>>3942909>optics didn't magically change in the last 50 years.Ah, they did.
If you said 30 years you'd be right for the most part, but the advent of computers in the late '70's and 80's shook things up massively.
Suddenly you had the calculation power of dozens of men - that only Zeiss and Nikon/Canon could afford to have on payroll - in just a couple machines.
The two big changes in the last 100 years was the advent of coatings just before WWII (and right after it, for most brands), and the advent of computers in the late '70's. And if you want a subdivision of that last era, I'd say computer assisted manufacturing advances (along with increased computational power) and exotic materials, enabling aspherical lenses etc. .
As long as you stay within the same "era", your statement is correct, optics haven't changed much, especially in practical ways.
