What's In a Name? Reputation. But Whose?

When I first saw Schneider-Kreuznach lenses being made at a Tokyo factory many a year ago, I felt almost like the little kid being told that babies weren't bought at Macy's. Bad Kreuznach is a sleepy little town on the Nahe River near Frankfurt, Germany, complete with great wine cellars, and home to Jos. Schneider Optische Werke, a major world source of optics since 1913. How did its lenses, still marked Kreuznach, wind up being produced in Tokyo?

Schneider had discovered the magic world of Japanese subcontracting. Run out of capacity to turn out your own lenses? Find another company to do it to your specifications. There's no end to the magic of subcontracting.