In E-mount, SEL 24mm f/1.8, Sonnar T * 35mm f/2.8 ZA FE, and FE Sonnar T * 55mm f/1.8 ZA all have similar optical formula. We had a choice between several optical formulas, including the widespread Planar. The Planar is a practical design for its simplicity of implementation and excellent optical performance with easy to obtain a large aperture lens. By cons, it has two drawbacks:.. Because symmetry is essential, all lenses must move simultaneously when doing development. Secondly, it tends to keep prisoners stray light. The Sonnar allows internal focusing and naturally redirects stray light towards the outside, which provides a better micro-contrast and better definition of the Sonnar."
"In addition to trade agreements, engineers Carl Zeiss help us a lot from their experience of quality control. We are Japanese, but the Germans are even more stringent than us!" A little later, he confided to us that "in Japan, regardless of the brand for which we work, almost all optical engineers are fascinated by Carl Zeiss and Leica. Besides producing technically superb goals, there is a touch and emotion in the rendering of German picture we would love to discover the secret. "During the conversation, he recognized that" yes, it is quite ironic that the German engineers apply the very Japanese concept of Wabi-Sabi better then Japanese. "
"At the moment, Japan, and especially Sony, we focus primarily on the definition and bokeh. With 36 million pixels on the Alpha 7R, we have no room for error. For bokeh We have worked to minimize what we call the "onion rings", these halos around light concentric rings of light blur background. should not neglect the bokeh, especially for a goal as the Sonnar 55 mm f/1.8 which is especially designed to be used at full aperture. We have, for example, designed the diaphragm so that it is as round as possible, for a very vague and creamy background. This is much more difficult because we think that adding aspheric surfaces in our targets for correcting chromatic aberration and coma, we tend to get blurred backgrounds ... a little too clear! "
"Leica, for us, Japanese engineers, is a legendary name. I do not know if my pronunciation is good, but I think it's Peter Karbe . I agree entirely with his philosophy when he explains that opening is for depth of field, not to manage the light. " (Mr. Karbe, current director of the department of Leica optics, was the father of Summilux he was holding.) A story that ultimately reminiscent of young Naoki, who would draw the dream "if I had not time constraints or budget, a 85 mm f/1.4 or even f/1.2 in mount E. One day perhaps ... "