stevme
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Ok, for those of you wondering, including me, here is the skinny on those Leica lens names, taken from http://www.overgaard.dk/leica_index.html Bet you don't know where the "M" comes from . . . .
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APO
stands for "apochromatically corrected". In most lenses, optical design concentrates the focus of blue light and green light into a single plane, but red light falls slightly into another plane of focus. Red subjects, therefore, would be ever so slightly out of focus compared to blue and green subjects in the same frame. Not sure you'd ever notice though, the difference is so slight. This is the same basic principle that requires you to shift the focus for infrared photography, related to the wave length of red light. In APO lenses, the design and expense has been put in to making red light focus on the same plane as blue and green. Under a microscope you would see that all light subject is now in focus, creating a sharper image overall. Many manufacturers offer APO designs, but in most of these only the very center of the lens is APO corrected. Leica prides itself on making most of the frame APO correcte.
ASPH
… stands for "aspheric design". Most lenses have a spherical design - that is, the radius of curvature is constant. These are easy to manufacture by grinding while "spinning" the glass. This design however restricts the number of optical corrections that can be made to the design to render the most realistic image possible. ASPH lenses, however, involve usually 1 element that does *not* have a constant radius of curvature. These elements can be made by 1) expensive manual grinding, 2) molded plastic, 3) Leica's patented "press" process, where the element is pressed into an aspherical ("non-spherical") shape. This design allows the manufacturer to introduce corrections into compact lens designs that weren't possible before. Practically, the lens performs "better" (up to interpretation) due to increased correction of the image, in a package not significantly bigger than the spherical version.
There is another Aspherical lens manufacture technique: an uneven coating layer is applied to a spherical lens. The coating is thicker on the edges (or on the center, depending). Canon "Lens Work II" calls these "simulated" aspherical lenses. Simulated and Glass-Molded (GMo) asphericals show up in non-L Canon lenses, while the L lenses have actual ground aspheric elements.
Elmar
Refers to the maximum lens aperture - here f3.5 . Historically derived from the original 1925 50mm f3.5 Elmax lens, which was an acronym of (E)rnst (L)ieca and Professor (Max) Berek, designer of the original lenses. Later that year the 50mm f3.5 Elmar superceded the Elmax, which was discontinued due to its complexity and high cost of manufacture.
Elmarit
Refers to the maximum lens aperture - here f2.8 . The name is obviously derived from the earlier (and slower) "Elmar" designation. Not every f2.8 lens is called an "Elmarit" though, the most obvious current exception being the 50mm f2.8 Elmar-M collapsible lens which for nostalgia and marketing reasons has kept the original 1930's Elmar name (the 50mm f3.5 collapsible Elmar, manufactured 1930-59, was one of Leica's most famous and popular lenses).
Hektor
Refers to the maximum lens aperture - usually f2.5 . The name was apparently taken from the name of lens designer Professor Max Berek's dog(!).
Leica
A compound word derived from " (Lei)tz " and " (ca)mera ". Apparently they were originally going to use "LECA", but another camera company already used a similar name in France, so they inserted the 'i' to prevent any confustion.
M
(as in "M3", "M6", "M7" etc.)
… stands for "Messucher", which is German for "Viewfinder". The "3" in M3 was chosen because of the three bright line finders for the 50, 90 and 135 mm lenses. Later the numbers of the M cameras were more or less chosen to follow each other.
"Meßsucher". It is always correctly written with the "ß". There are technically not three "s", rather the "ß" and one "s" because it is a word constructed by the combining of two precise words.
M-body evolution in chronologic order:
M3 - MP - M2 - M1 - MD - MDA - M4 - M5 - CL - MD-2 - M4-2 - M4-P - M6 - M6 TTL - M7 - MP.
MP
Stands (also) for Mechanical Perfection.
Noctilux
Refers to the maximum lens aperture - here f1.0 . "Nocti" for nocturnal, "lux" for light.
RF
(R)ange (F)inder - the mechano-optical mechanism which allows M Leicas to focus.
Alternative meaning - RF is also shorthand for Hexar RF , Konica's motorised "M-lens-compatible" rangefinder camera released in 2000.
Summarit
Refers to the maximum lens aperture - here f1.5 . Presumably the name is a derivative of the root "Summicron" name in the same way "Elmarit" was derived from the slower "Elmar".
Summicron
Refers to the maximum lens aperture - here f2.0 . There are many guesses how this name came about, the most popular being that the "summi" came from "summit" (of lens performance) while the "cron" came from "chroma" (ie. for colour).
Summilux
Refers to the maximum lens aperture - here f1.4 . "Summi" for "summit of performance" (same root as "Summicron"), with "lux" added for "light" (ie. the enhanced light gathering abilities).
Telyt
Lens nomenclature - short-hand for " telephoto "
Credit:
Thanks to www.nemeg.com for definitions.
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Steve
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Was it a reputable seller? if so, his e-mail may be down, his wife may have coopted him to take her away for a long weekend or whatever. Or -if not reputable- somebody else made him a better offer outside e-bay, which won't do HIS reputation any good.
