page_title: Walter Mandler
section_title: Mandler lenses
hierarchical_section_title: Walter Mandler / Mandler lenses
caption_attribution_description: Leica III on display at Vevey photography museum
context_page_description: Walter Mandler was a famous lens designer of Ernst Leitz Canada in Midland, Ontario.
  Mandler was born into a German farmer's family. In 1947 he joined Ernst Leitz at Wetzlar as a lens designer, working with Max Berek. At the same time he studied in Giessen University. Later he obtained a bachelor's degree in Physics and then a Ph.D. in 1979.
  In 1952 Ernst Leitz decided to establish Ernst Leitz Canada at Midland, Ontario. Walter Mandler was one of the team members "on loan" for a short period of time. However, Mandler stayed in Canada for more than half a century and became a Canadian citizen.
  Walter Mandler's chief contribution to the optical engineering was his pioneering works in application of computer aided design in optical engineering. Midland optical department was specialized in the research of retrofocus designs and apochromatic corrections. Mandler employed sophisticated combinations of special glasses in his apochromatic and high-speed designs, and many of these glasses were original Leitz formulas manufactured by Schott or Corning.
context_section_description: Walter Mandler is credited with the design of more than 45 high performance Leica lenses for the Leica rangefinder cameras and Leica SLR cameras, including many landmark designs:
  A complete list of Leica M and R lenses designed by Walter Mandler as selected by Mandler himself not in chronological order (Viewfinder, Volume 38, Number 2, 2005, page 12):
  Screw-mount lenses
  1) Summicron 35 mm/2
  2) Summicron 90 mm/2
  3) Elmar 135 mm/4
  4) Telyt 200 mm/4
  5) Telyt 280 mm/4.8
  6) Telyt 400 mm/5 (2nd)
  Leica M lenses
  7) Elmarit 21 mm/2.8 (first retrofocus 21 mm design, in catalogue from 1980 to 1997. This lens replaced the Super-Angulon 21 mm/3.4 in production from 1963).
  8) Elmarit-M 28 mm/2.8 (3rd) (excellent retrofocus lens for M rangefinder cameras, in production from 1979 until 1993)
  9) Summaron 35 mm/2.8 (with and without goggles)
  10) Summicron 35 mm/2 (1st, with and without goggles)
  11) Summicron 35 mm/2 (2nd & 3rd)
  12) Summicron 35 mm/2 (4th)
  13) Summilux-M 35 mm/1.4 C27 (the first 35 mm focal length lens with a f/1.4 aperture, designed in 1958 and produced from 1961 until 1993. With and without M3 goggles)
  14) Summicron 50 mm/2
  15) Summicron 50 mm/2 (4th)
  16) Summicron-M 50 mm/2.0 C368 (a landmark Double-Gauss design of 1974, still in production, since 1979)
  17) Elcan 50 mm/2
  18) Summilux-M 50 mm/1.4 (second version, in production for more than 40 years, from 1961 until 2004)
  19) Noctilux-M 50 mm/1.0 C271 (the fastest lens for 35 mm format for many years, since 1975, designed in 1969, "before computer optimization was introduced at Leitz Canada" (Jonas & Thorpe, 2006)). This lens is now replaced by a faster, more complex, model: Noctilux-M 50 mm f/0.95 ASPH, from 2008)
  20) Summilux-M 75 mm/1.4 (in production for 27 years, from 1980 until 2007. This was the favourite design of Mandler himself, based on the design of the second version Summilux-M 50mm)
  21) Summilux 75 mm/1.4 (2nd) (only a mechanical revision; the same optical cell)
  22) Elmar 90 mm/4 (3 elements)
  23) Tele-Elmarit 90 mm/2.8 (1st)
  24) Tele-Elmarit 90 mm/2.8 (2nd)
  25) Elmarit 90 mm/2.8 (2nd) (different redesigns, from 1959, 1964, 1974 and 1990 for M cameras, to 1964 and 1980 for R cameras)
  26) Summicron 90 mm/2 (1st and 2nd)
  27) Summicron 90 mm/2.0 (3rd) (the last design was for M cameras, in production from 1980 until 1998; previous versions from 1963 and 1970 also for R cameras)
  28) Elmar 135 mm/4
  29) Tele-Elmar 135 mm/4
  30) Elmarit 135 mm/2.8 (1st)
  31) Elmarit 135 mm/2.8 (2nd)
  32) Elcan 66 mm/2 (Extra-high resolution lens for the US Navy)
  33) 90 mm/1.0 C164 (another special ELCAN lens for the US Navy)
  Leica R lenses
  34) Elmarit-R 19 mm/2.8 (1st)
  35) Elmarit-R 19 mm/2.8 (2nd) (retrofocus design in production from 1975 until 1990)
  36) Summicron-R 35 mm/2 (2nd)
  37) Summicron-R 50 mm/2 (1st)
  38) Summicron-R 50 mm/2 (2nd & 3rd)
  39) Summilux-R 80 mm/1.4 (from 1980)
  40) Elmarit-R 90 mm/2.8 (1st)
  41) Elmarit-R 90 mm/2.8 (2nd)
  42) Summicron-R 90 mm/2
  43) Elmarit-R 135 mm/2.8 (1st)
  44) Elmarit-R 135 mm/2.8 (2nd)
  45) APO-Telyt-R 180 mm/3.4 (from 1975, this lens had extra low dispersion or anomalous dispersion elements, specially developed at the Leitz Wetzlar glass research lab, that equaled the performance of fluoride crystal elements without their drawbacks. (Only 6.000 units were produced.)
  46) Telyt-R 250 mm/4 (1st)
  47) Telyt-R 250 mm/4 (2nd)
  48) Telyt 350 mm/4.8
  49) APO 75 mm/2.0 C341 (an apochromatic R lens for a U.S. Navy high resolution small format camera system. Only two types of glass were employed in this 8 elements, Double-Gauss based design. Only a few units were produced in 1973.)
  Mandler also designed lenses for IMAX movie projection systems, high-aperture lenses for Picker X-ray applications, lenses for RCA Victor television cameras, extrahigh resolution lenses for intelligence-gathering, scopes for the Canadian, US and NATO armed forces, lenses for HP scanners, etc.
caption: Leica Telyt 400 mm
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