Zeiss ZX1

A well off friend is getting one. Wants a point and shoot so that he doesn't take his canon eos r and milvus lenses on his sailing boat.
 
Normally a fixed lens camera with a big sensor would be my thing, but this is not for me. Price aside, I just don’t like the concept or the design at all.
 
If I had the cash, I would buy it! I like the design, and I love my m-mount Zeiss 35. This camera is actually very appealing to me. I just wish I could afford it!


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I don’t like that some functionality is linked into a subscription model.
Leica Q2 appears more attractive to me but it doesn’t matter because I can’t justify the price of either.
 
I somehow like the angular design, but as a whole it is much to big and heavy for a fixed lens camera, 60% heavier than my lowly RX1m2:
see
https://j.mp/2zEENEV
Furthermore, I don't see me editing my files on the go (and I switched from adobe to C1P a few years ago)
Would this Distagon beat my Sonnar?
 
Sample photos coming out of it look better than those provided by many manufacturers. Though that’s not saying much. So, at least that part of the marketing is good.
But, what strap to get?

The market may indeed be that guy with the sailboat.

Will be following it with interest, because it’s interesting.
 
My Windows 7 OS is recognizing the link in OP as not safe.
I click on "proceed" and it has opened some sh_ty page with two over-processed crap shot images and some crap load of text.

Do you think it is worth of 6K USD after it? Some dead company with manufacturing at another continent and even less support centers than Leica?

I'm not this rich and stupid.
 
The looks of it remind me of the expensive Rollei branded Samsung cameras from the 90’s.
 
ray*j*gun said:
Who is manufacturing it? I also had the issue wit the web site.
Click to expand...

This video from B&H has some interesting information: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUYw4e9DA68&feature=emb_logo

He says point blank that all of the design work for everything about the camera was done in house (meaning by Zeiss), and that there are no components of the produced camera that are sourced from anywhere outside Zeiss, and Zeiss is producing it.
If true, that means sensor design and fab are new and proprietary to Zeiss and this camera. If true. I can hardly believe that, as that would seem to be the biggest news about the camera, not the shape, or the Lightroom, or the size or anything else, and would explain why it took so long to show up. For the time being we don’t know any more than that and what Zeiss is saying. If it’s a proprietary sensor, that means it’s a new sensor design, so it could be a better sensor, or a worse sensor. We don’t know at this point. The lens design and glass formulas are different than any 35mm lens that Zeiss makes for any other mount, from looking at the Zeiss literature for all their 35mm lenses. So, it’s new and different, which means it could either be better or worse than other 35mm lenses. We don’t know at this point. So there is some potential there, possibly, for something quite nice.
There are some things about the limited number of sample photos available so far that look pretty striking to me; at the very least they are better than most of the sample photos that most manufacturers use with new releases, though that may say more about various marketing departments than it does about the cameras themselves.

Speaking only for myself, whether a camera is worth X amount of money to people who have X amount of money to spend has more to do with the quality of the files it produces, not to its form factor, or whether it’s a mirrorless or anything else. It keeps getting compared to a Q2, then slagged as being over priced. That’s a comparison based on form factor and is true as far as that goes. If we are comparing based on image quality, perhaps the more apt comparison will turn put to be with something like an M10 with a 50mm APO Summicron, in which case it would be a “bargain”. Nobody knows enough at this point enough to make a judgment. At least, I don’t know, perhaps I should phrase it that way.

I’m not in the market due to cost, but that’s a failing on my part, not Zeiss’. Other people have their own reasons, based on what little we actually do know, for not wanting this camera, but seems impossible to categorically state that this camera is a mistake, or isn’t great, as a photographic tool, based on what we know now, which isn’t much.

The possibility that this might be a proprietary sensor, and that Zeiss is doing all this in house, that’s the thing I find most interesting about this entire endeavor.

YMMV. IMO. ETC.
 
It is a lovely design, very Bauhaus in aesthetic and implementation. Costly ... what Zeiss equipment was not costly? In a way, similar to my Light L16 although the opposite end of that design functionality: one big sensor, one stunning lens (vs 16 different cameras with small sensors to be combined together); in-camera storage and image processing; large and meaty, easy to handle and hold body (excellent for larger hands like mine); connectible to the universe via WiFi, BT, etc.

I can't afford it at present, and the funds that would go to it are more likely to go to another XCD lens for my Hasselblad in the next year. But I appreciate the design and would be interested to purchase and use, in much the same way as I'm interested to purchase and use a Leica Q2.

Although thorough test reports are not yet available, I have no doubt that it is a splendid performer and also that it has a small wart or two anyway. Everything does. ;)

G
 
If it was “Made in Germany” it would be stated in bold letters with some cheesy quip about old world pixie dust in the Zeiss homepage like anyone should have faith in German electronics.
 
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