Nick, that is exactly what I said. They have had (and still have, although serious "brain leakage" to the West left some holes in former USSR science) excellent minds and tremendously capable engineering stuff, but their problem is totally wrong marketing and overall strategy heavily influenced by politics. The vast majority of the resources were put into military/space research developing highest quality and superb instruments (including optics and electro-optical systems), but from the reasons mentioned above, all that technology was hardly seeing commercial world being heavily restricted and highly classified.
As a former USSR citizen (actually spend almost all my teenage years there) I speak from my own experience, rather then based on rumors and biased opinions. Regards, Alex Z -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Nick Taylor Sent: Wednesday, November 27, 2002 8:12 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: EOS Russian lenses IMO the long Cold War years have given the western world a biased view of Russia and its capabilities. I have not experience with Russian cameras or lenses, but I do know that there are two Russian companies that are producing truly outstanding astronomical telescopes. Intes-Micro is the company that I'm most familiar with. They produce suberb glass and mirrors for their Maksutov-Cassegrain telescopes which show no traces of astigmatism or chroma, and are diffraction limited. After WWII The Soviets acquired the entire Zeiss Jena factory including its technicians and R&D personnel. During the Cold War years they built very sophisticated optical equipment for medical and scientific applications, military use, and for the space program. At present they produce top grade small MCTs as well as larger aperature astronomical observatory research grade instruments. But, just as in Califonia where there is still bias against Asians left over from the days of importing semi-slave labor to build the railroads, our bias against the Eastern Block countries will most likely persist for a very long time. * **** ******* *********************************************************** * For list instructions, including unsubscribe, see: * http://www.a1.nl/phomepag/markerink/eos_list.htm ***********************************************************
