Group
Subject: Re: [Leica] Nikon mount Zeiss lenses?

There is a bit of wild speculation from me here but given that wide  
angle lenses are extremely sensitive to element position - to the  
micron level - it seems entirely plausible that the finest optical  
quality in WA lenses may only be able to come from manual focus  
lenses simply because the compromise needed to allow for the backlash  
and movement needed for a fast AF and low battery consumption forces  
the maker into a more compromised optical design.
Frank