Chris_88
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
|
 p.5 #1 · ZEISS exits lens business | |
I have mixed feelings about this. The Loxia 21 is one of my favorite lenses, and possibly my favorite landscape lens. I also had the Loxia 85 at some point, which was another great lens, albeit from a spacing perspective, I prefer the CV 110.
Then again, I have to admit I never understood the blue badge fanboyism. Yes, Zeiss has an impressive history and they made many great lenses. I happen to like the micro contrast, rendition, flare resistance and sunstars of the Loxia lenses for landscape photography too.
And yet, many of their decisions in the past decades seemed off to me: Let's forget the ZX1 for a second.
1) As nice as the Otus line and the upgraded Milvus lenses are, they felt strangely out of place, arriving as mirrorless began to took off.
2) I understood why they were initially careful in their e-mount support, but they also missed a chance there, seeing how they couldn't meet demand when the Batis 25 and 85 had little to no competition.
3) Some people apparently don't have issues with their Batis 40, but the AF issues and the way they were addressed, was less than ideal, to say the least.
4) All in all, Zeiss' e-mount line-up was somewhat incomplete, and probably too little, too late: For instance, the 35 and 50 FL's were only covered by slightly tweaked m-mount designs (I know that 40mm is close to 35mm, but still).
5) Don't get me wrong, Zeiss has produced some of the finest optics for e-mount (the Loxia 21, 25, 85 and the Batis 135), but the frequent discounts made me wonder how well especially the Batis 135 or 40 sold. I don't have data to back this up, but my feeling is that the market of those willing to shell out substantial money for somewhat compact, moderately fast lenses was smaller than Zeiss might have anticipated. I wonder, whether they would have had more success with slightly bigger, but faster glass, say,a mirrorless Otus line, which had been in the rumors mill for a time.
Of course, with CV, Sigma, Tamron and Chinese makers having upped their game considerably during the past decade, Zeiss might have felt pressure from Sigma and Tamron on the Batis line, and from CV on the Loxia line. After all, you could make the case that Cosina managed to come out with a more complete line-up of e-mount lenses than Zeiss in a shorter period of time.
|
