Remember when Huawei released the P9 and everybody got excited over its cameras because they had Leica written on them? And then there was the whole controversy over exactly how much involvement Leica had with their development? Well, it seems here we have another item bearing the Leica name with questionable origins. According to a patent recently filed by Konica Minolta, the $5,500 Leica Super-Vario-Elmar-SL 16-35mm f/3.5-4.5 ASPH lens is actually their design. Not Leicas.
The patent was spotted by the folks at Mirrorless Rumors and the optical design is strikingly similar (practically identical) to that shown by Leica on their website.
Pretty close, huh? Ultimately, the only thing that really matters is that the lens performance justifies the purchase price. But it’s still quite interesting that Leica seems to be selling at least one lens that they didn’t actually design.
You can check out the complete patent here.
[via Mirrorless Rumors]
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