[Leica] Voigtlander (Braunschweig) Lenses

[Marc James Small <msmall@roanoke.infi.net>]

At 07:47 AM 3/9/2000 -0500, timswan wrote:
>Excuse me. I was mistaken -- I thought that the Voightlander lenses were 
>based on Zeiss designs. The rest of my post stands. Having used the 
>Cosina lenses after first doing extensive research I find them to be 
>excellent. 
>

No, they were NOT based on Zeiss designs.  The Zeiss Foundation bought
Voigtlander from the Schering drug company a half-century back in part to
acquire the excellent lens-design facility and personnel Voigtlander had in
Braunschweig.  And, when the Foundation merged Voigtlander into Zeiss Ikon
a decade later, the lens folks went to Oberkochen and stayed there, as
Zeiss employees.  That is how highly Zeiss esteemed the Voigtlander lens
designs.

I am not suggesting that the Cosina lenses are not decent lenses.  I am
saying that there is absolutely no connection, other than the name, with
the Prominent lens designs and the like.  The Cosina "Heliar" is NOT a
Heliar-type lens, and will not perform as does a true Heliar.  It might
perform BETTER than a century-old Heliar, but it is still not a Heliar.  We
have been over this before on the LUG ad nauseam, and I am not trying to
beat this dead horse any further, as the issue is minor.  My only reason
for raising it now is that a poster suggested that the Prominent lenses
must be excellent, as he had heard the Cosina lenses were excellent -- and
that is simply a non sequitur, there being no connexion betwixt them other
than the name.

Marc

msmall@roanoke.infi.net  FAX:  +540/343-7315
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