Leica a German made lens

[delta100]

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It seems to me to have the Leica German made lens is to just go APO. 35 APO, 50 APO, 75 APO and may be a 90 or 135. Forget all the other Leica lens's no longer made in my beloved Germany!

[rtai]

Care to elaborate? 

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[Al Brown]

Nicht verstehen.

[jakontil]

I dont quite get what the OP trying to reach

[rramesh]

The quality of a product is more important than it's place of manufacture. Leica has a German pedigree. However, there is no reason why all products need to be made only in Germany. Today many Leica products and/or components are sourced and/or being manufactured in many other countries - Portugal, Canada, Indonesia, Japan, China etc.

Will I stop buying Leica. No! I will buy what I need within my budget. If it's not, I will look elsewhere. 

Voigtlander and Zeiss were/are German companies. Today their lenses are made in Japan by Cosina and sold through a global network of distributors. Are they inferior products. Most certainly not!

[BradS]

I'm more interested in how it performs than where it was made.

Edited September 5, 2022 by BradS

[spydrxx]

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The OP is probably trolling.

[rtai]

Some of the greatest Leica optics were made in Canada - Noctilux, 75mm Summilux, 35mm Summilux pre Asph, etc.

[delta100]

Leica Germany did say some time ago that only the APO range for the M camera are German made. The others are now made in Portugal.

[Jared]

2 minutes ago, delta100 said:

Leica Germany did say some time ago that only the APO range for the M camera are German made. The others are now made in Portugal.

Are you sure about that? From looking at my M glass:

Portugal

• 28mm Summaron f/5.6

Germany

• 50mm Noctilux f/1.2 Reissue
• 21mm Super Elmar f/3.4
• 35mm APO Summicron f/2
• 75mm APO Summicron f/2
• 50mm APO Summicron f/2
• 75mm Noctilux f/1.25

So, of my four non-APO lenses, three are made in Germany and one in Portugal. All are quite recent manufacture (within the past three years). And, at least one of the Made in Germany lenses--the 21mm SEM--is on the inexpensive side for Leica, so it's not simply a matter of more expensive glass = Germany, less expensive glass = Portugal. 

Thanks - Jared

[pippy]

3 hours ago, delta100 said:

Leica Germany did say some time ago that only the APO range for the M camera are German made. The others are now made in Portugal.

Is there a point you are trying to make? You have stating a few things which are obviously completely inaccurate so please try to be more transparent as to your OP.

Thanks in advance.

P.

Edited September 5, 2022 by pippy

[adan]

6 hours ago, Jared said:

Are you sure about that? From looking at my M glass:

Portugal

• 28mm Summaron f/5.6

.....

 

So, of my four non-APO lenses, three are made in Germany and one in Portugal

And the revived 28mm Summaron, along with a handful of other lenses**, was only briefly "Made in Portugal," to get around 25% US tariffs specifically on "German-made optics" during a US/EU trade war a couple of years back. And therefore only offered in the USA (although I suppose some may have reached other markets). Wetzlar continued to make the same lenses also.

https://www.diyphotography.net/leicas-made-in-portugal-lenses-are-up-to-500-cheaper-in-the-us-than-their-germany-made-counterparts/

On which subject there have been multiple other threads on this forum, so no need to rehash all that in detail here.

________________

**50mm Summilux ASPH, 50mm Summicron, 35mm Summicron ASPH, 28 Summicron ASPH, 28 Elmarit ASPH

[Stuart Richardson]

As far as I understand it, most Leica products begin assembly in Portugal, and parts are sourced around the world. Portugal is an EU country that has to comply with largely the same labor standards as Germany, and it is certainly not new, as Leica has had a factory in Portugal since 1973...coming up on fifty years. Here is an article with a lot of info on the factory. http://www.fdtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/80FDTimes-LEICA-PortugalFactoryTour.pdf

There is nothing magic about German hands unless you are inclined to a racist world view. With proper training, facilities and labor laws, manufacturing can be done anywhere in the world equally as well. If they were outsourcing to a developing country with poor labor laws, that would be one thing, but Portugal is an advanced economy within the EU...personally I would not give it a second thought if my lens was made in Portugal.

[TomB_tx]

2 hours ago, Stuart Richardson said:

...personally I would not give it a second thought if my lens was made in Portugal.

or Canada!

[Pierre68]

On 9/5/2022 at 5:37 PM, spydrxx said:

The OP is probably trolling.

...and everybody's jumping on it