[rollei_list] AW: Re: Color Ultron AR 1.4/55 Made in Germany?
- From: <Dirk-Roger.Schmitt@xxxxxx>
- To: <rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2012 19:37:06 +0000
Carlos,
thanks a lot, please see my comments:
-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: rollei_list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:rollei_list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Im Auftrag von CarlosMFreaza
Gesendet: Donnerstag, 26. April 2012 12:21
An: rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Betreff: [rollei_list] Re: Color Ultron AR 1.4/55 Made in Germany?
<Dirk-Roger.Schmitt@xxxxxx<mailto:Dirk-Roger.Schmitt@xxxxxx>> escribió:
> I am really wondering where this lens comes from.
>
> All the lenses available are in the Mamiya type Rolleinar design.
> They look like the other Mamiya lenses for Rolleinar or Voigtländer.
> Most of them are marked Made in Japan.
>
> I have one marked Made in Germany which is very rare.
> However, the lens housing anyway looks like any other Mamiya stuff.
>
> So I am wondering where the Made in Germany comes from
>
> Anyway, the mechanics of the Mamiya Rolleinar lenses is clearly superior to
> the mechanics of the Zeiss lenses 1.8/50, 1.4/50, 2,8/80, 2.8/135 etc.
As I commented in a previous post, Rolleinar/Mamiya lenses were made first in
Japan and by Rollei Singapore (Rollei Optical Co) afterwards according a post
from Claus Prochnow talking about Rollei up to the
1981 bankruptcy, however I never saw a Rolleinar/Mamiya lens "made in
Singapore" (perhaps they exist, I don't know), I guess the lens barrel was made
in Japan anyway (then "Made in Japan") and the optics by Rollei. It's
interesting to note that Prochnow writes in the Report IV that the
Rolleinar/Mamiya/Color Ultron (I'd add Planar Contarex)MC 1.4/55mm lens was
made through Mamiya Japan and _Rollei Braunschweig_ ( Rollei had the former
Voigtländer factory to manufacture lenses in Braunschweig).
No reason to believe that. Maybe in the case 1,4 /55 first optics were made in
Braunschweig, put into Barrels from Mamiya? The barrels first marked Germany,
later the barrels marked Japan?
Sounds strange. Also the barrels are much more superior to the other ones
Rollei was able to make at this time.
Mamiya no longer manufactured lenses for 35mm cameras from about 1984 (perhaps
before this date), and Rollei lost the Rollei Optical Co in Singapore from
1981,
that is correct.
but Rollei provided several Rolleinar/Mamiya lenses for the 3003 and 3001
cameras manufactured up to 1994 and for the 3003 metric manufactured up to
about 1998/2000, these lenses were made by Rollei in Braunschweig under Mamiya
license,
definitely not
Rollei only made Zeiss lenses in license and bought the other lenses from
Japan. That is for sure as I worked together with the Rollei people in an
optics research project and knew at bit about their optical production shop,
which I visited on regular basis.
However for a long time, some Rolleinar lenses from Mamiya were sold. Those
came out of large stock Rollei Fototechnik overtook after the bankruptcy.
perhaps Rollei still had lenses barrels "Made in Japan" from the Rollei
Singapore factory as happened for the Rollei 35mm electronic shutters, the
"Made in Germany" barrels appeared when they used all the "Made in Japan"
barrels, this is a speculation, but the facts are that the Rolleinar/Mamiya
lenses, at least the optics, were made in Germany by Rollei after the
bankruptcy.
Absolutely not true. No Mamiya lense was made after bankruptcy in Braunschweig.
My 1.4/55 with marking "Made in Germany" I bought directly in the bankruptcy
sale in Braunschweig, so it was made far before the bankruptcy.
Every Rolleinar/Mamiya lens (they were manufactured from 1977) was provided
with the groove to give the wide open diaphragm data to the camera body (QBM
IV).
True
Rollei decided to offer the Japanese Rolleinar lenses for the 35mmm SLR cameras
because they were cheap and very good lenses, some of these lenses designs were
also very modern, the zooms specially.
Zooms were, at least some, from Tokina.
The German optics industry produced a few zooms at the time and they couldn't
compete with the Japanese zooms, Zeiss Germany did not manufacture zooms and
Schneider manufactured two bulkies, heavies and very expensive 45-100 and
80-240mm zooms, in the other hand the Japanese 35mm cameras were provided with
cheaper, lighter and computer designed MC zoom lenses.
It is right, that the German industry was no more able to produce competing
zoom lenses.
So I have no doubt, that all Rolleinar lenses were made fully in Japan. The
only exception is the 1.4 55 with a japanese barrel in a quality at that time
no one in Germany could produce anymore- but marked "Made in Germany".
Another explanation is that when Rollei launched the Rolleinar series, they
made some prototypes, so maybe they mounted the QBM Bajonet to the japanese
lenses, marked them Germany and showed them to journalists.
This of course is only valid for 35 mm lenses.
For 6000 system lenses, there were Zeiss, Schneider, and Mamiya lenses sold
after bakruptcy.
Some Schneider and Zeiss were bought, others made in license.
Regards
Dirk
Carlos
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