What does Peter Karbe do all day?

[jrp]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

Not a completely facetious question. He has designed a few M lenses in recent years, but a stripling designed the (superb, if humungous) SL lenses, so he clearly doesn't do everything himself. 

[semi-ambivalent]

Working hard all day, every day is an artifact of the 19th century. The promise of the Machine Age was to increase leisure, not productivity. I suspect Herr Karbe and his minions could go on a tear if only Leica's bean counters gave him a blank check. Maybe re-visit Mandler's designs. Leica could sell an M-A & three lens kit for something less than a Noctilux.

 

s-a

[Advertisement]

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

[pop]

....The promise of the Machine Age was to increase leisure, not productivity. ....

Whose leisure?

[jrp]

Yes, various economists, such as Keynes, postulated that we would all be working 2-3 day weeks by now. But that has not happened obv for reasons that depend on your PoV. 

[Peter Kilmister]

During the second world war UK increased the working day to produce more. Productivity fell. Then the UK reduced hours and productivity increased.

In the 1970s the UK had a 3 day week due to strikes by the power workers. Productivity went to the highest level ever known.

I have no idea why. I'm not sure I want to know why. It is a fact that seems to defy logic and therefore of interest from a social point of view.

Edited March 26, 2016 by Peter Kilmister

[pgk]

I have a friend who designs lens systems. I don't know what he does all day, but I do know that there is a vast amount of preparatory work sorting out the parameters which a lens system design has to take into account. This will involve a number of people since the design has to fit within the requirements of marketing, engineering, etc.). I assume there is then a check to see if the design is possible, modifications to the specifications if it isn't, or if costs are too high, redesign, reassessment and so on. Tolerances, I am aware are very important (too tight and costs rise quickly) as are build sequences (lenses have to be assembled and tested economically) and so on. Designing a camera lens is far removed from being a process involving simply sitting in front of a computer and using software to knock out superlative designs by the dozen. Oh yes, and it requires a fundamental understanding about how a lens is conceived - something the Mandler was amazingly good at and Karbe seems to have an extraordinary grasp of as well.

[dkCambridgeshire]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

Leica's lens designs are not solely for Leica camera enthusiasts' cameras. 

 

dunk

Edited March 26, 2016 by dkCambridgeshire

[NB23]

Lotsa unglamorous work, probably. Loupes, microscopes... I have no idea, actually.

[TomB_tx]

I thought Karbe managed and directed the department that designs the optics. If so he would spend most of his time on those responsibilities, not on the grunt work of individual designs. A lens would be called "a Karbe design" if done under his direction, not necessarily meaning he did all the work. 

When my job shifted to manage a design group I found I could not manage effectively and spend most of my time on my own projects. I preferred designing to managing, and so changed jobs.

[semi-ambivalent]

Whose leisure?

At the time, everybody's, of course. I'll avoid the kerfluffle except to say hundreds of thousands of pages will be written about now in history and I doubt the future will be any wiser. It was hard not to be impressed by the flood of new ideas around the time of Great Exhibition in 1851.

 

s-a

[mmradman]

As a head of department he is probably responsible for lots of departmental admin tasks; time sheet approval, staff appreisals, chairing design review meetings (it is design department after all), preparing power point presentations for numerous purposes.  After he is finished he may be able to do some thinking about optical design in his free time.

[Exodies]

Perhaps he "gets out there" and "takes some photographs" as we are often encouraged to do when folk consider we are commenting too much on the gear.

[michaelwj]

I think the OP underestimates the amount of time it takes to design a lens and put it into production. Administration, patents, designs, manufacturing feasibility, testing, and and while lot of thinking. The more I think about it the longer the list gets so I'll stop now, but it is a lot more that putting some specs into a computer and then making the result.

 

M

[jaapv]

And underestimates the level of insight needed to conceive a lens design. It is a bit like asking "What does Magnus Carlsen do all day?"

[Guest]

Not a completely facetious question, what does "jrp" all day? Weird thread but, hey, it's the internet!

[Frase]

He's maybe in charge of quality control when not designing.

[sblitz]

I am not exactly sure why it even matters to any of us? If he is overpaid, then good for him! This sounds like when fans complain about how much a player earns, as if they are directly footing the bill or that ticket prices would be less if the player made less. I have known a number of people in various types of industrial design jobs over the years. While we focus on the "lens design", designers are equally focused on sourcing (different types of glass, etc)  and manufacturing (how do you make it, and make it cost effective) and even the box it goes in (and how to make the box and who makes it). Reminds of the old adage that armchair generals discuss tactics, real generals discuss logistics......

[dkCambridgeshire]

Peter Karbe is as successful and innovative with his lens design team's projects as Walter Mandler was with his. The amount of actual 'shop floor time' either of them put in towards their goals matters little - but you can bet your bottom dollar that both could show their subordinates a thing or three about every aspect of lens design and production. 

 

dunk

[easy_action]

Weird thread but, hey, it's the internet!

 

+1

 

jrp is there anything in particular that you'd like him to be working on?

[Advertisement]

Hallo,

Look here: Leica M

[CheshireCat]

I don't know what Karbe is doing, but what he should be doing is a Noctilux 35/1

Edited March 28, 2016 by CheshireCat