Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/11/29[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]
Carl Zeiss started a trend by their use of the red "T" when they began marketing coated lenses in the 1930's; Kodak and Wollensak followed suit, as did Schneider. When Nikon looted the Zeiss lens designs, they "borrowed" as well the Zeiss Smakula coating process and marked their lenses as coated with the red "C". (The Soviets did, as well, with a red Cyrillic "P".) And then Zeiss, that ultimate optical trend-setter, initiated yet another tendency: in hommage to minimalism, they ceased using the red "T" when they changed to the "Carl Zeiss" name from the interim "Zeiss-Opton" brand on 1st October 1953. By that time, virtually all Zeiss lenses were coated. Jena almost immediately followed suit, as did the Americans. Nikon and the Soviets lingered on for four or five years but, finally, adopted Zeiss's lead, once more. The history of photography can be most interesting! Marc firstname.lastname@example.org FAX: +540/343-7315 Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!