Zeiss lenses

Daniel_OB

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Where Zeiss lenses for Contax RTS were made. They were so good. If they are made in Japan (not sure) why ZF should be behind (on side that one single reason, Pb).

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HerrBremerhaven

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At Kyocera, who I believe made most of the raw glass. These were sometimes listed under Yashica, with a few similar lenses in the Yashica line. The big exception was the Contax 645, which had no Yashica equivalent. As I recall, there were Zeiss quality control people at Kyocera, and the designs originated from Zeiss.

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Gordon Moat
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TheFlyingCamera

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Originally, the Contax RTS lenses were made in Germany. Over time, most of the production shifted to Kyocera in Japan, but a small minority of the lenses continued to be made exclusively in Germany - the 60mm Makro-Planar and the 180mm F2.8 Sonnar being examples. I think the fisheye was also always made in Germany.
 
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Daniel_OB

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TheFlyingCamera
That 60 macro is actualy the reason why I posted it. I have field test (not curves...) and shows just it is so nice lens, as one could expect from Zeiss. I am just trying to find a way how could compare that ZF 50 F2 macro with Contax macro.
So they could not find adecvate manufacturer for their Contax macro but now they got one to make all ZF lenses. Looks funny.

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TheFlyingCamera

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I don't know if it was an issue of adequate manufacture there or not. It may have been any number of factors, like they wanted to keep certain glass formulas proprietary, or there may have been environmental legislation that wouldn't let them make something in Japan that they could in Germany, or who knows? Could have been a labor union issue. Note that the ZF 50 f2 Macro is a different design altogether from the 60 Makro-Planar. They did make the 60 C (Compact) Macro for the Contax system in Japan, which only focused to 1:2, not 1:1 like the non-compact version.
 

Mark Layne

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And the 85 f1.4 Planar
Mark
 
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