Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/10/23
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Gee, I really am amazed to hear that the engineers at Leica were really unaware of the workings of the three magnification viewfinder of the Canon rangefinders. It is not like the Canons were "just another Leica copy". They had their own interesting inovations, like the viewfinder. The Canons are not rare, either. Do you think that the Leica engineers really don't look outside their own doors (or outside Germany)? If you were setting out to make the best possible viewfinder/rangefinder in a camera, wouldn't you want to know what approaches had been tried before and how they worked? Even if you already had a design that worked, wouldn't you want to take a look at new approaches that others had tried to see if there was anything worthwhile there? I'll bet that the older engineers that Mr Kiesel refers to in his letter were well aware of the workings of the Canon viewfinder. I'm not trying to criticize Leica here. I'm just expressing my surprise if this is true. It is interesting to learn about the thinking and ideas that went into making Leicas what they are. - -Mark Walberg >LUG members at photokina may remember the chat that alternative viewfinder >systems for r/f cameras were explored by Leica but rejected as zoom systems >took up too much space. Mention was then made of the Canon system of the 50s >which offerred alternative focal lengths via a revolving prism, this was >news to Leica. I sent them a camera to look at to make sure they weren't >missing anything they might have overlooked... >The camera came back 2 days ago with a note from Burkard Kiesel, >======================== interesting note from Mr. Kiesel snipped===== >What the camera (a Canon Vt) will have added to Leica's knowledge of r/f >viewfinders I'm not sure, but it seems like they're having to re-learn the >past. Who knows where it might lead... >regards, >Jem