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 p.1 #9 · Zeiss Distagon T* 18mm f/3.5 ZE | |
philber wrote:
Zeiss seem to be in the process of redesigning/improving its line of ZE/ZF/ZK lenses. They did it, or so I was told, with the 21, which is why it was delayed almost a year. They are now doing it with the 25. It stands to reason that the next one in line will be the 18mm...
But bear in mind how much more expensive the 21 is than the 18. This shows IMHO that the 18 Distagon is not an all-out attempt at creating the best possible 18mm lens.
Not sure about this. The 21mm is really only a modest update of the Contax 21mm, not that much improvement over a design that was several years old. Hard to imagine the ZF 21mm was delayed because they were planning to use a lesser ZF design.
Regarding the 18mm, it was designed to be compact and accordingly more affordable. If they applied the design criteria of the 21mm to the 18mm, the cost of the lens would be $2000-2500 and be significantly larger than the 21mm. Objectively, the criteria for the 18mm is valid, and it displays many of the typical Zeiss qualities in the image. If that's what you're after a "comparable" Canon or Nikon lens won't do.
But we don't look at these things totally objectively, We "expect" things from Zeiss, and when a product -- a valid one in it's own right -- doesn't match our expectations we are disappointed. If the ZF18 was branded "Voigtlander" rather than "Zeiss" people would be cheering. The disappointment with the 18mm is Zeiss' fault, not because they produced a got product that meets it's design goals, rather because they misjudged what the market expect from them. The market didn't expect the ZF18 as designed, they expected a wider ZF21, not an updated and improved Contax 18mm (which it is). I think what people expect and what your strategy is a for a dedicated lens line like Contax and a line of individual niche market lenses for other manufacturer's cameras like ZF/ZE are different. And I think there was too much of an effort to apply the design strategies of the Contax line to the ZF line.
In my opinion, one of the worst things you can do in the market is misjudge your customers and what they want and then produce a product that doesn't meet they were expecting from you. I think this is where Zeiss tripped up. Perhaps their re-design of the 25mm is the first step in recognizing where they might have tripped up. That said, I think the existing ZF 25mm (ostensibly an update of the Contax 25mm) is a wonderful lens, I love using it. It will be interesting to see where Zeiss has decided it needs to be improved, whether the resulting product will meet its customers expectations, and whether Zeiss has improved their view of what the market wants from them.
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