[Leica] I love "oh, they were going to throw it out, how much is it worth" stories.

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

It very much depends on the lens.  The 50/2 Elcan was designed to 
perform worse than the 50mm DR, to meet US military specs (and probably 
price).

The 66/2 Elcan is supposedly very very good.  The rumour I heard was 
that the US diplomatic service was limited to lenses of no longer than 
66mm, and they wanted a lens to photograph the military items going by 
on parades (rumor country was Russia), so E Leitz Canada was asked to 
produce a very high resolution lens.




Vick



On 3/10/2011 1:12 AM, Philip Forrest wrote:
> Hmm... I have an ELCAN I got from a cleanout of Navy gear that came
> from the lab on Guam. so, they are plentiful here. Scratched the hell
> out of my front element the other day. Stupid filter was
> stuck after the end of the lens was banged a bit by the wall of Reading
> Terminal Market while I was trying to duck through a crowd of flower
> show people. I had to use a pair of large jaw welder's vise grips to
> get enough purchase on the filter to get it off. Vise grip slipped and
> so I'm probably going to have to ink in that gouge. I can feel it with
> my fingernail.
> I didn't think it was anything special.
>
> Phil Forrest
>