Noctilux mystery: New lens is marked "Made in Canada"

[marknorton]

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There were lots of rumours - glass that had to cool for 18 months, elements used in the glass which made it illegal to manufacture in Germany, hence was always made in Canada, only a handful of people in Elcan who knew how to make the lens, people asked to come back from retirement and so on.

 

All part of the mystique to justify the sky-high close out prices.

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[pgk]

Well it might be mystique, but I do know that some glass types can be VERY expensive, difficult to source (there are apparently only a few specialist glass manufacturers) and tricky to work with. I am also aware that it appears that there are new EU regs. banning certain substances which are affecting some products (ni-cad batteries for example).

 

Given these potential problems, and that Elcan's core business has little to do with Leica's products these days, it wouldn't seem unreasonable to assume that the old noctilux was not particularly economic to build and its high price (whilst difficult to justify to most of us) may have reflected the fact that materials have been used up, personel have retired or are retiring and low volume specialist manufacture by skilled people is now very expensive.

[Guest darkstar2004]

Aside from new regulations that ban lead and arsenic in glass, could the demise of the old Noct be tied to this glass no longer being available?

That's what I read somewhere - that "environmental regulations" outlawed the use of arsenic in the manufacturing process. This reminds me of the demise of the Hasselblad XPAN due to lead solder in its circuit boards.

 

I'm in favor of environmentalism, but when things like these two instances result from environmental protection laws, it smacks of extremism.

 

Unfortunately these days, those in the Political Class view extremism as their birthright. "Zero tolerance" is their battle cry - while they demand that the rest of us be more tolerant.

 

I also read that there were 3 or 4 people who built the Noctiluxes and that they were retiring with no relpacement technicians take their place. Apparently it is not as simple a matter as training replacement workers to fill the shoes of the retirees.

 

All this makes me wonder how the new f/0.95 Noctilux could be built; perhaps by utilizing new manufacturing & glass technology that the older f/1.0 Noctilux did not employ in the manufacturing process?

 

There have to be people out there who know the real story - and apparently they are keeping it to themselves.

[adan]

That's what I read somewhere - that "environmental regulations" outlawed the use of arsenic in the manufacturing process. This reminds me of the demise of the Hasselblad XPAN due to lead solder in its circuit boards. ....

 

All this makes me wonder how the new f/0.95 Noctilux could be built; perhaps by utilizing new manufacturing & glass technology that the older f/1.0 Noctilux did not employ in the manufacturing process?

 

... the original optics of the Zeiss Biogon 38mm f/4.5 had to be revised in the 90's due to the elimination of heavy-metal glass, as well, leading to the SWC903.

 

As to lens numbering, at one point I had a very early version of the compact Canadian 90 f/2. The serial number "dated" to a batch assigned in 1977, even though the optical design was not introduced until 1980.

 

Obviously Leica had designated a range of 2000 numbers for 90 f/2s starting in 1977, and it took at least 3 years to work through them. Some of the numbers went to the last of the "stovepipe" 90s, and some to the new design.

 

Same for the Nocti, only it took 5-10 years to sell 2000 lenses (maybe less to sell the last 300-400 due to the marketing impact of announcing they were discontinued).

[georg]

I have no problem at all with "environmental regulations" but men always look for the easiest way and usually it isn't the way the law intended. They regulate it in Germany, so the work just isn't done in Germany anymore but in Eastern Europe or China and then the finished product is brought back to Germany again...

Solution:

Don't prohibit the manufacturing technology but the final product containing those elements or made by using those technologies, so you'll have to follow the same standards when you want to sell it...