Midland plant lives on and thrives

[richard_ilomaki7]

Hi All

 

Seveal months ago I had the privilege of touring the Raytheon(Leitz)plant in

Midland Ontario on other business. It is alive and well, making mostly

military and special cinema lenses as well as elements for other lens

manufacturers, including for the Noctilux.

 

In one corner I saw a lady carefully hand lapping a series of glass blocks

that would soon end up in Noctilux lenses in Germany, saying "Made in Germany".

 

The main products are now rifle sights for western armies in the Iraqi and

Afghan conflicts. If you see an American or Canadian soldier with a rifle, the

sight came from Midland. Much of the grinding and polishing equipment is still

that brought over from Wetzlar after the (other)war. There are some newer

Japanese machines, such as the Electron Beam Coater.

 

Thye most intersting part of the visit was to the unofficial "Leica Museum"

under the care of the plant manager who was there when it changed from Leitz.

For "security reasons" I can not say where it is or exactly what is in it, but

suffice to say, anyone who is a regular on this forum would drool, then faint

if he/she saw what they have.

 

As a small example I saw 4 absolutely Mint M4 bodies, as well as lenses I had

only heard about and some I had not heard about, including one of which 12

copies were made for the Canadian Navy. They have one there and they know of

10 others but one is unaccounted for. I think it is a f.95 90 mm monster. (I

may have the exact numbers wrong as I did not take notes.) If you have this

hang on to it or sell it for big bucks!

 

When asked what will happen to the pieces "when the time comes", all I got was

an enigmatic smile.

 

Cheers

[gaijin]

Richard,

 

Thank you for your excellent update on the Midland Plant. It is great news for those of us who are interested in the history Leica, and Midland played a huge part in that history.

 

Don

[torben_daltoft]

Crap!!

[kens]

"Crap"??? I don't get it.

[sw12dz]

Torben,

 

You are entitled to your opinion, but I am curious to know what facts you base your statement on.

[roland_schmid]

I'd say rifle sights are crap. What an ugly product!

[ffrancis_van_boxtel]

Unfortunaly the industry depends on the money war brings in. He optical branch is no

exception. Wish it were not.

[vivek iyer]

What Roland said.

 

Down with the ugly products.

[Aoresteen]

Being in Iraq right now, I wouldn't mind having an optical sight that came out of the Midland plant right now. Lots of us just have plain old iron sights circa 1965

[vick_ko]

Thanks

 

I've visited Raytheon too, last year.

 

And that museum is wonderful.

 

One of their chief scientists retired last week. He saw a lot (all?) of Leitz Midland gear go into consumer manufacturing, as well as get painted olive-drab and go into military shipping boxes.

 

regards

Vick

[Rob F.]

RE: The "special cinema lenses," I can comment on a couple of them. The Midland plant makes the projection lenses for the IMAX and Omnimax projectors. A description I read of this equipment states that the film is held, by air pressure, against a glass surface which is the projection lenses' rear element. How interesting! It's hard to see how the lens could focus on a plane that lies right on the rear element, with no separation at all. But I wouldn't put it past the Midland designers! I already knew that this projector uses vacuum pressure to advance the film--the rolling loop system--but this was new info for me. I'll see if I can find the URL for it.

 

The Canadian plant also makes the Primo lenses for Panavision cameras. A few years ago I read in The American Cinematographer that some director complained that these lenses were too sharp for the romantic film he was shooting! They had to put a soft focus filter in front of the lens! Go, Midland!

[aplumpton]

Thanks for rthis news. I wonder how difficult it is to be invited there and to visit the museum? A visit to Midland would be win-win, as it is not far from the archeological site of St.Mary Among the Hurons, which was a key part of expanding New France (operational from 1639 to about 1649, and run by eventual Jesuit 'martyrs' Jean de Brebeuf et al, the subject of Francisco De Goya paintings and who unknowingly transmitted European diseases to the Hurons). Good photo-ops there, too.

 

I am struggling a little with the desire to use extensively an M4-P from Midland, which I bought a few years back from an Aussie in LN (unused) condition. I am not a collector, but it is a really handsome instrument, even if it only has received to date occasional shutter winding to keep it functional. But I certainly will start to use it this winter, instead of succumbing to the collector paradigm.

[Rob F.]

Here is a <a href="http://www.amps.net/newsletters/issue14/14_imax_.htm">LINK</a> to a mention of E. Leitz Canada's involvement in the development of the IMAX projection technology.

[Rob F.]

It's in the third paragraph under the "IMax is Born" section. Note also that the lenses used in photography, on the IMax cameras, are the 40mm, 50,, and 60mm Zeiss Distagons for the Hasselblad, as well as the longer Hassie focal lengths. They actually cover the approximately 6 x 7 format, even though the Hassie is a 6 x 6 camera.

[david_lynch2]

fascinating!

 

I used an M3 vigorously. It was stolen out of my truck after a crash

 

I had an M4P after that

 

I have heard of the factory, and regret it is no longer Leitz. It's a. pleasure to read this post,though years later