Re: [Leica] Nikkor S RF 135/3.5

["Raimo Korhonen" <raimo.korhonen@pp2.inet.fi>]

Thank you - I like to gather this kind of information. 
Raimo
photos at http://personal.inet.fi/private/raimo.korhonen
nyt myös Kameralehden juttuja suomeksi
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> From: Marc James Small <msmall@roanoke.infi.net>
> To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> Subject: Re: [Leica] Nikkor S RF 135/3.5
> Date: 09. tammikuuta 1999 18:10
> 
> At 04:25 PM 1999-01-09 +0100, Raimo Korhonen wrote:
> >OK, Marc but I have seen a picture of lens calculations by Zeiss
(Tessar,
> >if I remember correctly) and it was about 3 feet high stack of A4´s. I
> >think that after the WW II most of those ended in Russia. So it is not
so
> >easy to get exact copy by simply taking the thing apart. With due
respect! 
> 
> 
> Not quite.  What you probably saw was the famous advertisement Zeiss put
> out in the 1930's showing the CALCULATIONS leading to the formula for the
> 2/50 Sonnar.  The actual design is around six or eight lines long -- lens
> surface figure, and glass type.  
> 
> What the Japanese firms, especially Canon and Nikon, avoided was the work
> in producing those three feet of calculations.  It took the brilliant
> Ludwig Bertele four years to produce the 2/50 design:  the Japanese
simply
> short-circuited this by stealing the formula, once they were assured by
the
> Allied Control Commission that Zeiss would not be permitted to sue them.
> 
> The Jena archives, incidentally, are very much still at Jena, not in
> Russia.  These archives are terribly disorganized from five decades of
> Communist inefficiencies, but, they are there, nonetheless.
> 
> Marc
> 
> msmall@roanoke.infi.net  FAX:  +540/343-7315
> Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!