What's coming on Dec 21?

[Bryan Lee]

Bryan:
Sony's dSLR plans surely include the Minolta Maxxum mount, Anti-Shake and other Konica Minolta patents after their cooperation was announced early this autumn. There was an interview with someone at Sony some time ago where it was disclosed that Sony first went after Nikon, who refused (or something to that effect) before deciding on teaming up with KM.
Many KM users on dpreview, myself included, were pretty sure that Zeiss would announce KM-mount glass (to go with upcoming Sony-branded bodies) until the leaked images (whose authenticity are confirmed by the new banner presented on the Zeiss site today) turned up..

Kind regards
Kjetil

Sony and Zeiss have been working with each other on other projects. Im just guessing anyway. As far as the Maxxum mount on digital goes will it even be made in 2 years? Who knows what kind of behind the scene licensing deals these companys have made. The bottem line is money and if if you want to sell a bunch of product you want a sure thing, The F mount if for no other reason is a sure thing in the SLR world. We will be using it till the last roll of film is made and its digital life has just began, Nobody knows what its lifespan will be. As far as mounts go in the future you wont need any wires or connections from body to lense because it will just be connected by inffered or some new communication technology. Last week I saw a big huge ugly lense in a glass case that would no longer work. It was one of the first autofocus lenses ever made. Anyway it goes, Long live the F mount and Long live good glass.

 

[bobofish]

I guess there could be two schools of thought regarding Zeiss and the F-mount/KM mount.

First off, having one mount to sell their lenses on would be something like having their own competing brand, Contax...if you want those lenses, you have to go for that mount. Nikon offers some excellent bodies, and as many people have said about a possible deal between Leica and Nikon, Nikon is really the only Japanese company with the brand prestige to make high end users happy.
The theory would be that by selling their lenses in the one mount, they will get less brand confusion, and people won't shop around as much through different bodies and sensors to end up with their lenses...quite simply they will either use their existing Nikon bodies, or purchase a new Nikon.

The other school of thought would of course be also quite logical, that Zeiss, lacking their own lens platform now (Contax R.I.P., Hasselblad now with Fuji, etc.) could become the only "high end" third party lens company. Everybody knows about Sigma, Tamron and Tokina, etc. but there have been very few forays into direct competition of quality with proprietary lenses from the camera manufacturers. And of course these days, there is no lens that you can buy new for a Nikon or Canon that is not arguably better when it is made by Nikon or Canon.

Zeiss would essentially be taking the opposite approach to Sigma/Tamron, etc. in that in stead of offering very attractively priced lenses with very close to the performance of much more expensive Nikon, Canon, etc. lenses, they would cater to the people who are not satisfied with Canon, Nikon peformance in the lens department, but like the bodies.

After all, just about everybody knows that Nikon and Canon bodies, and to some extent Minolta bodies (we'll see how that develops with Konica) outperform Leica slr bodies, and Contax is defunct, regardless of how it could compete with state of the art matrix metering and all that jazz.

Going with Nikon only would I think successfully continue the image of exclusivity that Zeiss still enjoys, despite its relationships with Nokia and Sony. Going with several lens mounts would provide them a wide market to guarantee their survival independant of one company's amazing achievements or terrible mistakes.

After all, it could well be that Nikon won't ultimately be able to compete in the full-frame market before they lose most of their market share...it could also well be that Nikon will come around one day to kick Canon in the bum.

Speculation....the fruit of idle minds, eh?

 

[halabar]

TOP SECRET!!! Must be due to some last-minute legal maneuvering. BTW those German pastries look nice! 😀

R.J.

Guys, hold your horses... I just realized something.... with the 6-week release of this info, what happens right after that?... PMA!!! We probably won't see the full details until just before PMA.

So it's sounds interesting, but we are going to have to wait until then for the actual news.

 

[Socke]

The Nikon-compatible, Cosina-made lenses are going to be re-branded with the Zeiss label.

Yeah! Probably like they rebranded their Leica M compatible lenses with the Zeiss brand :angel:

 

[RObert Budding]

I must disagree with this point. If these are Zeiss designs: Planar, Sonnar, Distagon, etc., they won't be rebadged Cosina Voigtlander lenses. These will be built under license using Zeiss lens designs and adhere to Zeiss quality control.

If anything, they will rely on Zeiss designs from the Kyocera Contax. After all, Zeiss -- not Kyocera -- holds the patents on those lens designs.

And the Zeiss M-mount lenses for the Zeiss Ikon are not rebadged Voigtlander M lenses.

And the Zeiss designs for Kyocera are damn fine lenses!

Robert

 

[Socke]

There hasn't been any Tessar-type formulations at f/2 - f/2.8 is already pushing the design a bit far.

The F2 was puzzeling me, too. Dumb me didn't look up the lens design which is a dead giveaway that it is not a Tessar.

I came to the assumption from the small size, since I first saw a Tessar 45/2.8 on a Contax Aria it is the ultimate pancake lens for me 🙂
The only Tessars I own are in a Rolleiflex and a Rollei 35TE.

 

[Huck Finn]

Maybe its a whole system including the body like I was suggesting before. It would be very easy for them to do the same thing Cosina did with the R2 body when they made it into the Bessa Flex. They could convert the Ikon to a Ikon Flex. I would deffinatly be interested in that. I love Rangefinders but SLR telephoto and macro cant be beat on small format film.

Nikon already has manual focus bodies at thre different price points - one made by Coina. There is absolutely no gap in the product line for this. An FM3a will do the job.

 

[Avotius]

TOP SECRET!!! Must be due to some last-minute legal maneuvering. BTW those German pastries look nice! 😀

R.J.

German pasteries! ive figured it all out! ZF isnt zeiss mount nikon lenses, its Zeiss made Zero Fat german pasteries for us photographers who sit around all day online reading forum speculations and stuffing ourselfs with pasteries because we are too lazy to go to cook anything.

 

[Bryan Lee]

Nikon already has manual focus bodies at thre different price points - one made by Coina. There is absolutely no gap in the product line for this. An FM3a will do the job.

You are correct in your facts but companys do this everyday. A Chevy SUV could get everyone to the bank but Caddilac went right ahead and came out with their version of the SUV at a higher price and made money for themselves as a branding issue. As soon as I saw them say Millions as in Millions of customers I immediatly thought and still believe it will in some way work with digital cameras. We already know it will be SLR related and F seems to be the Key to the mystery so I just added that and the fact they are partners with Sony on so many cameras and the fact Sony has no numbers in the SLR market but is huge in the digital market and mixed it all together and here it is, Sony/Zeiss DSLR gear on F mount. Im sure Sony would love to be in the SLR pro market and we dont know what they may have had on the back burner over there. Ill admit its a pretty wild guess and may be completely off the mark. After all things are considered for me I cant get past them saying Millions and not having eqauting it to digital. While I love film and will never stop using it I dont believe anybody in there right mind sees a big future in analog cameras or sales of millions of anything that will go on them. Id like to see some numbers on how many film SLRs were sold over the last couple years and out of those how many were manual cameras like the FM3. Again there will always be a market for Retro Cameras and even Cooke came out with a couple new large format lenses after 50 years of nothing. Im watching this all with much interest and my speculations are just guesses based on my understanding which could easily be debated as a good lack of understanding. Cheese.

 

[darkkavenger]

I suggest a poll : Should Carl Zeiss marketing staff be burned alive for putting us in such mental and physical exhaustion? 😉

 

[Bryan Lee]

I suggest a poll : Should Carl Zeiss marketing staff be burned alive for putting us in such mental and physical exhaustion? 😉

For sure they should give away some of whatever project they are going to relaese to the participents in this thread to try out or smash depending on if its any of the stuff any of us want. How about one of those clown in the cage booths where you throw a baseball and dunk them at the next PhotoTek or big 5 camera shows, I could go for that. I have a fealing if they miss the next given release date there will be hell to pay. At least we can all get mad at somebody else and not each other. Cheese.

 

[darkkavenger]

Oh!!! Bryan, please stop it with cheese!!! 😉

I've to wait 1.. 2.. 3.. t h r e e looooong days before landing in France and tasting the most exquisite kinds of cheese at my parents... well I agree I am a cheese maniac and purchase french and italian cheese even here in Prague 😉

Anyway I'll get myself a 300/4 Zeiss MC Sonnar for Xmas, maybe! So I don't care *that* much about the ZF mount, as long as we have Zeiss lenses in Kiev/Contax and Pentacon Six mount 😉

ok ok i'm waaaaaay OT!

Max

 

[Bryan Lee]

Oh!!! Bryan, please stop it with cheese!!! 😉

I've to wait 1.. 2.. 3.. t h r e e looooong days before landing in France and tasting the most exquisite kinds of cheese at my parents... well I agree I am a cheese maniac and purchase french and italian cheese even here in Prague 😉

Anyway I'll get myself a 300/4 Zeiss MC Sonnar for Xmas, maybe! So I don't care *that* much about the ZF mount, as long as we have Zeiss lenses in Kiev/Contax and Pentacon Six mount 😉

ok ok i'm waaaaaay OT!

Max

Be sure and get some good French Cheese Photos so when we start our Camera and Cheese thread youll be ready. Cheese Photography,,, Peace, Love, and Cheese,,, Got Cheese?,,, Time for sleep, More Cheese Later. b.

 

[Huck Finn]

You are correct in your facts but companys do this everyday. A Chevy SUV could get everyone to the bank but Caddilac went right ahead and came out with their version of the SUV at a higher price and made money for themselves as a branding issue. As soon as I saw them say Millions as in Millions of customers I immediatly thought and still believe it will in some way work with digital cameras. We already know it will be SLR related and F seems to be the Key to the mystery so I just added that and the fact they are partners with Sony on so many cameras and the fact Sony has no numbers in the SLR market but is huge in the digital market and mixed it all together and here it is, Sony/Zeiss DSLR gear on F mount. Im sure Sony would love to be in the SLR pro market and we dont know what they may have had on the back burner over there. Ill admit its a pretty wild guess and may be completely off the mark. After all things are considered for me I cant get past them saying Millions and not having eqauting it to digital. While I love film and will never stop using it I dont believe anybody in there right mind sees a big future in analog cameras or sales of millions of anything that will go on them. Id like to see some numbers on how many film SLRs were sold over the last couple years and out of those how many were manual cameras like the FM3. Again there will always be a market for Retro Cameras and even Cooke came out with a couple new large format lenses after 50 years of nothing. Im watching this all with much interest and my speculations are just guesses based on my understanding which could easily be debated as a good lack of understanding. Cheese.

All good points, Bryan. I shouldn't have restricted myself to examples of film cameras. Since these are F-mount lenses, I assume that they can be used on Nikon digital cameras.

I too am interested to see what Zeiss doeswith regard to digital. They have said repeatedly that their M-mount lenses are ready for digital when the time comes that digital is ready for them - which, to Zeiss, means means a full frame sensor for RF. Perhaps they feel differently about SLR technolgy & will have a camera to go with the lenses. This would be consistent with the path they followed for RF. The picture of an FM2 in the banner suggests that the lenses are intended for film use, but this may be only a piece of the puzzle with more to come.

 

[RJBender]

German pasteries! ive figured it all out! ZF isnt zeiss mount nikon lenses, its Zeiss made Zero Fat german pasteries for us photographers who sit around all day online reading forum speculations and stuffing ourselfs with pasteries because we are too lazy to go to cook anything.

LOL!! 😀 😛 🙂

R.J.

 

[Jason_K]

Here's the rest of the hints and a large version of the last one.

 

[yossarian]

40mm lens formulations...

40mm lens formulations...

The 40mm Ultron has some similarity to the Zuiko 40/2.0, which had 6 air-spaced elements and some radical curvature on the elements on either side of the diaphragm. In front of the diaphragm they are nearly identical, but behind it you find the cemented pair which differentiates the Ultron.

BTW--there have been a few Tessar derivatives faster than 2.8, but only for SLRs--
The Fujinon 55/2.2 and the Riconar 55/2.2. See, even RICOH felt the need to assign a different name to their lowest-end lens. (Before anyone asks, the 50/2.4 Prakticar has 5 elements).

Ain't marketing fun?

 

[Bryan Lee]

HOCHLEISTUNGSOBJEKTIVE

A possible peice of the puzzle?

 

[Bryan Lee]

Carl Zeiss and Sinar close strategic co-operation for digital High end to photography


Swiss camera manufacturer Sinar sets on objectives of the optics optikschmiede made of upper cooking

Oberkochen/Feuerthalen/Koeln, 28.09.2004. The conversion of the chemical film to direct digitalaufnahme makes possible to achieve already on mittelformatigen image sensors the enormous image quality, which in former times exclusively the chemical large size cameras was reserved. The digital central format is revalued thereby to the king class of the photography, is adapted mobile on specialized cameras in the Studiobereich or it with mirror reflex cameras. Carl Zeiss, offerer of objectives for central format photography also over 40 different types for four different camera manufacturers, leading world-wide, communicates to the Photokina its co-operation with Sinar, to Swiss manufacturer of top class cameras for the occupation photography.

With four autofocus objectives the Sinaron starts digitally AF program of Carl Zeiss for Sinar. The optical Design of the objectives is optimized for digital High ends to photography, which form a service range with the Sinar Digitalbacks with 22 megapixels dissolution and display formats of 49x36 mm as well as the digital Sinar cameras.

Carl J. Koch, Marketing-Leiter von Sinar, says: "our fastidious customers demanded ever more strongly high-performance lenses for its fastidious Shootings on location. Carl Zeiss to respond was for us the logical consequence. We are pleased much to be able to offer in the future a line those fulfilled from the objective to the digital picture receiver also in a compact, modular professional camera system, the Sinar m, the highest professional requirements." For Christian Bannert, development leader in the division of photo objectives of Carl Zeiss, offered itself this co-operation: "as Sinar before two years on the Photokina addressed us, had we spontaneously a feeling that here two related mentalities together-find. The culture of both enterprises fits well to offer with the slope for the precision and clear objective, professional photographer the best equipment."

With Hasselblad, Rollei, Alpa and Kyocera with the Contax 645 Sinar is the fifth partner of Carl Zeiss in the segment central format. Dr. Winfried Scherle, division leader of photo objectives at Carl Zeiss is convinced: "by co-operation with Sinar we continue to develop our strong position in the central format. It offers good growth perspectives." The delivery beginning of the objective row is planned for the spring 2005.

Kornelius Mueller
Marketing of photo objectives
Tel.: +49 7364 20-2687
Fax: +49 7364 20-4045
E-Mail: ko.mueller@zeiss.de

 

[wlewisiii]

High Speed Objective? for Nikon F... So what's the fastest lens Nikon is currently making?

William