[LRflex] Re: Patent by Steven K. Lee

At 29/01/2007, you wrote:
>It will be a hard job David,
>there are quite a few Steven K Lees, Stephen K Lees, Steve K Lees, SK
>Lees S.K. Lees.
>Many of them to do with the audio and computer industry (digital
>watermarking) and even a technical and scientific law specialist of the
>same name.
>Best of luck, I couldn't find anything definitive.
>Cheers
>Douglas


G'Mornin' Douglas!

Heck... if you leave out the "K", you get a gazillion of 
'em!  Obviously a very popular name.

I don't *really* think that the Steven K Lee in the patent is "our" 
Steven K. Lee, but the coincidence of an autofocus system and his now 
leading a firm that is possibly headed in the AF direction, seemed 
just too good to be true!

That being said, if Leica were to go to AF, this would be an 
interesting way to go about it.  They might even be able to do it 
with existing lenses.  Certainly, the Contax N method (the only other 
commercialized method for putting AF "in the camera") didn't seem to 
be (a)  reliable or (b) commercially successful.

As Tom Schofield said:

>Sounds like the idea is that the Modular lens system
>Leica has now for 280 2.8 and larger lenses, could
>potentially be sold for N, C, Sony, Pentax, etc.  by
>selling the focusing modules made for each respective
>camera system, Like a very sophisticated adapatall
>mount.

What a great way to make a set of lenses, which are magnificent but 
priced only for the pros, much more marketable!

For smaller lenses, it might be possible to build the AF "focusing 
module", while using Leica's existing lens designs in new lens heads 
to fit.  The machining would all be new, but the optical stuff would 
stay the same... a very low cost way to provide AF in new lenses 
while maintaining mount compatibility with our existing MF lenses.

I wonder if Leica have even seen this idea?

This is almost as good as being an "armchair quarterback"!  ;-)

Cheers!




---

David Young,
Logan Lake, CANADA

Wildlife Photographs: http://www.telyt.com/
Personal Web-pages: http://www3.telus.net/~telyt




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