Hi Raid,
Here is a question for the Leica CEO, who should be able to find the answer pretty easily.
Most Leica lenses, and Canon LTM for that matter, are attributed to a particular lens designer, or perhaps he/she might be called a team leader. Mandler being the most famous, and Karbe another well known figure.
But some very famous modern lenses remain unattributed.
135/3.4 APO
18, 21, 24 SEM
21/1.4
24/2.8 asph
24/1.4
28/1.4
90/2 asph APO
Summarit 35/50/75/90
and there are others too.
I thought these also might just be Karbe designs which just did not have his name attached. But the 28 Cron is attributed to Michael Heiden. So there are different guys planning and leading teams on these lenses.
This is Leica history. I can immediately see the 1.5 Summarit of the 50s was by Otto Zimmermann. Yet I can't find who did my 90/2.5? Can we get this information, and would the CEO please encourage some documentation on the process---in general, no trade secrets needed--of the design of the various lenses?
This page lists many in the past, but is very sparse with current designers:
http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-wiki.en/index.php/Original_designers_of_Leica_products:
All I can find of Michael Heiden is a single quote:
""Therefore, the times in which there was the need of some designers through a five or ten years stint to create a new top-notch lens were behind, but in any case, with the use of modern computers and special computer programs and softwares, the work goes on being very arduous and tremendously difficult to implement, in such a way that a top-notch Leica lens needs a lot of months of intensive work to be designed. That was the case with the superb
28mm f/2 ASPH Summicron-M designed by
Michael Heiden, which took him a very hard stint of six months."
We know the Leica team is strong. But it sure would be nice to know some of the players