I think for some of us old timers that grew up or adapted to Sonys in the earlier days we cut our teeth with Zeiss, I remember at one point myself having about 11 Zeiss lenses in my bag . The nice part was and still are some really great lenses in their catalog of lenses made. Sad to see this as they are stepping out of our industry.
“ The German optics giant, which now employs more than 40,000 people across its global footprint, reported a 41 per cent year-on-year jump in sales at its semiconductor manufacturing technology (SMT) division, to €1.66 billion.”
“ The firm’s medical technology unit reported sales of €1.18 billion, up 11 per cent on the comparable period last year”
“ If Lamprecht and Müller are correct, and all four divisions do continue to grow between now and September, it could see the company’s annual sales figure exceed €10 billion for the first time”
Sounds like a house in order to me.
I had no idea they were in SMT, great place to be during chip shortages.
RoamingScott wrote:
Good thing they wasted the better part of a decade on the ZX1. Seems like a company that totally has their house in order.
I am not completely surprised, it's been years since they have released a new photo lens, but I am very disappointed. The photo industry is losing a legendary lens maker, and no one can really replace them.
The Zeiss ZF.2 lenses had a great build quality and handling that I have yet to find another manufacture meet. Optical their lenses are superb. While companies may have surpassed them in sharpness the Zeiss colors and rendering has yet to be duplicated. As a side note I am far from being stuck to a brand I have lenses in my kit from 7 different manufactures, so If I found an equal competitor to Zeiss I would definitely be using there lenses. I even use a Zeiss UV filters when using my Sony cameras and lenses since there the only filters I have found that really eliminate UV color cast on Sony cameras.
Voigtlander has kind of filled the role of Zeiss in the modern Sony ecosystem, and while their lenses are great and extremely sharp, I still felt Zeiss had a better overall rendering, a better feeling build quality. While my Voigtlander lensed have kept me happy, I kept hopping Zeiss will launch a new line of mirrorless lenses, or fill out there existing mirrorless line ups. Speaking of hopes hopefully Voigtlander will finally announce some new e mount lenses, it's been a few years since the 35 APO, and their still missing some common focal lengths. Hopefully Zeiss exiting is not signaling the end of high quality manual focus lenses...
I will definitely be holding on to my Zeiss lenses and filters. Maybe once Nikon and Canon open up there mounts Zeiss will surprise us and make a new line of photo lenses 🤞
The problem with Zeiss is they stopped making lenses. I can't even count how many 35 and 50mm Voigtlander's there are now in all different type of mounts. My Sonnar and Biogon are still some of my favorite M lenses though. That said the Voigtlander's are getting better and better but the price on them are slowly going up.
Another mistake they made was that stupid digital camera when they should've found a way to make a digital ikon m mount with an awesome EVF. They would have over-priced it though.
I'm a big fan of the "Zeiss look". I've had quite a few: Loxia 25,50,85 and Batis 18,40. But they're all gone now; the Loxias because of the A1 issues, and the Batis lenses got replaced by GM glass mostly because of body design.
Zeiss can simultaneously fail spectacularly in consumer photo biz and succeed spectacularly overall. Their consumer biz, presumably where photo optics sits, is their smallest business and probably makes sense to redeploy capital and resources elsewhere. Seems like they were managing this as a sunset biz for a few years with lack of new lenses, probably working down inventory in channel and doing what they needed behind the scenes to wind down the biz before announcing. I had a Batis lens serviced under warranty and it got lost for a while due to what they said was some transition in their service center. Probably part of the wind down… but I still think they made some bad product planning choices in photo that led here or at least accelerated it.
akashyap wrote:
I found this article when looking for any corroboration on these “reports”:
“ The German optics giant, which now employs more than 40,000 people across its global footprint, reported a 41 per cent year-on-year jump in sales at its semiconductor manufacturing technology (SMT) division, to €1.66 billion.”
“ The firm’s medical technology unit reported sales of €1.18 billion, up 11 per cent on the comparable period last year”
“ If Lamprecht and Müller are correct, and all four divisions do continue to grow between now and September, it could see the company’s annual sales figure exceed €10 billion for the first time”
Sounds like a house in order to me.
I had no idea they were in SMT, great place to be during chip shortages.
Was doing a photoshoot on the Santa Monica Pier with my Milvus 35mm f1.4 last night and while waiting for the model to show up another photographer spotted my lens, wandered over and randomly started chatting with me about Zeiss and how much we love them, himself brandishing a Batis. Say whay you will about the "ugly" design of end stage Zeiss lenses at least they are immediately recognizable
The growing appeal of adapting the Contax and Milvus lines for cinema use will ensure the cult goes on strong, but it is sad nonetheless. My manual focus Zeiss are the only lenses I use at this point. At least my Milvus lenses will probably outlive me considering how overbuilt they are.
The Zeiss 75/3.5 Tessar on my 50's Rolleiflex and the 25 Loxia will remain in my active set for as long as I own a camera.
I sold my 500C/80/2.8 planar to go to grad school (1980 or so), and missed the period when used 'Blads were somewhat affordable and in plentiful supply at KEH. Oops. I'm not a fan of the 50(35mm)/80(6x6) focal lengths but a 'Blad with a 60mm plus a 110 would have been real nice. Sigh.
Zeiss and Hasselblad and Rollei (to say nothing of Kodak) have all had their ups and downs over the years, and here in Sony land, we're all feeling kinda blue since Cosina hasn't announced any new Sony mount lenses in an age, so bad news about Zeiss is multiply depressing. Sigh.
The news saddens me, but I can't say it is completely unexpected.
As a Zeiss fan (ZE, Batis, and full set of Loxia), I'm going to be holding on to what I have. Even the ZE are wonderful via electronic adapters for Sony E-mount and Canon EF and RF bodies.
I hope I don't bore forum readers too much with my continued use!
Zeiss are still participating in consumer product events showing their lenses though and there hasn't been any announcements from Cosina about discontinuation of any of the Zeiss lenses that have still been in production currently. Cosina handles both production and distribution of ZM and Otus & Milvus lenses in Japan. Kenko Tokina handle distribution and service of Zeiss Loxia, Batis and Touit lenses and Zeiss accessories and they also haven't announced anything.
If Zeiss has discontinued all lens and filter production it would make sense that they would make some kind of announcement about it too. I guess we'll see if the lenses and filters start getting marked as discontinued by all the shops that sell them in the near future.
Zeiss has stopped developing new lenses, and has totally pulled the plug on support of the Loxia lenses, simply ignoring the aperture ring failings that many Loxia lenses display on the modern Sony bodies, most notably the A1.
The largest camera store where I live notes the Loxia lenses as "no longer available" and sold me their last Loxia 35 at a discount while Zeiss offers 200-400, - casback on all of their lenses.
Put it all together, and Zeiss does seem to be exiting the camera lens business.
They of course would never admit to it though, even if it were true, because they want to sell all of their last inventory, and don't want potential buyers to boycott their lenses because they are being discontinued.
ChrisMak wrote:
They of course would never admit to it though, even if it were true, because they want to sell all of their last inventory, and don't want potential buyers to boycott their lenses because they are being discontinued.
I think in this instance the opposite will be true. People will buy and hoard.
In Japan it's easy to find Loxia and Batis lenses (and also the ZM, Otus, Milvus lines) as new and for example Map Camera has pretty much all of the current production models in stock. However, the prices of Batis and Loxia lines were raised quite a lot in last year or two and few people would buy them as new at those prices when used copies are widely available at much lower prices. Zeiss also gave up distributing and servicing Batis, Loxia and Touit lenses by Zeiss Japan and made a contract with Kenko Tokina. If there is no more production the shops would gradually start marking them as sold out with no new stock coming in but so far that's not been happening in Japan at least.
The only Zeiss Batis I have is the first one I bought back then. And that lens is really a great performer. I still use that and I will keep that for as long I can. The first one I sold was the Batis 25mm, right after the GM 24mm came out. The one I would rebuy would be the Batis 135mm f/2.8. Its APO design shines through and it is smallish and quite a bit lighter compared to GM 135 and GM 70-200mm II although it is only an/2.8 lens.
The only lens from the Loxia line I had was Loxia 21mm and the best feature of that lens for me is the sunstar it generates. Prior to that I had a few Contax lenses during my Canon days. And I had a few ZM lenses for my Leica M8 and M9.
