fjablo wrote: SiMuMe wrote: Nikon 1001 Nights latest article covers the NIKKOR-H 85mm f/1.8 which I have and which Colin just compared to modern lenses a page back.
I usually like those articles a lot, but it's bit of a shame that this one doesn't mention the Zeiss Biotar 75mm f1.5 at all.
... But the design is so heavily based on the Biotar even calling it an "inspiration" would be an understatement.
Unfortunately your link to the Biotar doesn't work. I would have liked to read it. (Edit: I copied the ULR text and added www. to the front. That worked. Thanks for the link.) However one could say that the idea of making a new lens based on a 1927 design was indeed an inspiration. Almost everything we do in science, engineering, or design is based on older work.. When you are trying to develop something new, recognizing the value of work done decades ago requires an appreciation of it and an understanding. So don't be too hard on them.
Like SiMuMe, I like to learn about lenses I own, so I enjoyed reading the entries on the original 200mm f/4.0 Q Auto described in #48, redesigned to be the New 200mm described in #87. Back around '73 or '74 I bought what turned out to be the last rendition of the Q Auto. I really like it. To keep this in the realm of posting MFNG pics, here is one of the first pics I took, using that lens with my new Z5II. I could not have gotten this with anything else I was using.
A year or so after I bought my 200mm I saw that Nikon had changed the 200. It looked shorter and had a different exterior. I wondered what was different, was it better, and if so, how? #87 explained it! The designer Teruyoshi Tsunashima was trying to make it smaller, not better. It could be made smaller (i.e. smaller telephoto ratio) by adding a rear concave lens group, but that drastically increased chromatic aberration. So the challenge was to maintain the sharpness. It took him three years and four design proposals before it went into production. The hard part wasn't how to do it, but how to do it well.
Knowing all that doesn't make me a better photographer or help me use the 200 any better. But it does give me an appreciation of what I have.
