Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/02/12
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]It's a contractual arrangment only. When the Zeiss Foundation decided to terminate camera production by Zeiss Ikon, they shopped around for a Japanese partner. After an abortive effort to work with Pentax -- which gave Pentax the rights to the T* coating, which they called SMC, and the Zeiss-designed K-mount -- Zeiss negotiated a deal with Yashica under which they gave to Yashica their rather strong electronic-shutter technology and agreed to provide lenses for the new camera. Yashica in turn agreed to produce the camera bodies and lenses in Japan. (This is the probable reason the deal with Pentax didn't work. The Japanese did NOT want to produce lenses in Japan, as they were convinced the home market would never accept that Japanese-produced Zeiss lenses were identical in quality to German-produced Zeiss lenses; at the same time Zeiss, as has been their policy since 1945, wanted to minimize camera-lens production. Yashica raised this point with some force and the compromise struck with them is that all final inspection is performed in a room to which only German nationals are permitted.) The result is: Zeiss and Kyocera (the deal was carried over to Kyoto Ceramics when Yashica went south) jointly develop the concept for new cameras and accessories. The initial camera development is done in Germany and all detailed work in Japan. The lenses are completely German designed and initial production is normally German, moving to Japan once the bugs are ironed out. All of the super-wide-angle and fisheye lenses, to my knowledge, are German produced. All technology is pooled: thus, Zeiss's work on night-vision devices, for instance, would be made available as necessary to Kyocera for their use, and Kyocera's work on shutter designs is fed back to Oberkochen. Marc msmall@roanoke.infi.net FAX: +540/343-7315 Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!