Elmarit-p from Leitz "made in Austria"??

paulhofseth · Expire: 2018-06-28

In between potentially remunerative work and other tasks, I take photographs and occasionally sort my old diapositives. The old Pradovit was becoming sluggish, so I managed to get a pile of other Pradovits, some better, some not. Some Elmarit-p s also arrived. Some fit the V-nex, but the pile also included a 50mm marked Leitz but also engraved "made in Austria".

I launched a question at the Leica forum; no new hard facts. So I ask the learned collegium here:

1: Was there ever a Leitz lens factory in Austria?

2: Are there any diagrams or more detailed textual info available on the 50mm Elmarit-p (I have the relevant Leitz price lists)

3: Any info on other Elmarit-p/ Vario Elmarit-p as opposed to the previous Elmaron (triplets?) ?

p.

iangreenhalgh1 · Expire: 2014-01-07

It could well have been made by Eumig under licence, they were based in Austria.

paulhofseth · Expire: 2018-06-28

Yes, Eumig was suggested at the Leitz forum also, but only as a conjecture. They made large numbers of 8mm cine cameras, some with bought-in optics, some with in-house lenses. Before their major 8mm production period they did make some fairly basic apparatus for somewhat larger formats, but did they have production lines for full-frame optics at the time when Elmaron was supplanted by Elmarit-p?

p.

tb_a · Expire: 2019-08-28

paulhofseth · Expire: 2018-06-28

I looked into Leitz-Wild activities in Austria. No trace of Eumig, but Leitz owned an Austrian Microscope manufacturer, Reichert in Hernals.

In december 1970 Wild established a subsidiary in Klagenfurt "Wild Kärnten" since capacity in Heerbrugg was too small to satisfy demand. As is well known, Wild and Leitz entered into marketing agreements, became economically closer until Wild took over the majority of the Leitz shares and the two firms merged (1986) before selling off bits and pieces.

Leitz also took over the Zeiss Zett projector manufacturer, and may have got some Zeiss projection lens contracts as well, so Zeiss in Austria may also merit some inquiries.

It is not totally unrealistic that the Elmarit-P was produced in Austria by a Leitz offshoot. Perhaps in Kärnten before Wild Kärnten was sold in 1995. Also, a long time ago, Reichert did not just make microscopes, but also made projection lenses .

Any Austrian industrial historians here?

p.

tb_a · Expire: 2019-08-28

Paul, I'm only Austrian but no industrial historian. However, I managed to find a lot of lenses for microscopes which are marked "Leica Austria" and those have been definitely produced by Reichert/Vienna. There have been a lot of mergers and take-overs in the 1980's and 1990's that it is almost impossible to trace them all. Nevertheless, today the former Austrian Reichert company is nowadays part of "Leica Microsystems" which is an independent company (owned by Danaher Corporation, U.S.) and has nothing to do any longer with Leitz Wetzlar camera business. So we should not confuse Leica with Leitz. That's rather tricky as the Leitz cameras are still named Leica.

The Elmarit-p was IMHO produced in the 1980's for the "Pradovit" projectors, which have at this time been mostly produced by Kindermann/Bavaria and there was no relationship between Reichert and Leitz or Kindermann. The big merger when Reichert came into the game happened in 1996. Furthermore there is no evidence that Reichert produced other lenses than those for microscopes after WW2. The production of photographic and projector lenses was much earlier.

It is therefore more likely that the "Elmarit-p" was produced rather by Wild in Voelkermarkt/Kaernten, since they started their cooperation with Leitz already 1972 and merged in 1986 (Wild Leitz group) with Wild Heerbrugg as majority owner. So Wild may have decided to shift some of the lens productions to their Austrian branch. That's at least for me the most logical conclusion.

Sorry, that's all I could find.

paulhofseth · Expire: 2018-06-28

Looking at when the Elmarit-P ( no 37011) first came into the catalogues, they were available for the Pradovit CA2503 which was launched in 1983. Reichert was not bought by Cambridge instruments until 1986 so the subsequent merger of CIC and Wild-Leitz would not seem to justify the Leitz engraving. And as the previous post noted, Reicherts projection lens production was far back in time.

The Zeiss Zett werke was not taken over until 1990 so any Austrian connection through them seems equally unlikely.

The Wild Kärnten connection however merits further inquiry.

p.