Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/09/17
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Well, the choice of M for a "clean sheet" camera gives you access to a line of 100+ LTM lenses plus everything that's ever been made in M (and Erwin's new RF accuracy numbers show that the Hexar's EBL would not prevent you from focusing any lens in the Leica line, except a 135/2.8, which may be too much for a 0.72). In sum, you get any Hexanons, any Leica lens, any Russian, Canon, Zeiss, Voigtlander, or miscellaneous lens. It's not completely without reason. I understand that one of the Hexar concepts involved an electronic rangefinder and another autofocus. The funny thing about it was the discouragement of competition - Canon made a lot of LTM lenses that were very competitive with the contemporaneous Leitz lenses. There may have been a positive incentive to prevent people from easily or cheaply mounting 35/2 Canons or 50/1.2 Canons. Krechtz@aol.com wrote: > In a message dated 9/15/00 12:08:32 PM Eastern Daylight Time, > MEB@goodphotos.com writes: > > << t would seem to me to Leica's advantage to make LTM as their default mount. > Is there any image quality lost when using an LTM version with an adapter > as compared to the M mount version of the same lens? > By making LTM lenses default (sold with an M adapter standard), Leica might > encourage a few budget minded folks to use classic or new C/V LTM bodies > instead of buying an M body first, but they would also make their lenses > more adaptable and desirable to a broader market without lessening their > dedication to their current M clients or costing themselves huge amounts in > retooling. > If anyone sees a flaw in this logic please point it out. > >> > > Flawless. The problem is that the E. Leitz marketing experts evidently > decided in about 1957 (I'm not looking this up!) to encourage sales of M > bodies over TM bodies by discontinuing TM lens mount production, along with > TM body production, knowing that others, notably Canon, were still producing > LTM bodies and lenses. They did not want to encourage cross-pollination > then, and it is doubtful whether Leica wants to do so now. Probably the more > interesting question is why Konica opted to go with the M mount,starting with > a clean sheet of paper. I suspect they wanted to appeal directly to M > owners, easy adaptability of LTM to M regardless. > > Joe Sobel - -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dante Stella http://www-personal.umich.edu/~dante