Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/09/30
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]>Aren't there much more expensive Tessars available? If so, do the expensive >ones have the same problem? Tessar is the name of the design ... no matter how expensive or cheap one might be, it will still be a Tessar. Zeiss only makes excellent Tessars. They all have similar behaviors. Front element focusers exhibit it to slightly greater degree than unit focusers. The only unit focusers I can think of offhand are the Rolleiflexes with Tessar lens, but I'm sure there must be a few others. >> The Tessar lens in it is one of the best in the class, >> certainly at the price. > >I still don't understand how Yashica can put a Zeiss lens in the camera and >still keep the same price point as the competition. Do they and Kyocera have >some special deals with Zeiss, or what? The old Yashica company was bought by Kyocera a long time ago. Kyocera is a leader in the development of ceramics and optical glass. Somewhere in the late 1970s, Kyocera partnered with Carl Zeiss Group, licensed the "Contax" trademark for an upmarket line of cameras, and formed a working partnership with Zeiss to provide manufacturing facilities for the volume Zeiss products. A short review of this relationship is available on the Kyocera website, <http://www.kyocera.com/>. The Yashica T4 Super (T5) obtains its Zeiss lens from this working partnership between Kyocera and Carl Zeiss Group. Godfrey