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It's really hard to compare Oly SLRs to a rangefinder like Konica, Leica M,
Contax G, etc. They are very different kinds of systems. And I bet the new
Konica lenses will be state of the art. Remember the original 35/2 Hexar
lens was considered comparable to a Summicron, which it was a copy of.
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The original Hexar was a manual rangefinder camera made by Konica in
1948. Hexar was used for their Tessar lenses back then. Subsequently,
they had a gaussian-corrected lens similar to a Planar and called it
a Hexanon, a name that became their analog of Zuiko after that.
Konica made non-interchangeable lens rangefinders that rivalled
Leica's for focusing accuracy and optical quality all through the
50's and 60's. I have a Konica Auto S rangefinder from 1962 that
gives any of my more modern Zuiko's a good run for their money in terms of
quality.
And Konica once made a very nice SLR system with superb quality
optics. Until the demise of that system, Konica was known as
the manufacturer of the best quality Japanese optics money could buy.
In these days of computer aided optical design, propietary German
optical formulas no longer offer any competitive advantage to
Zeiss or Leica. If a company makes a superior lens it is because
they've chose to design a superior lens and manufacture it to high
standards of quality control.
I would not expect Voightlander or Konica would be willing to use their name
on lenses that did not meet very high standards.
Joseph
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