Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/03/16

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Subject: RE: [Leica] Summarex 85mm f/1.5 -- info!
From: Marc James Small <msmall@roanoke.infi.net>
Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2000 14:14:05 -0500

At 01:30 PM 3/16/2000 -0000, B. D. Colen wrote:
>No!...Marc, you mean the Summarexes and Hextors were named after a
>dog?!...So what or who was Elmar, dog, cat, or child?

Once the Zeiss patent on the basic Tessar design expired in 1923, Leitz was
free to use any name they wished;  previously, they had used the
"Anastigmat" name as Zeiss insisted.  Hence, the lens was then renamed the
"Elmax" for 'Ernst Leitz Max' Berek.  A redesign two years later caused the
lens to be renamed the "Elmar".  Not quite as good a tale as that of the
naming of the Rollei T, but a bit better documented.

Marc

msmall@roanoke.infi.net  FAX:  +540/343-7315
Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!