I have once more read Erwin Puts on the details of pursuing mechanical and optical perfection in developing Leica optics. ISBN 978-94-91089-12-1,
Most interesting details, starting with the improved triplets that became the quadruplet Elmar and moving on through the Hektor to how the summicrons were improved while discussing how to measure performance. A useful summary of lens design and production even if one does not use leitz products.
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Can you say more? - After trying many ISBN search engines, only one came up with anything (And that was just title and author!) Incidentally, what’s a ‘labelling stunt’?
Ad labelling stunts, see my thread below. A phenomenon that can have similarities was when Ford tried to flog one of their their entirely ordinary cars as a "Jaguar", with a bog standard diesel engine and not a heron-top overhead valve petrol one. They had bought the rights to the name. I thought it strange that Leitz would put their name on watches without any experience in manufacturing such. I was too polite to mention minolta, sigma and panasonic although their contributions do stand up to critical examination.
The 382page Puts Book is named "Leica lens Saga" and according to the Colophon page was published as a limited edition in september 2016 by Puts and imX . I boughty it from Puts at the time, but assue that well stocked antiquariats like Lindemanns might be able to provide a copy.
I keep replying to my own threads. This time to praise Leitz technology even if they have labelled with Leica a lens that was not made in Wetzlar. The 11mm to something Lmount (small image cicle) Zoom is remarkably free from haze even with stong sunlight on the side of the sunshade. i have not yet dropped it often enough or had it out in driving rain, so its robustness remains unknown. M3 and 50mm summicrons survived regular challenges, so it has quite an example to follow.
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Below where?
below = further down in the list of posts. In this case teh title is also about labelling-
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I just looked at this thread to see whether there was anything worth reading and discovered that my reference to labelling for fashion acessories led nowhere. "The thread below" on mislabelling is nowhere to be found.
What did annoy me about Leitz was that after it was taken over, split up and had to change to survive, they used their well earned prestige and the label "Leica" to flog merchandise with no connection to the specific skills which earned their reputation. At least they did not launch Leica washing up liquid..
Plastic pressings produced far away from their base would for a while masquerade as the real thing. They gave up on servicing their past masterpiece mechanics and optics, ditching all spare parts, never producing more.
Presumably the "Hauser torwerk" apprentice training workshops no longer exists (but not everything that was economically possible in the past can sensibly survive today) For the time being at least, their lens production lives on until that branch of photography is outcompeted..
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Just noticed ... thank you.