Who makes the Carl Zeiss in Japan?

I am new to the world of carl zeiss.

I have a number of confusions about it.

Contax of the kyocera group uses carl zeiss with yashica mount.

The new zeiss ikon will be made by cosina.

...

Who makes the carl zeiss in Japan?

What are the relationship between carl zeiss, contax, kyocera,

yashica and cosina.

Thank You for any advice.

The Zeiss website does explain the realtionship.

 

Essentially, the Zeiss lenses that are assembled in Japanese factories are 100% Zeiss. The glass, design, QC are all supervised by Zeiss engineers and are up to Zeiss standards. The main reason for moving to Japan was two-fold. Financial...since the labour in Japan was (at the time of the move) cheaper than in Germany and to be closer to the site of the camera body production (since Kyocera was producing the Contax line).

 

The Contax community stioll has quibbles about whether the Japanese or the West German lenses are different in quality but Zeiss maintains that the standards have not dropped simply because the lenses are assembled in a different country.

 

I would imagine that Zeiss was simply being practical in partnering with Cosina for producing the body of the new Zeiss Ikon RF. They already had experience (and the ability) to produce M-Mount cameras and lenses. It would be a simple matter for Zeiss to supply the engineering expertise as far as the glass and lens design and allow the Japanese to assemble them. Also, a couple of the new ZM mount lenses will still be made in Germany.

 

Just as there are a lot of practical reasons for Zeiss to patrner with Cosina it was also a practical solution for Zeiss (who have no camera distribution infrastructure) to partner with Hasselblad to distribute and sell the new RF.

 

In any case, the prices for the new body and the new lenses are beyond my reach.

Back in the early 70's Yashica wanted to expand their lens production, so purchased the

Tomioka lens plant, which among other products, made the Tominon lenses on the high-

end Polaroid cameras. Yashica became part of the Kyocera coprporate group. They wanted

to create a higher-positioned line of camera products and licensed the Contax name from

Zeiss, and also arranged for Zeiss-branded lens production in the old Tomioka facility.

This involved Carl Zeiss optical engineers, quality control, etc, and this took up more and

more of the plant's capacity, to the point it eventually was virtually a Zeiss plant.

 

This of course required close cooperation between the Kyocera/Yashica personnel working

on the Contax cameras and the Carl Zeiss people designing the Zeiss lenses. Evidently this

cooperation became less than satisfactory and the arrangement was terminated. Now it

seems the Tomioka plant has been closed, and Contax camera production has ceased.

 

Cosina had proven successful at building cameras and lenses to a low price point, usually

for other camera companies to sell as price-leaders under their own names... Vivitar,

Nikon, Canon, Olympus, for example. Cosina arranged for use of the Voigtlander product

names and built their own line of products for a higher-level market. They've certainly

succeeded in demonstrating their ability to make innovative products with very good

quality.

 

Now Cosina is building a new premium line of RF camera gear (that really should be

named "Contax") for Carl Zeiss, following their history of OEM production. Zeiss has clearly

had a strong hand in the body and lens designs from top to bottom, and will surely have a

role too in quality control. With the decline of the OEM film-camera SLR market, I expect

Cosina has adequate production facilities for the Zeiss Ikon. This is pretty exciting, and I

wish them success in what must be a minor market.

Nobody in Japan makes Carl Zeiss as you ask. Carl Zeiss lived in the 18 hundrets and there is not enough DNA left of him to clone another one like him, even.

>Now it seems the Tomioka plant has been closed, and Contax camera production has ceased.

 

Can you provide any reference or source for this?

 

Besides, Kyocera made the cameras while Zeiss made (they still do?) the lenses.

Hi Andrew -- The Kyocera history mostly comes from the Kyocera America website. The

current production situation comes from former Shutterbug editor Bob Shell, who says flat

out that the Zeiss lens plant is shut down, and Contax film cameras are no longer in

production.

Thanks Doug. I've read about this a few times now. Every single occasion Bob Shell was quoted as the source. Not very substantial at best.