▽ No, 68
▽ 이름:황상구 (angra@mizi.com)
▽ 분류:정보
▽ 2001/5/30(수) 21:17
▽ 조회:830

[푼글] 라이카공장견학기

뉴스그룹에 흥미로운 글이 올라와서 퍼왔습니다. 라이카가 왜 그렇게 비싼가에 대해서 사진가가 그 공장을 견학하고 그 공정을 소개한 글입니다. 제가 영어 실력이 딸려서 번역은 못하겠고.. 실력이 되시는분이 이글을 번역해 주신다면 고맙겠습니다. 그럼

First of all let me preface this all by saying that I own both Nikons and a
Leica.

I actually just got back from a trip to Germany and had the opportunity to
visit the Leica factory in Solms outside of Wetzlar and I have a couple of
comments on this topic.

The first thing that struck me was how small the Leica factory is. It is
comprised of a campus style setup but is not at all a large operation. Only
the M6's and R series cameras are produced at this particular locations (and
their associated lenses).

Although late for the tour and having missed the "english" tour, the german
tour guide invited us to join the one in progress and kindly translated all
of the german into english for us even though he didn't have to. He was a
very knowledgable man who had worked for the company for over 30 years and
his "retirement" was giving tours of the factory.

Some facts about Leica glass:
1. The average cost for the raw material glass for use in ALL leica
lenses ( projector lenses, binoculars, cameras, etc) is $2000 USD per
kilogram. This is due to the proprietary mixture of rare earth elements
used exclusively by Leica in their glass. Other companys also have their
mixutures, and the tour guide indicated that on the believed that Nikon
glass for comparable uses is costs roughly half the amount. This was not
due to any lesser degree of "exoticismn" in their glass mixture, but
instead, due to less stringent allowable variations on the mixture. He also
indicated that Leica demands that the chemical makeup of the glass was
within 0.0001% of their prescribed formulation by their supplier. And
"yes" DOW corning was one of the suppliers he had mentioned, but again, we
are talking about raw materials here, not lens production.

2. Each batch of glass is carefully heated to desired temperature for
molding purposes over a period of several months and once the base model is
formed cooled over a period of 18 months to a "room temperature" when the
glass begins the initial grinding phases. This gradual cooling period
prevents striations in the glass and allows for a regular crystal formation
to take place in within the molecular structure of the glass (Please, no
comments on glass being an amorphous solid, not a crystaline structure, I'm
not here to debate the physics of the situation, just telling you what the
reasoning was behind what the gentleman said). The gentleman indicated that
he beleived the Leica's competitors took a significantly shorter time in
their cooling process, saying that it was not largely recognized that the
cooling time had a significant effect on the glass beyond a certain number
of days, but that Leica felt that given the considerable quality controlls
on their raw materials that to the error introduced by not completing this
phase of the lens production in this manner would significantly contribute
to their acceptable margin of error in the final product.

3. The lens production of each individual lens is done by hand in an
assembly line fashion with very strict quality controls along each step.
There is no "multi-tasking" of any of the grinders. Each is specifically
trained in a certian portion of the production and each is held responsible
for their batch that is passed on to the next step in production. In the
pre production steps of the glass, one in ten pieces of glass is thouroghly
inspected. In the final lens assembly, EACH lens is inspected, but more on
that later.

4. Training for all of their grinders is intensive and extensive, and each
works in an appreticeship kind of way with some of the more experienced
grinders. There are grinders on their assembly lines who, through
experience and time have been able to develop the skill to pick up minute
defects in the glass composition and surface by touch. Each is very
specialized in their production skills and their grinders have a very low
attrition rate, as they are Leica's "prized" employees.

5. After grinding of the lenses are complete, EACH lens-shaped piece of
glass is inspected using an interferometer to check to see if any of the
grinding process has in any way created any imperfections in the glass that
would cause it to not be usable in a final production lens.

6. After passing the grinding inspection portion of the production process,
the coatings are applied, specific to the usage of the final product.
Coatings are done in a vacume environment, again with a proprietary mixutre
of elements. They are also done in particularly small batches for a number
of reasons. The first of which is that it is easier to control the coating
process and the distribution of the coating matierial when done in small
numbers again contributing to the overall standardization of the process,
but also to controll the number of lenses that, by this time are a
significant investment, that have to be thrown away, should a production
error occur.

7. Lense assembly, where the "glass meets the brass" is where the final
stages of production occurs and is the mostly tightly controlled process.
Each lens or peice of glass is hand painted on it's edge sides where
required and hand fitted into it's lens housing.

8. All Leica lenses are made exclusively of Aluminum, Brass and Glass. The
aluminum and brass composites are, again proprietary mixtures, designed
mostly for resistance to the elements, bumps and generally designed for
durability.

9. EACH and every final production lense must undergo examination by
quality controll who again test the glass with an interferomito for
deviation from the standard lens design. Tollerences here, according to
our tour guide are exceptionally high and average .1 of what their nearest
competitors allow in their production lenses.

10. Each lens is also tested for it's mechanical operation, with several
machines that measure resistance on it's movement, the accuracy of it's
aperature settings, etc. Several computers are setup to automatically test
over a period of time a sample from each production batch to determine
faluire over a period of time. In other words, there is a PC, hooked up to
a machine that just rotates the aperature ring on a lense an undetermined
number of times until the lense no longer has the proper resistance or the
aperature readings are no longer accurate. The guide indicated that Leica
strives for something on the order of "millions" of movents on a lens before
the lense falls out of tolerance either in aperature settings. He did not
indicate what the standard was for mechanical resistance.

11. Final production on the lenses includes a last quality inspection
(mostly for cosmetics at this point). This is the only point in the
production process where an abnomality would consider to be "fixable". This
may include additional painting, or cleaning, but are all cosmetic. In any
other part of the production process, the lense is "scrapped" if it does not
meet acceptable tolerances.

12. Lenses are packed by hand and then shipped to distributors world wide.

I do not recall the actuall number of lenses that this particular factory
produced but it struck me as inordinately small considering the demand for
them. There are of course production sites in Portugal and Canada, both of
which follow the same production models as the Solms factory. Design, by
and large is done in Germany, but there have been designs from the Canadian
and Portugese sites as well, but they are the exception, no the rule.

I asked about production of lenses by third parties for Leica and the
response was that in those cases where lense production is contracted out,
the supplier is held to the same standards as the factory would hold, and
their quality is carefully monitored. The guide also indicated that what he
called the "important lenses" or those that are photographer's stand-bys
(ie. 35, 50, 90 mm ) were all produced by Leica and when marketing research
called for a lens that was not what they considered within their production
capability model, they farmed it out to other production houses with the
expectation that their quality standards would be met.

All in all, I didn't see any "magic" in the Leica factory. What I did see
was a dedication to producing the highest quality product possible, with
very little margin for error, even if it meant that production numbers would
be lower. The Leica philosphy seems to be that quality can best be
controlled by very small production numbers and extremely low tollerance for
error. They strive to consitently produce only the best product and beleive
that they do, but demanding much higher quality and consistency standards of
themselves than do their competitors. They are almost the "mom and pop
shop" of camera/lense companies given their size and production numbers, but
they do it very well.

The camera production department (all 30 of them) were on vacation during
the time that I was there, so I can comment only very little on that, but I
did get the impression that the same approach was taken in camera
production. Next time I'm in Solms, I'll make sure it isn't the last week
of July.

I hope I have de-mystified and objectively potrayed what I saw on the tour
of the Leica factory here. With no sarcasm intended, I have only presented
the facts given to me and hope that if anyone disagrees what what I've said
here that it is grounded in facts and not in "heresay" or rumour. The only
reason I have even posted this message is that I'm tired of the sometimes
ill-mannered posts that attribute Leica owners fanatacism to something
approaching witchcraft or satanism, and claims that Leica lenses are no
better or worse than any other. I am not saying that they are. I'm only
trying to share what I experienced with the good folks in Germany and
express my feelings the the pride and individual care that each and every
one of their lenses gets. It is hard to imagine the same standards or
quality controll in larger production models or at lower price points.

Best Regards,
Bob

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