look at this, I'm already excited:

http://www.zeiss.de/c12567a8003b0478?open

Why are you excited?

Originaly found by bathman (on the thread about the distagon 21mm distortion*).
This could be a great news :

- the purchase (by Carl Zeiss, by Cosina ?) of the Contax brand from Kyocera, wich would be great
- or Zeiss begining to build lenses for several brands (Canon, Nikon ...), wich would be even better !

(*big fall in the price of used distagons is likely in those hypotheses)

Best informed sources say it' s a 007-135 mm zeiss zoom lens which is build in a slr cell phone, and shall outperform any digital camera currently available on markets. But I' m not allowed to give further infos... Do keep it for you only!

héhé

..new lenses with EF compatibility? well, now the latest rumors in Germany
talk about software :-(
can't wait 'til wednesday

greenbaum wrote:
well, now the latest rumors in Germany
talk about software :-(

If they start producing EF lenses with just automatic aperture control, for about the price they sold their lenses before, it will be a huge succes.
Don't forget that CZ lenses were not that expensive (far from the 'about their weight in gold'-prices of Leitz lenses), a CZ 21 mm was about 1200 EUR.

I would order a EF-CZ 21 mm prime the day it is announced

Flappie

Anyone for an EF CZ 17-35mm N . . . ?

So many advocates for the old Contax/Yashica lenses, despite the stop down metering and manual focus, but there are some peaches in the N-series lineup - if Kyocera has engineered a Canon AF mount for the N's, the landscape would change overnight.

Edited by hubsand on Dec 19, 2005 at 08:34 PM GMT

hubsand wrote:
Anyone for an EF CZ 17-35mm N . . . ?

So many advocates for the old Contax/Yashica lenses, despite the stop down metering and manual focus, but the N-series lenses are even better - if Kyocera has engineered a Canon AF mount for the N's, the landscape would change overnight . . . I know what I want for Christmas.

Well my wish for Christmas is that they will produce an EF line-up. I will buy the lens afterwards as a newyearsgift

Flappie

it seems that they will produce lenses for another mount. See the headline in the graphic here: http://www.zeiss.com/de/photo/home_e.nsf

wow!

remember the alliance between Sony and Konica Minolta to build a DSLR together? Sony uses Zeiss lenses for 10 years. So maybe the new Zeiss line-up will be KM mount.

Zeiss lenses with stabilizer in the SLR, I won't be aginst that. Although I'd prefer them to do lenses in several mounts like Tamron or Sigma, that would let us more choice !

Zeiss 35/2.4 AF Flektogon for under $700

They'll probably just announce something lame, like a new lens or something.

Edited by Uusilehto on Dec 20, 2005 at 12:12 AM GMT

Well, we'll see wednesday what the fuzz is all about...

The notion of Zeiss making EF lenses might be false hope, but I'd be happy to take that if you can't give me real hope :-)

hubsand wrote:
Anyone for an EF CZ 17-35mm N . . . ?

So many advocates for the old Contax/Yashica lenses, despite the stop down metering and manual focus, but there are some peaches in the N-series lineup - if Kyocera has engineered a Canon AF mount for the N's, the landscape would change overnight.

Edited by hubsand on Dec 19, 2005 at 08:34 PM GMT

Amen. The 17-35/f2.8 zoom truly is head and shoulders above comparable lenses from Canon and Nikon. The only thing that would be better than putting an EF mount on the N lenses (provided of course that I would be able to convert my existing 4 N lenses) would be a new Contax full-frame DSLR with 12-16mp the would take full advantage of what the N lenses have to offer. (so I didn't have to deal with Canon's ergonomics and infernal menu driven functions). Actually, if there was a viable new Contax DSLR this too would change the landscape overnight (and by more than KM could ever do).

If they just start producing the 21mm distagon f1/2.8 at the earlier market price, it would allready be OK for me...

sugar

Flappie: they do (or at least recently did) production of the 21mm Distagon, once or twice a year they run a batch due to popular demand! I missed out this September on a new, straight from the factory 21mm Distagon just because my internet was down for two weeks and I didn't bother to check my emails for three weeks during the holidays... A dealer had set one aside for me but some other guys were all over him for my lens and I didn't get back until too late.
Sad, but what the hey, I have had one before and I am in no terrible rush to get one. I can wait some more, eventually one will surface. Thay actually are more expensive second hand, due to scarcity, than they cost new. Kudos to Zeiss for taking the lens back into production, I thought it was a joke first but a reputable dealer came through with both the info and the lens.

You know, I could never really figure out why Contax or even Leica, for that matter, never made there lenses for other mounts, because they would have sold them for sure and I'm also sure it would have saved both of them from nearing or going into bankruptcy. Now that I think about it, I've been wondering this for more than twenty years, holding an OM1 and thinking- man this would be a great little camera if it had a sharp little 35mm Zeiss or Leitz lens on it and the only thing I can come up with is they were afraid to flood the market with their lenses, possibly thinking that would lessen their value, or, they were just plain stupid.

Edited by cactusclay on Dec 19, 2005 at 03:22 PM GMT

Another prediction (sort of)

http://www.photoscala.com/node/view/1168

A few months back, Carl Zeiss announced it would be making lenses for Sinar's new meduim format camera. It was coupled with news that Jenoptik (Eyelike MF backs) had also purchased 51% of Sinar. Maybe it's something to do with that?

kosmoskatten wrote:
Kudos to Zeiss for taking the lens back into production, I thought it was a joke first but a reputable dealer came through with both the info and the lens.



I don't know where you heard that the 21mm Distagon is "back in production". it is not. All production of Contax cameras and lens ended long ago. The Zeiss factory (Kyocera-run) in Japan that made the lens has been shut down for quite some time.

This time tomorrow B&S may be swimming in $2700 21/2.8's!!

jjlphoto wrote:
A few months back, Carl Zeiss announced it would be making lenses for Sinar's new meduim format camera. It was coupled with news that Jenoptik (Eyelike MF backs) had also purchased 51% of Sinar. Maybe it's something to do with that?

At the prices of Sinar, hundreds or at most thousands of SLR photographers will soon discover a new dimension in photography, but not millions.

I mean you have a good guess, it could be the digitar AF Sinar lenses, but I may be reading too much into tea leaves, even dissecting the exact wording...

Only Sony/KM sell in the millions. They could also sell in the millions by going the EF mount route as others have dreamt.

I think it's clear enough - Zeiss will -I predict- turn into another 3d party SLR lenssmith, and then like Angénieux they will be bought out by Tamron

Edmund

Darn, I guess I better sell everything quick! !