And another new 35mm film SLR: Ihagee Elbaflex

[Huss]

May be they just have a batch of a few hundreds of NOS Kiev 19M to revamp and sell on Kickstarter?

By jove I think you're on to something!

 

[zuiko85]

The Meyer Optik, 50mm f2.9 Trioplan is available in several mounts from the Meyer Optik Gorlitz site for the "special discount" price of of only 999.00 Euros.
They show the Lydith 30mm f3.5 for the "special" price of only 1,199.00 Euros.

I found it a search under 'Meyer Optik'.
New or not, if your purpose is to take pictures then this whole enterprise is massively overpriced with a sales pitch that is a large bucket of fertilizer.

 

[rbiemer]

The Meyer Optik, 50mm f2.9 Trioplan is available in several mounts from the Meyer Optik Gorlitz site for the "special discount" price of of only 999.00 Euros.
They show the Lydith 30mm f3.5 for the "special" price of only 1,199.00 Euros.

I found it a search under 'Meyer Optik'.
New or not, if your purpose is to take pictures then this whole enterprise is massively overpriced with a sales pitch that is a large bucket of fertilizer.

So, a bit more than current Zeiss lenses and a bit (or a lot) less than current Leica lenses.

Not terrible, maybe. I don't have any opinion about the actual lenses but do have an interest. Probably more so for the "new" Tessar but that 30mm is an uncommon length.

And, fair enough, the actual product may well be crap. But, I think, not worth being dismissed out of hand.

As to the "reuse" of old brand names, that has been a mixed bag; pretty sure we all can think of at least one old German brand that has turned out pretty well in its resurrection...(thank you, Mr. Kobayashi! 🙂 )

Rob

 

[p.giannakis]

I can't help but feel that the Ihagee name is being dragged through mud....

 

[Huss]

I can't help but feel that the Ihagee name is being dragged through mud....

I can't help but feel that no-one under the age of 60 has heard of the name Ihagee.

 

[DanskDynamit]

in other words, a pricy piece of crap.

 

[Vince Lupo]

I can't help but feel that no-one under the age of 60 has heard of the name Ihagee.

And I'm sure not many over the age of 60 even knows what Ihagee means 🙂

 

[Huss]

They should have picked a better fake name, like Kraptoflex.

 

[santino]

NiCanoFlex 🙂

 

[Mistral75]

The following was just posted by Ihagee / Creator in the Comments section of the Kickstarter project:

the inside of the camera is designed by our Ukrainian colleagues and made with the tools from the Arsenal factory. We are changing the materials used so that the reliability is higher. We have also done some changes to the shutter mechanism. The body is build with tools from the Kiev 19M. It would be impossible to produce new tools for those parts as this is too costly for the small quantities. Therefore the camera looks similar.

 

[Steve M.]

OK, I can shoot this $1500 meterless camera that takes Nikon lenses, or I can keep my Canon FTb, Nikkormat, and Nikon n8008s, all of which I paid less than $100 for. The Nikons allow me to shoot AI and non AI Nikon lenses, as well as Leica lenses with an inexpensive adapter, and the FTb will shoot Canon FD and FL lenses, Canon R lenses, and even Nikon and Leica R lenses with simple adapter (s).

What should I do?

 

[Steve M.]

Personally, I like Kraptoflex very much

 

[xayraa33]

some of these kickstarters are really getting ridiculous.

 

[Huss]

Originally Posted by Ihagee
the inside of the camera is designed by our Ukrainian colleagues and made with the tools from the Arsenal factory. We are changing the materials used so that the reliability is higher. We have also done some changes to the shutter mechanism. The body is build with tools from the Kiev 19M. It would be impossible to produce new tools for those parts as this is too costly for the small quantities. Therefore the camera looks similar.

And yet the Reflex campaign can bring to market an all new, modular 35mm SLR with a shutter that goes to 1/4000 sec, spot and avg metering, built in flash and LED light for $200 less.

 

[Mistral75]

And yet the Reflex campaign can bring to market an all new, modular 35mm SLR with a shutter that goes to 1/4000 sec, spot and avg metering, built in flash and LED light for $200 less.

The "bring to market" part of the Reflex project is not done yet...

 

[zuiko85]

The "bring to market" part of the Reflex project is not done yet...

My impression is that most creators of KS camera or film related projects are very enthusiastic but massively underestimate the money and time needed to follow through on their ideas.

This Elbaflex thing feels different though. there is more than a whiff of outright scam, trying to sell a $250 camera body for $500. I dunno, perhaps I'm just an old coot, way out of touch with the effects of price inflation on equipment. And then of course, the limited market will prevent the economy of scale needed to sell at a reasonable price.

I'm not into the Nikon system but if I came upon a great bargain on a couple of manual focus Nikkors and wanted a body to use them on then I'd look for a Nikkormat FT3 or maybe an FM2n body, that would be a no brainer.

 

[JeffS7444]

I see that the Kickstarter campaign is based in Atlanta, GA: Could it be someone formerly associated with Kiev USA? If so, they ought to have a pretty good idea of what they're getting themselves into. Probably best if the number of backers remains smallish unless they've secured a stock of decent 19Ms at a fixed price.

 

[css9450]

The "bring to market" part of the Reflex project is not done yet...

Exactly. My unscientific theory suggests this Elbaflex thing is a lot more likely to see the light of day than the Reflex ever will.

 

[farlymac]

After seeing the prices on the Kick Starter page, and reading through the specs, I've decided it's not worth getting. I've got plenty of Nikons to keep me happy for several years.

PF

 

[Mistral75]

Exactly. My unscientific theory suggests this Elbaflex thing is a lot more likely to see the light of day than the Reflex ever will.

Of course the Ihagee Elbaflex will see the light: there are experienced people behind it, the same people that launched the Meyer-Optik Görlitz, Oprema Jena and Emil Busch Glaukar Anastigmat lenses on Kickstarter and Indiegogo (sometime the same product on both successively).

For these guys, the crowdfunding platforms are a marketing tool more than a financing tool, hence the very low goal for this campaign: $50,000.

An article I have found interesting:

https://www.timgreyhavens.com/singl...-Expanding-Universe-of-Crowdfunded-Photo-Gear