2011/3/2 Marc James Small <marcsmall@xxxxxxxxxxx>: > That arrangement was made by direct licensing by Zeiss of Rolleiflex to > produce these lenses using Zeiss lens names. Again, the patents would have > run out around 1990, so it is surprising that Rollei did not begin using > Zeiss designs with their own lens names decades ago. In 1972 Zeiss-Ikon shut down the Voigtländer optical factory they had bought a few years before, that year Carl Zeiss Oberkochen, Rollei and the Gemeinwirtschaft Bank had an agreement to found the "Optischen Werke Voigtländer GmbH" to keep alive the VO factory and considering the Rollei decision for large scale production. The VO factory was dedicated to manufacture more common Zeiss lenses for the Rollei cameras keeping the Zeiss lenses name but replacing "Carl Zeiss" by "made by Rollei", this arrangement included Zeiss lenses made by the Rollei Optical Co Singapore too; the lenses more difficult to manufacture were made at Carl Zeiss Oberkochen anyway, with the name Carl Zeiss in the lens ring of course but with the Rollei term "HFT" (High Fidelity Transfer) for the T* multicoating process to keep the same name for this significant feature regarding the Zeiss lenses made by Rollei; these were the reasons for the Zeiss lenses "made by Rollei" without mention to CZ in the lens ring during the '70s. When Rollei was not in survival mode, even if they could use Zeiss lenses designs with Rollei names without patents issues, it was better to keep the Zeiss lenses name for the best Rollei cameras paying fees to Zeiss for commercial purposes, it's not the same "Planar" or "Sonnar" than "Apogon", but the situation is different now, anyway the FX TLR lens is called "Planar" yet. Carlos --- Rollei List - Post to rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx - Subscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'subscribe' in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org - Unsubscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org - Online, searchable archives are available at //www.freelists.org/archives/rollei_list