Chinese lenses

[rramesh]

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There are many products made in China. Many of the top brands in the world make their products in China. Leica has several partnerships with Chinese manufacturers and many of their products in the past with partnership with Panasonic were made in China.

In any market, there are the good and the bad, and this is true of products made in most other countries.

Chinese lenses are good at the price point they are sold at. Sometimes as good as, or even better, than more expensive lenses e.g, 7Artisans, Lens Light Lab. 

As a buyer, the final decision is yours and yours alone, and you should not blame others for your poor decisions.

 

[jankap]

We need more brick walls, I assume.

Aren´t lenses be made to take pictures with them? Herefore I propose no brick walls as subjects.🤪

Edited November 14, 2022 by jankap

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[jdlaing]

2 minutes ago, jankap said:

We need more brick walls, I assume.

 

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[Al Brown]

Here is the fast Far East Gang. All are more or less decentered in some way - one of the corners of each is blurrier than the other wide open at infinity.

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[AndreasG]

I had two Chinese lenses, the first was the 7A 1.1/50. It was useless at open aperture, just a nice paper weight, meanwhile I sold it. The second one was 7the A 2/35, which showed surprisingly good resolution and contrast, but also a strong pin cushion distortion and flare, I rarely use it and my interest in Chinese lenses is almost gone.

[satijntje]

I owned several ttartisan and 7artisans lenses, but have sold them all.

Better one Leica lens then 6 copies!

No more Chinese lenses in my house, for sure. 

[lct]

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Too bad for Chinese lenses... Are Russian lenses still allowed? Jupiter 85/2 from 1969 here.  Copied Sonnar design under Leonid Brejnev . 

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[lct]

Not that bad that little 7art 35/2 anyway. 

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[Huss]

I found the 7Artisans 35mm f2 to be excellent optically.  The finish and feel was a bit rudimentary.  I replaced it with a CV 35 1.4 v2 because as a film shooter the extra stop was valuable.  And the lens was still tiny!.

Leica M4-2, 7A 35 f2, Kodak ProImage 100

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[sometimesmaybe]

The 50mm TTA f1.4 is a great lens - just a tad too big IMO 🤓 These images were shot wide open on the m246 and edited to (poor) personal taste.

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[sometimesmaybe]

These 2 images are from the 7A 75mm f1.25. I understand it's a sonnar derivative. i find the lens has too much spherical aberration wide open, but it strikes the right balance at f2.8 🤓 Again these were shot on the m246 and edited to taste

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[Huss]

8 hours ago, sometimesmaybe said:

The 50mm TTA f1.4 is a great lens - just a tad too big IMO 🤓 These images were shot wide open on the m246 and edited to (poor) personal taste.

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Why ‘poor’ personal taste?  They are awesome!  You put your personal stamp on your work.

[sometimesmaybe]

5 hours ago, Huss said:

Why ‘poor’ personal taste?  They are awesome!  You put your personal stamp on your work.

thank you 🙏 

that was just a bad joke on my part... i thought i'd sound like too much of a wanker if i said 'awesome' personal taste

that's also a joke... maybe 😅

[adan]

Just for the record, Leitz's patent for the M mount was established in a three-step process, beginning in Feb. 1950 (and thus in no way affected by WW2).

Final patent granted in 1953, and apparently renewed by its original expiration date of June 30, 1970.

https://patents.google.com/patent/US2643581A/en

In 1999, the patent was expiring again (50 years from priority date), and not so coincidentally, Konica (Konica Hexar RF) and Cosina (Bessa T) soon began making M-mount lenses and cameras.

https://www.cameraquest.com/konicam.htm

https://www.cameraquest.com/VCBessaT.htm

The basic M mount has been in the public domain for 20 years.

In April 2007 Leica applied for a patent for the 6-bit coding system introduced the year before in the M8, and that is still in effect. Which is why no-one else can use 6-bit coding.

https://patents.justia.com/patent/7848634

[lct]

3 hours ago, adan said:

In April 2007 Leica applied for a patent for the 6-bit coding system introduced the year before in the M8, and that is still in effect. Which is why no-one else can use 6-bit coding.

Interesting to note that the early copies of the 7artisans 35/2 were coded as Summicron 35/2 asph but current copies are not coded any more AFAIC. I don't know if they have a grove in the flange for hand coding now. If not, those lenses are not made for jpeg users, i suspect, unless they have less distortion than that of my early coded copy.

[Al Brown]

7artisans 50 f/1.1 wide open on M10. I had a stellar copy. But it had another flaw - brought up only partial framelines (somewhere in between).
Sold it to a happy Sony user who never had such brutal problems...

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[Al Brown]

Remember the gold stickers on Japanese lenses saying PASSED / JCII? Maybe Chinese lenses would benefit from a QC system like Japan had back in the day - via an optical inspection and testing institute. Here is the full story:

https://mikeeckman.com/2020/03/kepplers-vault-58-jcii/

[jdlaing]

On 11/22/2022 at 8:03 AM, Al Brown said:

Remember the gold stickers on Japanese lenses saying PASSED / JCII? Maybe Chinese lenses would benefit from a QC system like Japan had back in the day - via an optical inspection and testing institute. Here is the full story:

https://mikeeckman.com/2020/03/kepplers-vault-58-jcii/

One of the biggest fallacies I’ve ever seen. I was in Japan in the late ‘60s and they stuck those labels on in a camera shop right in front of me. 

[david strachan]

Thanks Jim

I'd always wondered why the stickers all looked the same, and not different from each individual factory.  Creepy really, anything to fool the consumer.

So they just get a sticker sheet and peel off-apply to anything really.

I hope this sort of con has finished now with Japan being more sophisticated.

All best..

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Hallo,

Look here: Leica M

[Al Brown]

Sometimes when reading these pages it feels like it's still 1945.

If it says JCII, it's a real JCII inspection sticker, and these were legit indicators that the camera passed the inspection.
If it says anything else, it means nothing much. The JCII stickers were introduced in 1967.
 

 

 

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Edited November 24, 2022 by Al Brown