Are LEICA good?

At one time the Leica lens were the best money could buy. Then Japan took
over and Leica faded away.
Now Panasonic is advertising the use of Leica lens. I wonder what exactly
is the meaning of the Leica name and who makes the lens now?

wrote:
At one time the Leica lens were the best money could buy. Then Japan took
over and Leica faded away.
Now Panasonic is advertising the use of Leica lens. I wonder what exactly
is the meaning of the Leica name and who makes the lens now?


Good question, you will get a lot of responses. Watch news casts and
see what professionals are using. Try to determine what is being used
for those shots in National Geographic and other magazines demanding
high quality.
Dave Cohen

The standard blather for deals like this is that the Leicasonics are touted
as Leica designed and built not by Leica but to Leica standards.
But putting a Rolls Royce badge on Jeep does not make it a Rolls Royce. The
Jeep is a serviceable vehicle but it ain't no Rolls.
Both vehicles can get you where you want to go and there are many
circumstances where the Jeep would be the preferred vehicle.
Context is all.
Leica lenses made for Leica rangefinders and Leica SLRs can be presumed to
be precision optical instruments. Compared to even the better lenses badged
for Nikon and Canon the Leica lenses are indeed what they are marketed to
be.
It is a real pleasure to use Leica gear under the right circumstances and
see the results, but Leica gear is a niche product in a world that less than
ever places a value on quality over serviceability and that has nearly
killed the company.
Are Leicas worth the price?
What in life is?
Life is full of choices and financial constraints.

bmoag wrote:
Leica lenses made for Leica rangefinders and Leica SLRs can be presumed to
be precision optical instruments. Compared to even the better lenses badged
for Nikon and Canon the Leica lenses are indeed what they are marketed to
be.

keyword: marketed

Q. What's the difference between a good cup of coffee and a great cup
of coffee?
A. Advertising.

Same goes for lenses. Leica and Zeiss have been living off an old
reputation for a long time now. They are the Cadillac of lenses. And
like today's Cadillacs, they are overrated and over-priced.

The mythical superiority of Leica is just that ... a myth.

-Annika ---- aka "mythbuster"

"Annika1980" wrote in message
ups.com...

bmoag wrote:
Leica lenses made for Leica rangefinders and Leica SLRs can be presumed
to
be precision optical instruments. Compared to even the better lenses
badged
for Nikon and Canon the Leica lenses are indeed what they are marketed to
be.

keyword: marketed

Q. What's the difference between a good cup of coffee and a great cup
of coffee?
A. Advertising.

Same goes for lenses. Leica and Zeiss have been living off an old
reputation for a long time now. They are the Cadillac of lenses. And
like today's Cadillacs, they are overrated and over-priced.

The mythical superiority of Leica is just that ... a myth.

-Annika ---- aka "mythbuster"

And your source of this information is?

wrote:
At one time the Leica lens were the best money could buy. Then Japan took
over and Leica faded away.
Now Panasonic is advertising the use of Leica lens. I wonder what exactly
is the meaning of the Leica name and who makes the lens now?

As of this writing, none of the other posters have actually
answered your question. I don't know the answer either and, like
you, I'm curious.

Is a Panasonic lens with "Leica" imprinted on it made by Leica?
For that matter, who makes the "Schneider Kreuznach" lenses
marketed by Kodak? And who makes the "Carl Zeiss" lenses
marketed by Sony?

The Japanese and American camera companies that have no
established lens making reputation of their own are eager to put
famous old German brand names on their lenses. But who actually
makes those lenses and do the brand names mean that the lenses
are of ultra high quality, or are they just like all computer
designed lenses made by anyone else?

Although I don't know the answer to your question, when it comes
to actually buying a camera and lens I think I would rely more on
the technical reviews made by the qualified experts (e.g., at
dpreview.com) than on the brand names.

Alan

Philly wrote:
"Annika1980" wrote in message
ups.com...

bmoag wrote:
Leica lenses made for Leica rangefinders and Leica SLRs can be
presumed to
be precision optical instruments. Compared to even the better lenses
badged
for Nikon and Canon the Leica lenses are indeed what they are
marketed to be.

keyword: marketed

Q. What's the difference between a good cup of coffee and a great
cup of coffee?
A. Advertising.

Same goes for lenses. Leica and Zeiss have been living off an old
reputation for a long time now. They are the Cadillac of lenses.
And like today's Cadillacs, they are overrated and over-priced.

The mythical superiority of Leica is just that ... a myth.

-Annika ---- aka "mythbuster"

And your source of this information is?

I use a Leica, circa 1954. The lens was probably as good as it was possible
to get in 1954, but a fair amount of catching up by the likes of Nikon and
others will have taken place since then. The camera itself is virtually in
the same condition as when it left the factory, but then I do take care of
my stuff.

I recently bought the Panasonic FZ30 with the 12*zoom lens, badged as a
Leica. It is a very impressive hunk of glass, and there cannot be many zoom
lenses around which can maintain F2.8 over the entire 12-times zoom range.
Leica designed this wonder lens, and it performs well.

All these guys who tell you that Leica is long over-the-hill don't really
know what they are talking about. Like many famous brands they have had to
change their marketing strategy over the years, and come up with new ideas
and new associations in order to survive. So have Rolls-Royce, IBM, GM, and
many others.

I would still back a Leica against any other camera for longevity and
quality of manufacture, but it is a niche market which I can no longer
afford. Many others can however. Have a look on Ebay in the
coupled-rangefinder section and you will see what I mean. Who is buying
these cameras? M6's and M5's selling for telephone-number prices. Does this
sound like the end of the world for Leica? I think not.

BTW, I saw an auction for a mint F2 Summicron scew-fit lens with a
buy-it-now price of $1950 only last week, but it was sold before I could put
in a bid. Must be a lot of nutters around, or do they know more than we do?

Dennis.

"Alan Meyer" wrote in message

Now Panasonic is advertising the use of Leica lens. I wonder what
exactly
is the meaning of the Leica name and who makes the lens now?

As of this writing, none of the other posters have actually
answered your question. I don't know the answer either and, like
you, I'm curious.



Zeiss has recently introduced manual focus lenses in both Nikon and Pentax
M42 screwmounts. They are made by Cosina, under license from Zeiss in
Germany. Ken Rockwell recently tested them against OEM Nikon lenses, and
the highly-touted Zeiss lenses did not exhibit any margin of superiority.
They were made by a third party manufacturer and they did not exhibit the
build quality associated with Zeiss. The tests were real eye-openers for
me.

Descriptions and comparison shots can be seen on these links:

http://www.kenrockwell.com/zeiss/zf50.htm

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/50-...ison/index.htm

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/50-...on/f-stops.htm

Dennis Pogson wrote:
Philly wrote:
"Annika1980" wrote in message
ups.com...

bmoag wrote:
Leica lenses made for Leica rangefinders and Leica SLRs can be
presumed to
be precision optical instruments. Compared to even the better lenses
badged
for Nikon and Canon the Leica lenses are indeed what they are
marketed to be.

keyword: marketed

Q. What's the difference between a good cup of coffee and a great
cup of coffee?
A. Advertising.

Same goes for lenses. Leica and Zeiss have been living off an old
reputation for a long time now. They are the Cadillac of lenses.
And like today's Cadillacs, they are overrated and over-priced.

The mythical superiority of Leica is just that ... a myth.

-Annika ---- aka "mythbuster"

And your source of this information is?

I use a Leica, circa 1954. The lens was probably as good as it was possible
to get in 1954, but a fair amount of catching up by the likes of Nikon and
others will have taken place since then. The camera itself is virtually in
the same condition as when it left the factory, but then I do take care of
my stuff.

I recently bought the Panasonic FZ30 with the 12*zoom lens, badged as a
Leica. It is a very impressive hunk of glass, and there cannot be many zoom
lenses around which can maintain F2.8 over the entire 12-times zoom range.
Leica designed this wonder lens, and it performs well.

All these guys who tell you that Leica is long over-the-hill don't really
know what they are talking about. Like many famous brands they have had to
change their marketing strategy over the years, and come up with new ideas
and new associations in order to survive. So have Rolls-Royce, IBM, GM, and
many others.

I would still back a Leica against any other camera for longevity and
quality of manufacture, but it is a niche market which I can no longer
afford. Many others can however. Have a look on Ebay in the
coupled-rangefinder section and you will see what I mean. Who is buying
these cameras? M6's and M5's selling for telephone-number prices. Does this
sound like the end of the world for Leica? I think not.

BTW, I saw an auction for a mint F2 Summicron scew-fit lens with a
buy-it-now price of $1950 only last week, but it was sold before I could put
in a bid. Must be a lot of nutters around, or do they know more than we do?

Dennis.

I agree with Dennis 100%. My rangefinder does not produce better
pictures than my 20D with an L lens. On the other hand, my wife's
little FX01 Panaleica is by far superior to anything of similar size.
Nostalgeeks put way too much into where a lens is manufuctured and not
enough on who designed it. Everything is manufuctured in China
nowadays, usually with better quality control than European makes a
decade ago. So just forget about myths and history and go with what
looks best to you.
Good luck,
Eyal

In article ,
Dennis Pogson wrote:
I recently bought the Panasonic FZ30 with the 12*zoom lens, badged as a
Leica. It is a very impressive hunk of glass, and there cannot be many zoom
lenses around which can maintain F2.8 over the entire 12-times zoom range.
Leica designed this wonder lens, and it performs well.

You mean like Nikon's 9-117mm f/1.7-2, which is a stop faster and 13x zoom?
Or the 8.5-127.5mm f/1.7-2.2.

For tiny sensors (the Nikkors are for 2/3" video) it 'easy' to make fast
zooms.


--
That was it. Done. The faulty Monk was turned out into the desert where it
could believe what it liked, including the idea that it had been hard done
by. It was allowed to keep its horse, since horses were so cheap to make.
-- Douglas Adams in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency