Originally posted by lytrytyr Yet it appeared as such, with Schneider's approval, when sold by Samsung.
Being approved of, and being manufactured by are two
completely different things. If the 12-24mm was a Schneider designed lens the price would easily be 3X what it currently is, it would be made to extremely high tolerances, it would have solid metal construction, and it would have a perfect 10 in the pentax forums lens reviews.
Originally posted by bxf Don't know about the 12-24 specifically, but least for some of the Samsung/Scneider lenses, this was merely a name-licensing arrangement.
Correct, Samsung/Schneider in a similar vein to SONY/Zeiss do have a name licensing agreement, basically to cash in on the name really. Though most 35mm photographers born after 1980 will be scratching their heads over Schneider - their lenses never really took off in the 35mm market. But in medium and large format circles Schneider lenses are highly sought after, and are frequently preferred over Zeiss.