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Official Good Bye from Kyocera Japan

funjp

Member
I suppose most of you have seen the news in DP Review. http://www.kyocera.co.jp/prdct/optical/news/discontinue050412.html Here's the link to Kyocera Japan's official Press Release. The production of the Contax N Digital, T3, N system(lenses, body and accessories), G system(lenses, body and accessories)were terminated last month. Contax/Yashica mount system(lenses and accessories) will be terminated this month. Contax 645 system(body, lenses and accessories) will also be terminated this month. Contax compact digital cameras(body and accessories, excluding rechargeable batteries) will be terminated on June.
So this is Good Bye to the Contax brand, at least for now. Let's hope for a better life for the Zeiss Ikon. See you in the Canon Forum.
 
Hi Christiano,

thanks for the link, we posted this already a few hours ago in the off-topic/ chat corner...

I do think it is clear that Zeiss is in deep negotiations with differnt companies to continue in some way with the Contax brand. We have no official statement yet and it is too early to know, whether this measn a continuation ofthe manual focus line, the N-system or both or any other system.

What is important by now is, that there is no "hiding game" anymore. It is officila, although done again in a very unprofessional manner. But this is the Kyocera way of doing PR and this will end soon as we all know by now
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So there is very probably a future for the Contax brand. The questions will be more model and lens specifica nd with which cooperation partner. If it is the manual focus line, Cosina is surely the hottest candidate. There is alraeyd the relationship via Zeiss.Ikon and Cosina did FAIK also the Yashica FX3 for Kyocera.

So a relaunched Contax S2 would be easily possible with a cooperation partner like Cosina.

If we are looking at the more "modern" models with a lot of electronic in it. AF etc. like the G-system oder the N-system, this is tougher to tell. I am sure Zeiss will talk to Sony, Panasonic and a few others. A lot of know-how is required to match the N-System and G-system technology also in the future. So a big company would be needed as a cooperation partner for this.

The only exception would be, if Zeiss would put different responsibilities on to different shoulders. Each partner would then only be responsible for a certain task, in which he is good at.

An ex&le would be: marketing and/or distribution by one company (someone like Hasselbald, Cosina, Sony etc.), Development and Production on an order by order basis by Koycera (as they do & did already for many other companies i.e. Leica, Canon etc.) and the strategy concept, (maybe also marketing)and as the final decision maker Zeiss.

With this, you could run different product lines with difefernt partbners and you are not restricted on the capabilities of one cooperation partner like in the past.

To sum it up, I doubt that this is really the end of the Contax brand...
 
Meanwhile the really important stuff ... the Zeiss lenses ... live on, hanging off the front of a 16meg., full frame Canon body ; -)

No need to migrate to the Canon forum, Zeiss IS Contax as far as I'm concerned, and there are lots of lenses to be had.
 
Couldn't agree more... I bought Contax primarily because i wanted ziess lenses. The history/reputation of the Contax brand was a bonus.
 
FYI

maybe not all of you know that: Zeiss owns the name "Contax", not Kyocera. This is the same like with the name "Zeiss Ikon".

Zeiss only allowed Kyocera to use the name "Contax" in form of a licence for certain cameras. Same situation now with "Zeiss Ikon" and Cosina.

So it is only up to Zeiss to decide, who will be the next cooperation partner that will produce cameras with the "Contax" name on it.
 
I think that's pretty well understood Dirk. But if the Contax camera had Sigma lenses on it, the brand would be nowhere today ... hmmm, but it is nowhere right now ... a real shame ; -(

Zeiss makes lenses first and foremost, so they'll figure out how to get something to put them on ... or they'll go out of business also.
 
With Sony being so behind in the DSLR race and the recently reported prediction of the Prosumer market drying up, wouldn't it be something if Kyocera sold the ND design to Sony?

Well, one can only wish..

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As a satisfied owner of a G-2. I would hope that another manufacturer would purchase the Contax G-2 technology from Kyocera and develop a G Digital. It does not matter to me if it is the same manufactuer as the one that purchases the Contax SLR's name. I would hope the manuacturer already produces digital cameras so they can accelerate the introduction of competitive digital cameras that will use our existing CZ lenses-- especially the WA's.

Howard
 
As I sit and think a bit about this whole situation it isn't clear to me as to whether Kyocera may be willing to continue to make cameras/lenses for other manufacturers. They of course make some lenses for Leica and I have heard nothing about them being discontinued.

A potential new suiter for the Contax brand could potentially use Kyocera as a producer for the cameras/lenses in the near term. This would be quite helpful as they evidently have a had a G3 and a new N model in the wings for quite some time. If another front company takes on the marketing and fiscal responsibility but uses Kyocera to produce the products we might just see something new.

Who knows, time will certainly tell!
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I doubt if Cosina can be a good partner with Zeiss. The problem with Voigtlander producing Zeiss Ikon is that Voigtlander is producing their own system competing with Zeiss Ikon and I believe in some way they do not want Zeiss Ikon to thrive.
The reason I am saying this is because I brought Zeiss Ikon lenses and I found that in some way they are inferior to Voigtlander lenses. I brought Zeiss 50 2 and 35 2 in chrome and black. I also have a chance to look at a Voigtlander 40 1.4 black version. I found the paint, the design of focusing barrel and the appearance all suggest Voigtlander lenses are better and a lot cheaper,despite the fact that Zeiss Ikon are optically better. My Ikon lenses has also screwing marks left behind at production. Voigtlander one has nice screwing jobs. I hold the Voigtlander lens and it does feel good, in fact the outer construction is in every way as good as Leica. The outer construction of the Zeiss is in every way inferior to Leica.
My warning to Zeiss is that it is better to choose a partner who do not not have products to compete with your own.
 
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