Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/10/02
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]My news on this,straight from the Zeiss rep at the Photokina, if anything got lost in translation from German it's my fault. "for internal reasons at Zeiss we are talking about a price of 1500 or sometimes 1800 euros selling price, we will be able to give you a more exact price close to the release date" Hasselblad rep, "we expect it may be well under 2000 euros" and "probably just over half the price of a Leica M7" this would correspond to Stephen Gandys info of around 60% of the cost of the Leica. The Ringfoto rep spoke of the R2A/R3A as both being priced lower than the present R2. As all the people were questioned, and answered, in German this means the price includes 16% value added tax (VAT) The camera is, according to Zeiss information, a true Zeiss product, designed in Germany around the technology supplied by Cosina and conceived some time in late 2002, Zeiss planned a long base RF from the start, which explains the main differences between the form of the ZI and Voigtl?nder models. The rangefinder construction was modified to automatically display the frames and to use a frame selector lever too. The RF base forced the designers to relocate the rewind crank in the baseplate.The dimensions are, except for a couple of millimeters difference in the depth of the camera, identical to those of the Leica M6. The weight is 500g, about 60g less than an M6. TTL-flash was not planned for this model, the finish will definitely be chrome and possibly, depending on the success of the camera extended to include black paint. the body is an aluminium/magnesium alloy casting, a material which lends itself to paint jobs but can cause difficulties in a plating process. The trademark Zeiss Ikon was re-activated and re-registered by Carl Zeiss around 1 year ago (see European Patent Office files), the Ikon trademark having been used previously by Ikon AG a manufacturer of locks and security equipment. Whether Ikon AG had to give the go ahead on this? the Zeiss rep just didn't know. As far as I can tell and remember this is pretty much all the detailed info that the Photokina staff at RingFoto, Zeiss, Hasselblad and Voigtl?nder gave me. All direct, no hedging, no rumours and no "I'm not really allowed to tell you this but...." The Zeiss staff were honestly excited and very confident about their new system, and convinced that it is a match for anything Leica may come up with. In an aside a Zeiss bod told me "If it IS worse than the Leica we have the foundation upon which we can build and improve. What are Leica going to improve if we're better?" Douglas Mark Rabiner schrieb: > >How much is this Zeiss thing and how much is it a Cosina thing? >Erwin sure seems to think Zeiss has It's name on the line and it's THEIR >deal with the 400 lines issue. A bridge too far - he should know I think he >lives next to it. >But first out we were told this was Cosina having bought the Zeiss Ikon name >just like with the Voigtl?nder name. >Which is it? >Or how to these two lines blur? > >Mark Rabiner >Photography >Portland Oregon >http://rabinergroup.com/ > > > > > >_______________________________________________ >Leica Users Group. >See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > > > -- Ihre bevorzugten Shops, hilfreiche Einkaufs-Hilfen und gro?artige Geschenk Ideen. Erleben Sie das Vergn?gen online einzukaufen mit Shop@Netscape! http://shopping.netscape.de/shopping/