Re: [Leica] Screw Mount Lens

[inyoung@jps.net]

Hello,

 For curiosity, is the PAM Britar also a German lens?  Once you mentioned
that many aftermarket LTM lenses blew the Leitz contemporary lenses into
the weeds, what are the several horrid LTM lenses?
 I recently bought several Nikkor rangefinder lenses (85/2 and 135/3.5) and
just got the prints back.  To my surprise, they were very good.  I would
say they were comparable to Leica shots.

Thanks,
David 

At 07:12 PM 1/20/99 -0500, you wrote:
>At 09:56 PM 1999-01-19, David Young wrote:
>> I was browsing some of the dealer's website today to find the 105/4.5 Pam
>>Britar at Ken-Mar Camera in New York.  The price to my surprise was $495.
>>Is it one of the rare beasts or special lenses in Leica SM?  Does anyone
>>have any info or experience?
>>I have never heard that any Leica screw
>>mount copies were better than the Leica lenses.
>
>
>The 4.5/105 PAM Britar is a rather mysterious lens;  Bob Pins contends it
>was the telephoto for the Kardan.  It is a nice lens, but is becoming a
>collector's piece, rather than a user lens.  I've owned several over the
>years, and they are solid performers, though slow.  I have never
>established any of the details of its manufacturer.
>
>Many aftermarket LTM lenses blew the Leitz contemporary lenses into the
>weeds.  Certainly, the Zeiss lens line did so across the board, from the
>4/2.5cm Topogon to the 4/13.5cm Sonnar, and their clones, the Russian LTM
>line continue this tradition.  (A 1.5/50 Jupiter-3 performs close to the
>level of the current 1.4/50 Summilux and certainly is almost grotesquely
>superior to the 1.5/50 Summarit, for instance.)  Angenieux, Meyer, Kodak,
>Schneider, SOM Berthiot, several Italian houses, Steinheil, Ross, and
>Wollensak all made LTM lenses which challenged or exceeded the performance
>of Leitz lenses;  Canon and Nikon (LET'S NOT GO THERE, he remarks grimly!),
>as well as several other Japanese houses did the same.
>
>It is an interesting topic:  there are hundreds and hundreds of different
>types of LTM lenses, ranging from superb to horrid.
>
>And, of course, there IS an outstanding book on the subject!
>
>Marc
>
>msmall@roanoke.infi.net  FAX:  +540/343-7315
>Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!
>
>
>