[Leica] Zeiss Ikon

[DouglasMSharp at netscape.net (Douglas M. Sharp)]

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/