Lens Names

[endure]

Silly question but is there any reason why lenses have such strange names? DC-Elmarit, Zuiko? Nikkor is a bit more obvious. Are Elmarit and Zuiko lens designers?

[cdnvic]

Both are real names, Elmar (German), and Zuiko (Japanese) but I can't find the reasoning behind their use. My guess is that like Zeiss, and Hasselblad, they are named for the founders or designers of optical companies, some of whom have been absorbed by larger manufacturers now.

Edited June 4, 2012 by cdnvic

[FracturedRabbit]

From Wikipedia:

The first Leica lens was a 50 mm f/3.5 design based on the Cooke triplet of 1893, adapted by Max Berek at Leitz. The lens had five elements in three groups—the third group being three cemented elements—and was initially called the Leitz Anastigmat. Unlike other triplets, the Leitz Anastigmat had the diaphragm between the first and second elements. When the Leica launched, this lens was renamed the ELMAX, for E Leitz and MAX Berek. By 1925, the Leitz laboratories had produced glasses with improved optical properties, and Professor Berek designed an improved version of the ELMAX called the ELMAR that had four elements in three groups. The third group was simplified to two cemented elements, which was easier and cheaper to make.

From Olympus:

The trade name Zuiko that was used for photographic lenses has a dual meaning; it was invented as an abbreviation of the name of Olympus' optical plant: Mizuho Kogaku-kenkyujo, but it is also an existing ancient Chinese word that means "light showing a sign of auspicious events". A free translation could be 'golden light'. It is pronounced as Z(u)weeko.