Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/11/21
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]This history is relevant. Why did the Contarex bankrupt Zeiss Ikon? The lesson to be learned is that if you have a solid product and limited resources, it is best to maintain your market niche (i.e. 35mm RF) rather than try to leapfrog the competition in a new and unproven market. Or, alternatively and what I presume the answer to my above question will demonstrate, the real lesson is that the real revolution in 35mm systems has been the incorporation of modern manufactoring and quality control practices which has allowed the introduction of reliable *and* affordable systems. Jonathan Borden Marc James Small wrote: > > > At 04:59 PM 11/20/1999 -0800, Eric Welch wrote: > > > >Not to mention it going out of production begs the question. If > it was such > >a hot item with professionals, why was the Leica the winner of the > >longevity contest? > > > > Money. Up to World War II, it was little, teeny Leitz and huge > Zeiss Ikon, > backed by the corporate connections and fiscal strength of the Zeiss > Foundation. After World War II, Leitz found itself with an extremely > lucrative contract to supply ALL US Army and Air Force exchanges with > cameras, and, hence, was soon flush enough -- not rich, though! -- to dust > off that old Contax IV of '36 and to update the design and to bring it out > as the M3. > > Zeiss, on the other hand, had to re-establish a lot of its operations in > the west, including the Schott glass works (now in Mainz) and the Zeiss > lens works (now in Oberkochen). Zeiss Ikon simply was of a very low > priority, especially as it already had half its operation (Goerz in Berlin > and Contessa in Stuttgart) in the Western Zone. So, the Foundation > concentrated on Schott and Zeiss and Zeiss Ikon had to struggle. > > The Contax RF sold well -- better than the Prewar camera, in fact, even > without all those marvelous doo-dads available before the War. But other > camera systems were flat financial losers, especially the Ikoflex TLR (and > the British Army gave Franke & Heidecke the same sort of assistance the US > Army gave Leitz, and the Rolleiflex simply buried the Ikoflex) and the > folders (Super Ikonta, Ikonta, Nettar, Nettax). The only BIG money-maker > for the Postwar Zeiss Ikon concern was the Contaflex SLR, whose success > convinced the Foundation to keep underwriting a money-losing business. > > The crises point came in 1956, when it was decided to end all MF camera > production and to kill off the Contax and to jump a generation to the > Contarex, a revolutionary SLR. (Of the professional-level 35mm > RF systems, > Kodak's Ektra and Voigtlander's Prominent were gone, and the signals were > strong that Nikon was going to do the same, leaving only the Leica, Canon, > and Kodak's Retina in the chase. To Zeiss Ikon, the RF was a dying > option.) Hence, the mavens of Stuttgart decided to one-up the opposition > by producing the Contarex instead of manufacturing the Contax IV and > reworking some of those Prewar doo-dads and bringing out an affordable > reflex housing. > > And the Contarex, ultimately bankrupted Zeiss Ikon. > > Marc > > msmall@roanoke.infi.net FAX: +540/343-7315 > Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir! >