Carl Zeiss To make T* for Nikon mount

Excuse my ignorance...I have of course heard of Carl Zeiss. But could anyone give me some more info on what makes them so good?
 
Phoenix_Cosmos said:
lucky news for Nikon users. Carl Zeiss lens's are very high quality.
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Whilst this may be true, we have been lucky as Nikon have always been regarded as making the best glass for mainstream use (SLR/DSLR).
 
TomWilko said:
Excuse my ignorance...I have of course heard of Carl Zeiss. But could anyone give me some more info on what makes them so good?
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Traditionally they have been metal bodied and not "plastic", the glass and design is of the 1st order. They normal achieve some of the the best MTF (modulation transfer function) results. Plus they have there own unique T* coating on the optics that helps contrast and colour rendition.
General regarded as about as good as it gets, Leica owners would disagree i guess.
In more recent times found on Hasselblad and Contax cameras. (plus some licenced items on Sony cameras)
I use CZ T* Prime lenses on my Contax
 
But they're MF only, which does restrict their appeal to a relative minority of users. I'm not sure that people are willing to give up AF, regardless of how good the glass is. This problem is not made any easier by the fact that Nikon glass is already very, very good in most cases (the primes and pro line, anyway).

Add the fact that MF is just nigh on impossible on a D50/70 to any decent degree of accuracy due to the small viewfinder (let alone to a critical level as required by macros etc), and I reach the conclusion that they're not going to sell those MF CZ lenses in any big quantities.

However, given that they were never a mainstream brand to begin with, I doubt they were aiming for huge sales either. It might work out quite well for them, because at least the huge market share of Nikon will provide a good platform to increase the volume of sales by quite a margin.

(PS. I personally think that Sony using the Carl Zeiss brand name for their lenses is more of a marketing gimmick - true, they may be CZ "designed" lenses, but what makes CZ special as much as the simple optical formula is the extreme precision to which they are hand-ground and crafted, giving incredible wide open performance (which is where you really need the top glass). You're not going to get all that on a P&S because 1. the lenses are far smaller in the first place, and 2. the lens build quality/craftsmanship is not applicable to lenses that are inside a P&S camera anyway.
 
I would have thought it a good move for CZ to do an AF version, rather than doing a "cut and shut" on the mount of an old Contax lens !!!! Shame......
I wouldn't fancy trying to focus on a D70 screen after looking through the RX..... which I plan to keep and use !!!!!
 
Raymond Lin said:
Carl Zeiss ?? pfft, they make lense for Sony point and Shoot and i still think Sony P&S is a bit naff. I think Nikon or Canon can make lenses themselves, they have done for decades, i don't see how this make them better.
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Well I can say that although I am not the least bit excited by this news, I have to say that Carl Zeiss have made some very nice lenses. I have been using a Contax G2 rangefinder which uses CZ. These start to make even my 'L' class Canon stuff look ill under some conditions, and at a fraction of the cost I may add. As for Sony point and shoot being naff, well it's Sony isn't it? Anybody for a nice shiny superfast low latency 'gaming' tft? ;)
 
Raymond Lin said:
Carl Zeiss ?? pfft, they make lense for Sony point and Shoot and i still think Sony P&S is a bit naff. I think Nikon or Canon can make lenses themselves, they have done for decades, i don't see how this make them better.
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Are you trying to tell me that you're not aware of CZ's long standing history as one of the two historical giants of fine lens making alongside Leica, or are you just trying to make the point that you find their brand name usage in Sony P&S a bit naff?

Besides, they don't actually make the lenses for Sony - that would bring Sony cameras to crazy prices that no-one would buy. They simply licensed the lens design and the coating formula to Sony so that Sony could claim some sort of a brand heritage in their cameras. Just the same as Panasonic - Leica, Samsung - Schneider Kreutznach, etc.
 
The difference (presumably) is that the new Zeiss lenses for the Nikon F mount will meter properly with all Nikon bodies, not just the Pro line which provides metering even without CPU contacts.

With the Canon adapters, you need to do the whole stop down and meter routine if you don't have a pro-line body if I understand correctly - even though both are MF, the extra steps in the routine would be a hassle compared to getting full metering options on the Nikon.
 
I did look at going Canon before getting the D70. Was a close call. The Canon/Contax mount I understand are manual everything, stop down metering, as there is no link to tell where the aperture is set to. Not sure if it even stops down when your fire the shutter.. forget and your have massive over exp !!!..... and trying to focus on a plain screen etc...... Decided to keep the Nikon/Digital the convenience route and still use film for proper stuff/B&W on the Contax ;)
 
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