[New test photos released] Leica Summicron 35/2 Eight Element copy made in China

[KEVIN-XU 愛 forever]

(repost)

Hm... That HK reseller really brings some trouble to me... I guess more people will come to me and asking to purchase the lens.

The price we announced at RFF is only for the special price at the beginning of the project announced overseas. The main purpose is to thank the people who supported us in the forum. I also just got a positive answer from Mr. zhou again that $499 for the first batch will not change, and all orders within the first 500 batch will be completed.

At present, I have received money from ten customers in advance, because the factory can only give me ten lenses in the next group. The factory needs to engrave customized information for customers in advance. So I have to collect payment first to confirm that order. This will be a fixed process for the rest of the orders.

Kevin

 

[CharlesDAMorgan]

No problems here - the only thing I signed up to was getting a lens from the first batch at the forum price, and which I am looking forward to receiving.

Sorry for your additional burden Kevin!

 

[rudobra]

You’re still on the list for the V1 at the bargain price of $500 and will get your lens eventually, right??? Patience grasshopper, patience...

Thanks Kevin i will get one soon, even if i would had preferred received mine on the first list. But i just don’t find really fair selling it ebay at this price when lots of fellows were out of the list

 

[kiemchacsu]

thanks Kevin,

you're THE very important factor for us in this replica adventure.

i will keep calm and wait for my turn.

(repost)

Hm... That HK reseller really brings some trouble to me... I guess more people will come to me and asking to purchase the lens.

The price we announced at RFF is only for the special price at the beginning of the project announced overseas. The main purpose is to thank the people who supported us in the forum. I also just got a positive answer from Mr. zhou again that $499 for the first batch will not change, and all orders within the first 500 batch will be completed.

At present, I have received money from ten customers in advance, because the factory can only give me ten lenses in the next group. The factory needs to engrave customized information for customers in advance. So I have to collect payment first to confirm that order. This will be a fixed process for the rest of the orders.

Kevin

 

[manhattan]

Hi Kevin,

Thanks for the update.

 

[KEVIN-XU 愛 forever]

Regarding the emergence of v2 lenses, Mr. Zhou explained that many of the first 500 sets of lens groups had been scrapped during the production process. Therefore, nearly 1,000 sets of lenses need to be additionally produced to fill the gap. In later orders, the v1 and v2 front rings may appear mixed. The actual production is in no particular order. V1 and V2 could be produced at the same time. The quality will be the same.

The bottom line is, they will complete all 500 lenses in the first batch. Price won't change.

Kevin

 

[KEVIN-XU 愛 forever]

No problems here - the only thing I signed up to was getting a lens from the first batch at the forum price, and which I am looking forward to receiving.

Sorry for your additional burden Kevin!

Thanks Kevin i will get one soon, even if i would had preferred received mine on the first list. But i just don’t find really fair selling it ebay at this price when lots of fellows were out of the list

thanks Kevin,

you're THE very important factor for us in this replica adventure.

i will keep calm and wait for my turn.

Hi Kevin,

Thanks for the update.

Thank you, guys. I am doing my best.

Kevin

 

[maartenmoerman]

None of this is inspiring a lot of confidence to me . we'll see what happens. - Yes I do understand it's a very nice project to be part of , and sort of lucky to get actually get a replica like this, via some funding/project on RFF, but we did support it with all the people here in RFF and bought into it.

I do find the lack of transparency in the order/manufacturing process a bit worisome. Also, 10 lenses now to be manufactured, is that 10/week? 10/month? If it's 10 per week, we're probably a year away from getting the lens?

Anyway I'm on the list, not going anywhere, and just sitting it out. (also have not received a reply on my 3 emails to Kevin on where we are with the status)

EDIT: also thinking, v1/v2 front rings could be mixed during production - how would us mere mortals know we actually do have the product with the flint glass? can we smell the difference? or is it noticeable by looking at the glass?

 

[marron]

Does anyone agree?

Does anyone agree?

I take the view that this discussion started by user "KEVIN-XU 愛 forever" is purely for pre-sales marketing on behalf of a lens manufacturer in China, under the pretense of fulfilling orders to a targeted audience - RFF members - with no intention of fulfilling. As demonstrated with 62 pages of marketing and excuses.

My dealings with Chinese companies such as Chamonix View Camera, Shen Hao have always been ( as one would expect from a proper registered legal business) pleasant, professional.

On another note, does anyone else not see the "Report this post to moderator" on this thread? Or is it just my browser (yes, using chrome)

 

[jonmanjiro]

[New test photos released] Leica Summicron 35/2 Eight Element copy made in China

I take the view that this discussion started by user "KEVIN-XU 愛 forever" is purely for pre-sales marketing on behalf of a lens manufacturer in China, under the pretense of fulfilling orders to a targeted audience - RFF members - with no intention of fulfilling. As demonstrated with 62 pages of marketing and excuses.

Sales marketing, yeah sure of course it is. But if you gave the last few pages of the thread more than a cursory glance, you would know that multiple orders have already been fulfilled. Also, anyone who has ordered a lens and is still waiting to receive a confirmation for shipment email from Kevin has not yet paid so is not out of pocket anything.

The report post button is that little box type icon displayed under each posters username.

 

[Crazy Leica Fox]

...Mr. Zhou explained that many of the first 500 sets of lens groups had been scrapped during the production process. Therefore, nearly 1,000 sets of lenses need to be additionally produced to fill the gap...

Does this mean that not all of the 500 lenses reserved here will have the special flint glass? Or are there still enough of the flint lens groups to fulfill all the early commitments?

Thank you Kevin for supporting this effort. I don't mind waiting and I am happy to be in the discounted $500 early group. I'm just curious about the optics, and whether all these sample images are relevant to the lens I'll receive.

 

[jonmanjiro]

EDIT: also thinking, v1/v2 front rings could be mixed during production - how would us mere mortals know we actually do have the product with the flint glass? can we smell the difference? or is it noticeable by looking at the glass?

The short answer to your question is, obviously, unless you pull the lens apart and perform chemical analysis on the individual glass elements, you won't know.

But thb I really wonder why such a big deal has been made out of the whole flint glass angle, because here's the thing, to maintain the same refractive index(es) of the individual elements in the lens's optical formula its highly likely whichever element(s) in the V1 lens that use flint glass will just use another type of flint glass in the V2.

Why is that you ask? Well, the flint glass thing isn't the big deal with the V1. Rather its the lead in the flint glass. The "L" in the "V1LC" engraving on the V1 lens stands for "Lead", because the V1 uses flint glass made using lead.

Back in the day, lens glass makers used all sorts of dodgy and dangerous ingredients such as thorium, lanthanum, lead etc. to achieve the refractive indexes they required, and that was a-ok. Back then. Light Lens Lab must have found a slab of this glass hidden away somewhere, hence the limited supply.

That doesn't fly in the environmentally conscious world we now live in though, and lens glass makers instead make flint glass of the same refractive indexes using more environmentally friendly materials such as titanium or zirconium. My money would be on the V2 having this more environmentally friendly flint glass instead. So, still flint glass, just not flint-lead glass.

 

[maartenmoerman]

2nd batch on eBay says V2LC, also lead? - confusing...

In answer to your question on why it is a big deal? It's part of the product description, it's what people possibly based their decision on wether to buy this lens or not.

But none of this *REALLY* matters in the grand scheme of things, the actual getting ownership of this lens. I've browsed through the thread, and it looks like 8/9 people have received a lens over the last 2 months. This is of a supposedly 500 batch. At this rate, we'll be looking at quite some time for people to actually receive the lens.

Quite disappointed by all of this, not that I have paid anything, but still. Also brings up a valid point from user "marron". Apparently Kevin used this forum in a violation of rule no 5 of the forum. Priority seems to be on eBay for lens sales, available on the free market, instead of putting priority on the first batch that served as a 'market-probe' on the target audience.

 

[jonmanjiro]

I wasn't asking a question, its just puzzling to me because most people don't even know what flint glass is 🙄 Maybe the V2LC uses flint lead glass too. That would be great.

The lions share of people on the list for the first 500 lenses are domestic buyers, not RFFers. RFFers are only a small share of the total, of which an even smaller share have already received a lens. Impossible to judge production capacity from what you see posted in this thread alone.

As for whether this thread is a violation of rule number 5, as the owner of the forum that's Stephen's aka Camera Quest's decision to make. He has for sure seen this thread, so make of that what you will.

 

[retinax]

Nasty stuff in the glass is not just an environmental, but also a health hazard for the workers, in the case of lead only if it is bioavailable, which I suspect it may be in super fine glass dust. I really hope they are informed about the material they're working with and provisions are made that nobody inhales dust from grinding these elements.

 

[Benjamin Marks]

I don't think lead in glass poses immediate heath risks unless you are storing drinks in a bottle made of the stuff, or unless you shatter your lens and inhale the glass dust. Not to minimize the effects of lead exposure, which are universally bad and for which there is no safe exposure level. But lead in a camera lens is not something to get worked up about, per se -- in my opinion.

 

[KEVIN-XU 愛 forever]

2nd batch on eBay says V2LC, also lead? - confusing...

In answer to your question on why it is a big deal? It's part of the product description, it's what people possibly based their decision on wether to buy this lens or not.

But none of this *REALLY* matters in the grand scheme of things, the actual getting ownership of this lens. I've browsed through the thread, and it looks like 8/9 people have received a lens over the last 2 months. This is of a supposedly 500 batch. At this rate, we'll be looking at quite some time for people to actually receive the lens.

Quite disappointed by all of this, not that I have paid anything, but still. Also brings up a valid point from user "marron". Apparently Kevin used this forum in a violation of rule no 5 of the forum. Priority seems to be on eBay for lens sales, available on the free market, instead of putting priority on the first batch that served as a 'market-probe' on the target audience.

Again, I just got a positive answer from Mr. Zhou that all the lenses deliver to the first batch customer will use flint glass. He also said they still haven't started to produce the non-flint version lens yet. We confirmed this multiple times throughout the posts.

FYI, I am an independent individual. I have my own job. I don't own any shares in Mr. Zhou's company. I only do this because I like it. And I love the RF community.

Kevin

 

[CharlesDAMorgan]

FYI, I am an independent individual. I have my own job. I don't own any shares in Mr. Zhou's company. I only do this because I like it. And I love the RF community.

Kevin

Thanks again Kevin - it is a marvellous project and thank you for helping it get traction here. The wait has sharpened my appetite and as with the Guinness advert, good things come to those who wait!

 

[KEVIN-XU 愛 forever]

Thanks again Kevin - it is a marvellous project and thank you for helping it get traction here. The wait has sharpened my appetite and as with the Guinness advert, good things come to those who wait!

Thank you, Charles. Your lens will come very soon.

Best,
Kevin

 

[steveyork]

Another Memorial by Steve, on Flickr

SC version, yellow filter, Astrum 100 in Rodinal (1:50)