Richard Schaetzl wrote:
>Mark Hammons wrote:
>
>> Then came the R series -- R3, R4, R5, RE, R5, R6, R6.2, R7, which,
>> I understand were manufactured in part by Minolta.
>
>The R3 was build in collaboration with Minolta, it was an improved
>Minolta design (spotmetering), but I haven´t heard of an "R made in
>Japan".
I am not privvy to all the details, but the R3 is a slightly modified
(enhanced!) version of Minolta's XE-7 (XE or XE-1 outside North America).
I bet that most of the R3 components were manufactured by Minolta,
regardless of where the final assembly took place.
It's a well known anecdote that Leitz had serious problems selling its
"made in Canada" M-bodies, even though the quality was absolutely on
par with the German-made equivalents. Eventually, a large inventory
of finished Leica bodies was moved from Canada back to Germany, where
the top plates were replaced with ones stamped with the magic phrase
"made in Germany". Subsequently, the cameras sold like hotcakes.....,
oops, I meant: like hot praetzle :-)
>This "Leica made in Japan" rumor is mostly due to the "baby M Leica" the
>CL and Minolta CLE a "budget" range finder camera. The funny thing is,
>that some of there lenses marked "Minolta Rokkor" where made by Leitz in
>Wetzlar.
Well, this doesn't explain the R-series Vario Elmar 70-210/f4 zoom
lens I saw this weekend, which had (a very disreet, mind you!!!)
engraving: "made in Japan". IMHO, it's an overdressed and rebadged
version of the Minolta MD 70-210/f4 -- a fantastic performer, btw.
Of course, Leitz made sure to equip their Vario Elmar with a 60mm (!)
filter size, and sold it for 6 times the price of the Minolta zoom,
and with filters priced in triple digits. No worries, any self-
respecting Leica collector/user would never expect any less from
his/her Valhalla in Wetzlar.
Cheers,
/Gary Schloss.
Studio City, CA
schloss@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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