[Leica] Erwin's Book

[Nick Poole <nick.botton@camphill.org.uk>]

Dear LUG Friends,

My copy of Erwin Puts' book 'Leica Lens Compendium' arrived yesterday 
and I spent a long, happy evening dipping into its pages to gain a 
first impression. Here are a few thoughts which emerged.

Let me say at the outset that it's an absolutely enthralling read - 
and not only for lovers of Leica glass hoping to find confirmation of 
the superior quality of their chosen equipment! They'll find that in 
abundance, of course, but its relevence extends beyond the Leica 
brand. Anyone interested in the difficulties and challenges of 
attaining a theoretically possible optical design within the 
practical limitations of the grinding, polishing, assembly and QA 
stages of lens manufacture may be astonished at the complexities 
involved. I know, as we all do, that the standards Leica sets itself 
are high, but I had not fully appreciated the painstaking care - and 
indeed the time - it takes to produce lenses to these standards. The 
extraordinarily tight tolerances almost beggar belief, but it 
certainly is not all automated CNC machining and robotic assembly by 
any means. The manufacture is largely computer controlled, of course, 
but it still requires a human operator to interpret machine drift and 
adjust for such variances as they occur. Now, for the first time, I 
have a glimmering understanding of why these lenses command such high 
prices (and, by inference, some of the production woes of the 35-70 
Vario-Elmarit-R ASPH), and I feel less inclined to be critical of 
occasional shortcomings. The optical and mechanical achievements of 
Leitz/Leica over the years are indeed very real, as we all know, but 
the details make a fascinating story nonetheless.

Perhaps the most impressive thing about this book (as opposed to the 
lenses it describes) is Erwin's success in writing what might have 
been a technical manual, with page after page of MTF graphs and 
optical data, in a manner that is completely accessible to the 
non-specialist reader. Behind each lens assessment must be sheafs of 
test data, impenetrable to all but the optical engineer or physicist. 
Yet each description succeeds in presenting the analysis in plain 
English (and without the florid adspeak of some Leica brochures; 
often hilarious in translation!). This is a breath of fresh air to 
those who, like me, have a passionate interest in the subject but 
lack a specialist background because the depth of information that 
can be gleaned has not been sacrificed, as far as I can tell. For 
example, much can be inferred on the topic of boke (a LUG 
preoccupation if ever there was one!) from descriptions of the 
changes in out of focus characteristics of Leica lenses in the slow 
evolution of their optical designs over the years. It seems to me 
that an enormous wealth of experience and knowledge has been brought 
to bear on many aspects of the subject which I'm sure will repay 
hours of close study.

One, perhaps minor, criticism that can be levelled at the book is the 
poor quality of its editorial control (and I say this as a book 
publisher, so you'd expect me to notice!). Far too many typographical 
errors have been overlooked in the proof-reading - which may not 
worry most readers, I suspect - and the choice of body typeface is 
not inspired. More pertinent however, is that the figures showing the 
light paths through each lens system are reproduced as rather crude, 
bitmapped images which look pretty rough alongside other (vector) 
diagrams whose lines are crisp. This makes it hard to tell at a 
glance which are glass elements and which are 'air' lenses between 
them. Perhaps the drawings were hurriedly scanned without conversion 
into vector artwork to save on costs, but they do detract from the 
overall quality of a book whose subject is, after all, about quality! 
(On the other hand, they tell us far less than the text, so maybe 
this is not an issue for most people.) We know publication was 
delayed so as to include the latest products from Photokina, but it's 
a pity all the same.

Apart from the minor carping (which you can all happily ignore), I 
highly recommend this extraordinary book. It is a real labour of 
love, and I hope others will share my enthusism for it, and in my 
thanks to Erwin.

For those of you across the pond who may wish to get a copy, it is 
distributed in USA by Silver Pixel Press, 21 Jet View Drive, 
Rochester, NY 14624 (and before you even ask - No, I have never met 
Erwin Puts and have no connection with him whatsoever. My motive for 
this post is nothing more sinister than simple admiration for his 
having completed a Herculean task on all our behalfs!)

Best wishes, and happy reading!

Nick Poole.