Taylor Hobson Xenon 5cm f1.5

[gvaliquette]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

To all of you historical gurus,

 

How does the "Taylor Hobson" Xenon differ from the other Xenons. The Wiki entry mentions it, but does not give any specific information beyond "Taylor Hobson variant".

 

Thanks for enlightening me.

 

Guy

[jc_braconi]

the lenses wear the "Taylor-Hobson US Patent 2019985" or "Taylor-Hobson Brit.Pat. 373950" engraving as in export countries this company held the patents.

Leitz had a later patent for the same design.

here is a pict about a Summarit holding the engraving Taylor-Taylor & Hobson with USA Pat.

 

[Advertisement]

The Leica Q3 is available for pre-order at B&H Photo Video and Adorama

[luigi bertolotti]

Engraving is the only difference: the lenses are at all identical; the Taylor Hobson engraving was added to the lenses sold in countries (UK and USA, I seem) where Taylor Hobson Co. still retained the original patent of the design, which was "sold" to Schneider, which in turn allowed Leica to use the design for a 50 mm lens, being Schneider more interested to implement the Xenon design on large format lenses.

 

BTW, also the Summarit 1,5 (which is, in practice, a coated Xenon) exists in the version with Taylor Hobson engraving.

[luigi bertolotti]

I whished to post a pic of my Taylor Hobson Summarit... JC has been quickier... and my pic, in comparision, is a very poor one..