Re: [Leica] Cosina vs Leica (glass)

[TTAbrahams@aol.com]

 The tests of the Ultron, Nokton and Color-Heliar versus the equivalent Leica 
lenses confirm my opinions of these lenses. Both the Nokton and the 
Color-Heliar have become fixtures on my cameras. The Nokton on a M6HM and the 
Color-Heliar on a M6TTL 0,85. The Ultron 35/1,7 I have an ergonomic problem 
with, it has a strange (to me) barrel, very thick in the back portion and 
then tapered towards the front. It is a little larger than I want my 35 to 
be. I have the 35/1,4 Asph and although big and clumsy, it is a spectacular 
performer, so when I need a fast 35, that's what I use. For "normal" shooting 
I tend to stick with the 35/2 Summicron (3rd generation) or the 35/2 Asph. 
The Ultron is somehow left hanging between these choices. Performance wise it 
is no slouch though. As good as the 3rd generation Summicron (and that is 
high praise) and, apart from wide-open, close enough to be used instead of a 
35/2 Asph. Of course, if I was using a lot of LTM cameras, the Ultron would 
be a good choice as it allows you to adapt a new, high quality lens to these 
older designs.  The new 35/2,5 Color-Heliar is more ergonomically correct for 
my style of shooting, very quick focus and, although a bit softer than the 
35/2 wide-open, an extremely competent performer across the board.
 The Nokton is the 50 high-speed lens to beat. It is very good and fully 
usable wide-open. The "double"-Aspheric design gives a nice "snap" to 
wide-open shots. It is lightweight compared to the 50/1,4 Summilux and a bit 
more compact. It works very well on a M2 or M3 but on the IIIF/IIIG the 
barrel is intruding a bit in the finder (but so would a Summilux 50 in 
screwmount). Combine the Nokton with a M2 and the 1:1 finder 50mm finder from 
Voigtlander and you have a "street shooting camera" second to none.
 The 75/2,5 is a lightweight alternative to the 75/1,4 Summilux. It's 
performance is not up to the 75/1,4, but we are also looking at $400 (and the 
facility to use this lens on a LTM camera) and $2000+ as well as 250 grams 
versus 600 grams. The 75/1,4 Summilux is in my opinion one of the milestone 
lenses in the Leica lens system and when you need that speed, there is no 
substitute. It is heavy and you certainly are aware of the fact that you are 
shooting with a fast lens. It requires a steady hand and a perfect focusing 
ability to get the most out of it, but when it works, watch out! The 75/2,5 
is a different lens altogether. It is small, short and comfortable. It gives 
you a bit more reach than the 50 and is very handy. I always bemoaned the 
lack of a small, light lens in the 75mm length in Leica's program and I 
lobbied for years to get Leica to produce the 75/2,4 APO (a rare military 
lens) for M-users. The 75/2,5 might not be APO, but it is certainly sharp and 
contrasty enough for any application. It has a slight softness wide-open that 
makes it very pleasant as a portrait lens, enough depth of field to focus on 
the eyes and get the nose sharp too. You can also get a great bright line 
finder for it from Voigtlander/Cosina.
 As for the Cosina's know-how on glass manufacturing. They are one of the 
premium manufacturers of glass in Japan as well as being the foremost 
manufacturer of Aspherical elements for the Japanese camera industry. Most of 
the other manufacturers order the Aspherical elements from Cosina and put 
them in their lenses, even some of the biggest names and most renowned lenses 
from these companies have Cosina Aspherical elements in them! This is a very 
Japanese way of doing thing, rather than trying to invent the wheel in every 
factory, they will buy the needed pieces from someone who already knows how 
to do it and who can supply the material to what ever specifications the user 
need. Most of the Japanese camera industry is more of a Quality Control and 
assembly function and a fair bit of the parts come from small and medium 
sized subcontractors. There are only a couple of companies in Japan that cut 
lens focussing helicoils and they supply most of the camera manufacturers, 
the same thing goes for rangefinder parts. Cosina looked carefully at the 
Leica CL and CLE finders for their Bessa-R. The basic design was good but 
they also added stuff like better frames, higher contrast etc. They simply 
made use of improvements that have occurred in the last 20-30 years and 
applied it. This allows them to be very competitive when it comes to pricing 
as well as use design parameters that takes into account what the sub 
contractor is making. Quite often the subcontractor, who is an expert in the 
field, can suggest improvements and cost cutting measures that in the end 
benefit both the product and us, the consumer.
 A perfect example of this "parts" camera is the Hasselblad X-pan/Fuji-TX-1. 
If you look closely at the camera, you recognize parts from Contax G series, 
from Canon and several other cameras. The unique parts are chassi, covers and 
the rangefinder magnification system. The shutter is a Copal; electronics 
look very much like the ones in the Bessa-R and exposure compensation, 
LC-displays etc could be dropped into a Nikon F5/Canon EOS or Minolta 9 
without looking out of place. Considering that the X-Pan sells for just about 
what a M6 with 50/2 costs (and for that you get 2 lenses), it proves that 
this way of manufacturing works.
 There is also an inherent Japanese tradition of making small productions. 
They do recognize that not everybody wants everything and if you build a 
small run of something, you have to price it so that you get the costs back 
and make a profit. Case in point is the Ricoh 28/2,8, the 21/2,8 and the 
Minolta 28/3,5 as well as the Konica 60/1,2 and 50/2,4 lenses. These were 
built in small series (in case of the 60/1,2, only 800 made) and sold out 
quickly. Neither of the manufacturer lost money on these products although 
most likely they did not make huge profits either, but the product name was 
kept "alive: in the camera magazines and discussed among the optical experts. 
The Konica Hexar RF is a similar case, if it is not a sales success, it will 
probably stay around for a while, Konica will sell enough to recoup 
investment and then drop it. The more I see of the Japanese manufacturers, 
the more impressed I am. Look at the car industry there. They build and sell 
the Figaro (a 1950's retro sports car, complete with a Fiat Topolino type 
top, white plastic knobs on a 50's style radio, which of course also can play 
CD's!), the S-Cargo, a small city type delivery van, cute and practical, the 
Nissan chassi and 2/3 sized Jaguar 3,4 Mark II looking sedan etc. I get the 
feeling that they actually are enjoying themselves in their design 
departments! 
When it comes to Cosina/Voigtlander, this is the pet-project of Mr. 
Kobayashi, the President of Cosina. He likes Voigtlander cameras and also 
Leica's. he could not find a Snap-Shot Elmar (a prototype lens made in the 
30's) so he had his team design the 25/4 Snap-Shot Skopar. He thought the 
Hologon was overpriced and under-performed so he had the 15/4,5 Heliar 
designed. There was a bit of a slowdown in sales of Nikon FM-10/ Olympos 2000 
cameras (which Cosina built under contract to Nikon and Olympos), so he had 
that one redesigned to be a modern 1G, but with a built in meter! The Bessa-R 
is the same thing, Cosina is building all these LTM lenses and it would be 
fun to make a rangefinder camera that fits them, but with modern 
meter/shutter technology. I am deeply envious of him, imagine having a camera 
factory and a premium optical manufacturing facility at your disposal and the 
position to have them build your dream cameras or lenses. The mind boggles at 
the prospect!
Tom A