Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1996/04/11
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 06:27 PM 4/11/96 -0600, Arthur Wouk wrote: >well, zeiss is gone, and leica, if not for >the collectors, would probably be gone by now too. Zeiss is hardly gone: they are probably the largest industrial, scientific, and medical optics firm in the world, and they dominate the high end of consumer optics such as binoculars and rifle scopes. In fact, they are still cheerfully producing quite a few camera lenses, for Hasselblad, and design lenses which are made under license by Rollei (at the old Voigtlander plant in Braunschweig, I believe) and by Yashica in Japan for the Contax SLR cameras. I believe Mr Wouk meant to refer to Zeiss Ikon, a totally different company owned by the same educational foundation which owns the Zeiss optical works. Zeiss Ikon ceased camera production in 1972, but continued to produce slide projectors and the like until 1992, when these were hived off to a Scandavanian firm, who continues to produce these under the Zett brand. The Zeiss Ikon name remains a proprietary Zeiss trademark. Interestingly, very few cameras ever bore the simple Zeiss name, and only the tail end of the Contaflex and Contarex series did so properly. Best, Marc msmall@roanoke.infi.net FAX: +540/343-7315 Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!