There may be some of that lens making going on. We all know that
Olympus did that a lot with OM lenses. I don't think anyone should be
surprised that other low volume lenses like the Panasonic "Leica"
lenses would be fabricated by a lens subcontractor. It is a standard
way of working. Mostly OM lenses had their own look which meant that
the design and control of the manufacturing process belonged to Olympus.
I think the fact that lenses look a lot alike is that there is just a
convergence on styling. A pretty lens sells and Japanese companies
have a tendency to copy each other and agree what is esthetic. An
ugly lens does not sell the camera or itself. It seems like a real
jump to me to think that 4/3 mount lens and a Canon mount lens are
made by one or the other or a third party. I really doubt Canon would
subcontract the manufacture of a lens and maintain less control over
it than would Olympus. And I really doubt Canon would be open to
their subcontractor making a copy of their lens and selling it to
Panasonic. I don't know how much control Leica has over the use of
their name, but that seems to me to be another argument against this
clone idea.
Another point is that Canon seems to like the whole "it was invented
here" idea. They are probably unique in having their own sensor
fabrication in house(I still think Sony fabricates the Fuji sensors)
and their sensor characteristics seem to be fully integrated into the
design of their cameras. It is hard for me to imagine that they would
subcontract their DSLR lenses and not their sensors.
A couple of lens factories in Japan, if true, does not mean much
either. Japan has been exporting their factories like we have. Nikon
still makes their expensive cameras in Japan, but they have a huge
factory in Thailand where my D200 was built.
I guess where my disagreement comes is in what I see to be the
emphasis. Honda making Accords in the US is not the same as buying
Ford Fusions and putting an Accord nameplate on them.
Winsor
Long Beach, California, USA
On Mar 21, 2007, at 9:06 AM, ScottGee1 wrote:
> Is it just me or are lenses from different manufacturers starting to
> look even more alike than ever before? Other than the distinct Leica
> typeface, this one looks similar to a C@non consumer lens.
>
> Is it possible that my 'nudge-nudge/wink-wink' theory that there are
> only a couple factories making lenses (or most other products for that
> matter) and they simply change the names to protect the, uh, innocent?
>
> Grazie, Fabio!
>
> ScottGee1
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