Black Zeiss Ikon ZM

[aizan]

the discreet logo is one of the nicer design touches, i think.

 

[leafy]

Maybe it IS pure magnesium. Since the camera does not come with a flash, it IS the flash. You hit the shutter button and the camera explodes, leaving only the lens and film to drop out into a special pocket. It makes it a single use camera though...

Wow, it will be for emergency I am sure. After it starts to 'mag', you just have to drool over it to get the flash 🙂

 

[Trius]

I'd prefer Titanium in a nice brushed finish. Those who met me at the Toronto meet know I use a single forearm crutch to get around. Because the typical crutches are of VERY low quality (i.e. made to a pricepoint by child labour in certain countries, no offense intended), I had to find something that would snap in two as I descended stairs. I found a manufacturer of titanium models, guaranteed for 10 years. I even convinced my insurance company they were a necessity. Oh, to get back on topic ...

I've fallen in love with titanium, and don't know if it is superior or not to a magnesium alloy for a camera body, but man, it looks nice and feels wonderful. And all cameras with unpainted titanium would be grey market. 😛

Earl

 

[Palaeoboy]

Whatever the finish on my Minolta CLE, it shows very little wear after several years of use.

The CLE finish does wear very well. Its a black chrome like some Leicas but never looks aged and tardy like some M's get with time. But the top and bottom covers are polycarbonate so how can they be black chromed? What Minolta did was to coat the covers in copper and the add the black chrome onto that to give a really robust finish. Very rarely do they wear though only when the get a knock or are dropped. When the Minola X-700 came out they used a similar process but the coating was much thinner and a bit more glossier as well. When you look at the corners (especially on the prism) you can see the thin copper layer showing through. They obviously found the extra thickness on the CLE to be too expensive or maybe because the X SLR's have a more folds and indents (the CLE's are basically all flat) as X-700's dont seem to wear as well. The cost of replacement top covers for CLE's when they were still available was very high considering how tiny they are. 250USD they were some 10 years ago.

 

[ezio gallino]

Why, go digital (1,33 of 1.579,crops) they optimized al special /DIGITALDX/ with Zeiss digital only at cheap cost and became leaders :maybe with some soom and macros.
Theys became leasrd od digital rengefingder and non laica B move keeipimg prices far from obsolescence.

 

[eeyore]

Just saw the announcement on CQ. Sounds exciting. I think there is also the issue of tactility when comparing black paint or anodized versions. My RTS II which I believe is a black paint, feels wonderful, and has a warmer feel to it, then say my T3 which is a black anodizing type thing over Titanium. I prefer the black paint, and look forward to the black paint ZM. Now, just got to save for it...

 

[popitz]

The Black Zeiss-Ikon will be available here in Japan at the end of this month. Anyone want to order? 😀

 

[jlw]

Why, go digital (1,33 of 1.579,crops) they optimized al special /DIGITALDX/ with Zeiss digital only at cheap cost and became leaders :maybe with some soom and macros.
Theys became leasrd od digital rengefingder and non laica B move keeipimg prices far from obsolescence.

I think I'm probably glad I didn't understand that...

 

[jlw]

Just saw the announcement on CQ. Sounds exciting.

What announcement is that? I just looked, but didn't see anything new...

 

[vincentbenoit]

Why, go digital (1,33 of 1.579,crops) they optimized al special /DIGITALDX/ with Zeiss digital only at cheap cost and became leaders :maybe with some soom and macros.
Theys became leasrd od digital rengefingder and non laica B move keeipimg prices far from obsolescence.

Would you mind to elaborate a bit? 😉
Cheers
Vincent

 

[kram]

Black logo is O.K. It's the silver frame lever which stands out as odd 😱 . Well that's my two peeny worth. Black body with silver lens 😕 . What you ned to do is see both of them side by side in the flesh, as it were. Trouble is, it looks like my nearest dealer is 3 hour drive away 🙁 .

 

[Socke]

kram, you're so lucky! The closest dealer I found so far is Foto Huppert in Wuppertal. That's more 5 to 8 hours to drive, depending on traffic :-(

 

[Huck Finn]

It's the silver frame lever which stands out as odd 😱 🙁 .

The picture on the Zeiss pages at the Cosina website shows a black frame selection lever. The only thing silver I can see is the lens mount button & it looks okay IMHO. - Huck

 

[leafy]

kram, you're so lucky! The closest dealer I found so far is Foto Huppert in Wuppertal. That's more 5 to 8 hours to drive, depending on traffic :-(

I think the nearest dealer for me in Shanghai is Dr. Yao in Hongkong. Hopefully I won't get to know how lovely it is until next year.

 

[Huck Finn]

is Dr. Yao in Hongkong?

Yes, he is in HK.

 

[JoeFriday]

The picture on the Zeiss pages at the Cosina website shows a black frame selection lever. The only thing silver I can see is the lens mount button & it looks okay IMHO. - Huck

I'm having an unusually difficult time finding the Cosina website that shows a black body (other than a prototype on the zeissikon.com page

where should I be looking?

 

[popitz]

hi joe, here's where it's at.

 

[JoeFriday]

thanks.. must have been the fact that it's a japanese URL that threw me off

 

[leafy]

Oh, man! They put a silver lens on a black body. It looks weird. Black lens on a silver body sounds a bit better though.

 

[Leicanthrope]

Anyone know how to spell the plural of chasis? 😱

Huck

I can't help you there, but I can tell you that the plural of 'chassis' is 'chassis'.