--- Nick Taylor <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > IMO the long Cold War years have given the western > world a biased view of > Russia and its capabilities.
Actually, it's experience with Russian devices, and not Cold War bias, that gives me my vies. > I have not experience > with Russian cameras > or lenses, Then you shouldn't be jumping to conclusions, should you? > 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. I'm not terribly familiar with telescopes, but the big problem with the Soviet camera industry is that, 30 and 40 years after WWII, they were still using the same tooling and technology that were in the factories at the close of WWII. But with far less quality control than Zeiss applied. > our > bias against the Eastern Block countries will most > likely persist for a > very long time. Actually, Americans' show a remarkable ability to forgive and forget, and buy quality regardless of where it comes from. Ten years after WWII, Americans' were happily buying Volkswagons, Mercedes Benz and other German vehicles. East Germans were building and buying Trabants. 30 years later East Germans were STILL building and buying Trabants. Need anything more be said? In the early 1970s, when I sold cameras, Minolta, Canon, Pentax and a dozen other Japanese and West German brands offered full aperture, match needle metering, high quality optics, high precision, reliable bodies. Zenit's offered technology that was current 10 or 15 years before, and quality bettered by even the cheapest Japanese brands. ===== Bob Meyer I wish I knew what I know now, when I was younger... http://www.meyerweb.net/epson __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com * **** ******* *********************************************************** * For list instructions, including unsubscribe, see: * http://www.a1.nl/phomepag/markerink/eos_list.htm ***********************************************************
