[Leica] Leica Quality Falls Off?

[vick.ko at sympatico.ca (Vick Ko)]

Greg

Are the lens barrel, focus and aperture rings still aluminum?  Or does it
look like they've gone to plastic?  It isn't any cheaper to make a poor
aluminum ring of complex shape with ridges and features, than it is to make
a high quality one.  The machining cost is the same on CNC machinery;
perhaps the anodizing and surface finishing is where the cost difference
comes in.

And a plastic vs metal lens cap might not be a great price difference when
considering the cost of tooling to for an injected plastic part vs stamp and
finish a metal part.  

I thought when I bought a new 50f2.8, the cap felt like plastic.  I think
the standard cap for 39mm lenses was introduced in plastic a few years ago
with the new 50/2.8.

But good to hear that the imaging qualities are still stellar.  But that's
not the only reason to buy Leica lenses, is it?  If imaging quality were the
only reason, we'd be buying Cosina and Zeiss.

Vick



-----Original Message-----
From: lug-bounces+vick.ko=sympatico.ca@leica-users.org
[mailto:lug-bounces+vick.ko=sympatico.ca@leica-users.org] On Behalf Of GREG
LORENZO
Sent: Saturday, March 10, 2007 7:27 PM
To: Leica Users Group LUG
Subject: [Leica] Leica Quality Falls Off?

I picked up the latest 28/2.8 lens last Saturday. This lens reminds me very
much of my 35/2.0 Summicron lens from 1983. More importantly the new 28 is
compact and produces stellar images. However, build quality seems to have
fallen off; lens barrel, focus and aperture rings are not up to past Leica
standards. The lens cap is plastic. It is not the plastic cap you get with
the current 50/1.4 but a black plastic copy of the old polished metal caps
that Leica provided for years for 39mm lenses.

My theory on this is the appearance a year and a half ago of the Zeiss M
Mount lenses for prices 60% of then current Leica lens prices has resulted
in a decision to provide the usual excellent optics whilst saving a few
bucks on construction. This allows Leica to offer their new 28/2.8 lens at a
price more competive to Zeiss.

Greg J. Lorenzo
Calgary, Alberta

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