Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/12/19
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 10:51 AM 12/19/97 GMT, Jem Kime wrote: >Angenieux were the first (1950s) series manufacturers of retrofocus designs >and they made them available for LTM, such as their 35mm lens and later a >28mm I believe. Quite rare though. Later on (early/mid sixties) Komura also >made LTM lenses in retrofocus designs, such as their 35/2.5, again, I >suspect the design was primarily for SLRs and they accomodated them to LTM >fit. Well, a few amplifications here. The retrofocus concept dates from the 1930's at Carl Zeiss Jena -- I suspect Ernst Wandersleb was the progenitor. In any event, work on what was to become the Distagon/Flektogon formula was well underway by the time the Second World War broke out. Angenieux probably did get his designs in production first, but not by a long span. The East Germans began to crank out Flektogons in both MF and miniature-format lenses within two years of Angenieux's debut, and Oberkochen was producing the 5.6/60 Distagon for the Hasselblad by the middle of 1954. It is strange that Zeiss, normally a bit picky about ensuring that it receives full credit for its innovations, has allowed the credit for the retrofocus concept to go elsewhere but, properly, it does belong to them. Marc msmall@roanoke.infi.net FAX: +540/343-7315 Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!