Rollei LTM the 40 rollei sonnar...a question!

Rollei M39 screw mount lenses
maddoc said:
Design by Zeiss, barrel by Cosina, assembled by Rollei ?
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That's pretty much the consensus. "Assembled" means the glass elements (presumably from a third party, but one never knows) were ground, polished, assembled and coated by Rollei, no?
 
Regarding the 40 Sonnar RF, my understanding was that only the optical cell was manufactured by Rollei and the rest of the lens (mechanics, barrel) by Cosina. When I purchased one originally from Robert White Photopraphic, the RF focus was slightly off and the focus mount has a tiny bit of play. Adjustment by DAG corrected both issues very nicely and the resulting lens was a splendid performer and a little sharper than those samples tested on the Rollei 35S/SE. I'd rank it between Leica M and Zeiss ZM given the existence of the even rarer 80/2.8 Planar RF (manufactured by Rollei) lifted from their renowned Rollei TLR. That lens was also supplied with a neat Nikon F focusing mount adapter for use on your favorite Nikon body.
 
This applies to many products "Made in Germany" these days ... It should be denoted correctly "Designed in Germany" or "Assembled in Germany" or even better "Assembled / Designed in Europe".
 
That has been happening for a long, long time. The famous "Made in Germany" Walther PPKs were actually manufactured in France, with only the final finishing made in Germany.
 
One potential problem with the 40/2.8 is that these can develop some pretty severe haze, and opening one up is apparently extremely difficult. I had a silver one with haze that Rollei (or the current DHW) wouldn't touch. They directed me to a US repairman who could not clean it despite trying and messing up the chrome in the process.
 
The pouch that came with the lens is the main source of the haze. In another word, Rollei wants you shoot with their lens always.
 
Not unusual for the U.S., too. I'm not familiar w/German law (or perhaps this has been subsumed under EU law), but under U.S. country of origin marking laws, imported merchandise does not have to be completely made in the foreign country to be marked "Made in X" or "Product of Y." This is not true, however, for products labeled "Made In USA" because domestic products are covered by different laws & standards--they must be all or virtually all made in the U.S. Consequently (& perhaps ironically), a product that might not qualify to be marked "Made in USA" in the U.S. could conceivably be legitimately labeled as such in another country (depending on its laws), like Germany.

maddoc said:
This applies to many products "Made in Germany" these days ... It should be denoted correctly "Designed in Germany" or "Assembled in Germany" or even better "Assembled / Designed in Europe".
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sepiareverb said:
One potential problem with the 40/2.8 is that these can develop some pretty severe haze, and opening one up is apparently extremely difficult. I had a silver one with haze that Rollei (or the current DHW) wouldn't touch. They directed me to a US repairman who could not clean it despite trying and messing up the chrome in the process.
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Interesting. Mine has a very slight touch of haze on the first element. It was purchased NOS, so I suspect the vinyl case with which the lens was foolishly packed is indeed the culprit. A skilled technician in Lyon tried, but could not open it up. Now I understand.

In my case, I don't think the IQ is affected, but I would have paid to have had it cleaned up to find out. Contrast and sharpness are excellent on my copy.
 
jonmanjiro said:
Interesting! If "Made in Germany" doesn't really mean made in Germany these days, it begs the question what exactly does Germany do to make its economy one of the powerhouses of the EU?

An active financial industry for Wall Street type creative financial products? :eek::D
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German economist Hans-Werner Sinn has coined the term "bazaar economy" to describe what has been happening in Germany: Low-wage competition from Eastern European countries and Asia, and Germany’s relatively high wage costs have meant that products are prefabricated abroad and re-imported for final assembly in Germany. Thus, instead of “made in Germany,” it is more appropriate to talk about “designed, assembled and sold in Germany.” According to this logic, Germany is turning into a bazaar economy that supplies the world with high-value products, but the value of these goods is no longer produced in Germany. Goods are thus mainly channeled through Germany relative to the valued added.

Hello, Leica business model.
 
noimmunity said:
Interesting. Mine has a very slight touch of haze on the first element.
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I had one copy with a fair bit of haze which did give an impressionistic look to things. My current one has been fine and I keep no lenses in cases, so hopefully it can remain haze-less.

I don't know why this lens would be so difficult to open, sad.
 
raid said:
I once compared the 43mm Pentax with the Summicron-C and I could not tell the difference.
Maybe we have very similar rendition by Summicron-C, Pentax 43mm, and Rollei 40mm.
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Yes indeed! the Pentax FA43/1.9 Limited was without a doubt my very favorite of all the Pentax lenses I owned, and very similar in its rendering to the Summicron-C and Rollei Sonnar 40mm lenses. I nearly kept a Pentax body simply to be able to use that lens.
 
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