Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/10/01
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 06:09 PM 10/1/1999 -0700, Stephen of the amorphous family name wrote: >If >the Japanese were allowed by occupying forces to make LTM cameras, why not >Voigtlander?. Gosh. The reasons for this are manifold, Stephen. First, because the Allied Control Commission directing Japanese affairs was a totally different agency from the Allied Control Commission directing German affairs -- different constituent nations, different organization, different personalities. Second, because Voigtlander did not begin to manufacture 35mm cameras until some years after the Japanese had pirated the German designs. The Prominent does not appear until the middle 1950's. Third, because Leica and Zeiss could have sued, within Germany, to protect their patent rights, had Voigtlander tried to steal any such designs. (And, in any event, Voigtlander DID commit the grandest theft in optical history, a century earlier, when they ripped off the Petzval design and based their success on this design.) Fourth, because the basis for Japanese success was less the taking of a rather mundane thread-mount or even the lifting of the shutter design than the optical thefts from Zeiss and Leitz. Voigtlander had no need to steal such designs, as their own designs were already world-class. (Note that the lens fitted to the two prototype "Contax IV" cameras by Zeiss Ikon was a Nokton, NOT a Sonnar.) The reason Voigtlander failed is simple: they were gutted by Zeiss, whose main interest in Voigtlander was the optical design team. These guys were transferred from Braunschweig to Oberkochen in the 1950's, with only a few of the younger folks hanging about until the end at the original works. Once Zeiss had purchased the Voigtlander designs and contracts, they had even less of an interest in maintaining the Voigtlander camera company than they did in Zeiss Ikon -- it took the Zeiss Foundation fifteen years to close down Zeiss Ikon, and Voigtlander went down with Zeiss Ikon, with a brief renascence under Rollei in the '70's. Again, Cosina has the license on the names. The original designs of the Heliar, Skoparex, and the like, however, are the property of Zeiss. Marc msmall@roanoke.infi.net FAX: +540/343-7315 Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!