question about russian lens resolution

[nzeeman]

i was wondering one thing, when you see database of russian lens on commiecamera.com you see that russaian manufacturers showed resolution of their lens. i never saw that with other manufacturers. why is that? are zeiss and leitz maybe afraid that their lens quality dont match their reputation or they have some other reasons?

 

[varjag]

Until perhaps the 1970s Soviet lenses came with individual, signed inspection certificates, stating measured focal length, working distance and center/edge resolution of the sample. I believe this practice was borrowed from Carl Zeiss of old, who had to ship whole manufacturing process to USSR after the war.

Later they started to print calculated resolution figures.

 

[dll927]

I don't know if the Soviets followed the same policies, but manufacturers seem to produce products that are within tolerances. Look at the lens tests in Pop Photo, and you see their measurements of exact focal length and aperture. Did Leitz and/or Zeiss have instruments to do this 40-50 years ago? But the idea of a signed document for an individual lens sounds like a nice idea to me.

 

[varjag]

Did Leitz and/or Zeiss have instruments to do this 40-50 years ago?

49 years ago first artificial satellite have made it to the orbit.