Hmmm ... where was YOUR lens made?

[xpatUSA]

Apparently, some Meyer Optik Görlitz lenses were not made in Germany, it says here:

https://www.dpreview.com/news/184449...d-chinese-lens

Revealed by the new owners of the brand in a press release here:

https://www.meyer-optik-goerlitz.com...optik-goerlitz

Posted FWIW.

[Manfred M]

This is all interesting but the historical Meyer Optik lenses (i.e. those made prior to German re-unification) were indeed made in either pre-war Germany or post-war East Germany. Meyer Optik ceased to be a separate entity and was absorbed into the Pentacon VEB (makers of the Praktica cameras) some time in the late 1960s. Pentacon went bust after German reunification (1990) and the brand was resurrected.

Just as an aside branding and country of origin have always been all over the place. Canon used to buy Nikon lenses for their camera bodies. I have Leica lenses that were made in Germany, Canada and Japan (a rebranded Minolta lens). A lot of modern, non-Sony, Zeiss branded lenses are made by Cosina Japan (although they are Zeiss designed and built to Zeiss specs). Etc. etc. etc.

[William W]

Sometimes it doesn’t matter to me where the lens was made, only that I have it.

An modern example is the exceedingly rare Canon EF-S 18 to 55 F/3.5~5.6 L IS, seen lurking in the shadows mounted on a Classic EOS 20D.

Simply marvellous.



WW

[xpatUSA]

Sometimes it doesn’t matter to me where the lens was made, only that I have it.

An modern example is the exceedingly rare Canon EF-S 18 to 55 F/3.5~5.6 L IS, seen lurking in the shadows mounted on a Classic EOS 20D.

Simply marvellous.



WW

Not familiar with Canon lenses, Bill, but will certainly take your word for it.

I have a couple of Panasonic "Leica" lenses, neither one made in Wetzlar, of course. Not surprisingly, they do take good pictures.

I owned two L-398 Sekonic lightmeters at one time and must admit to selling the later model (made in the Philippines). I tell myself that I preferred the earlier one because it said ASA on the dial - but probably "Made in Japan" was a contributing factor!

[William W]

Not familiar with Canon lenses, Bill, but will certainly take your word for it. . .

You shouldn't. It was meant to be humorous. No offense meant, Ted.

Regards.

[William W]

Not telling Pork Pies now - I do own two Gossen Light-meters: both with original Leather Case. They have ASA.
ASA is "proper".

WW

[george013]

My old Aus Jena lens was made here


The old factory off Carl Zeiss it was said then.

George

[xpatUSA]

My old Aus Jena lens was made here


The old factory off Carl Zeiss it was said then.

George

Here?



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Z...porate_history

What is an "Aus" Jena lens?

I used to have a Pancolor 50mm f/1.8 on my Praktica long ago ...

[Panama Hat & Camera]

My Nikkor 18-300mm f/3.5-6.3 and my 50mm f/1.8 were made in China.
My Nikkor 18-140mm f/3.5-5.6 was made in Thailand.
My Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 was made in Japan.
My Canon SX50 HS camera and lens were made in Japan.
Luckily, all these lenses take good pictures (the limitation is me)!
Cheers,
Antonio.

[george013]

I should have used a link.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_Museum_Jena
https://www.deutsches-optisches-museum.de/. Also in English.
Google on "aus jena 135mm f3.5".
Aus Jena means 'from Jena'. I'll have a look if I can make a picture of the lens if you want. An excersice in product photography for me. I never did it.

It is true, old pictures have something. Wonderful to look back.

Camera was my first digital camera, a HP Photosmart 618. Also old.

George

[Manfred M]

What is an "Aus" Jena lens?

Some photographic history trivia, Ted.

Jena is located in the eastern part of Germany and was occupied by the USSR after WW II. The Western allies did not want the advanced optical technology to fall into Soviet hands and evacuated key members of the Zeiss works to Oberkochen in the Western part of the country. After the partition of Germany there were two companies using the Carl Zeiss name; one located in Oberkochen and another in the old Zeiss works in Jena.

At one point they got into a trademark dispute as to which of the two companies were entitled to use the Carl Zeiss trademark. The Oberkochen based company won the legal battle and the East German company could no longer use the Carl Zeiss brand. They started labeling their lenses "Aus Jena", i.e. 'from Jena". This is why your lens was labeled with this branding.

[ST1]

Sometimes it doesn’t matter to me where the lens was made, only that I have it.

An modern example is the exceedingly rare Canon EF-S 18 to 55 F/3.5~5.6 L IS, seen lurking in the shadows mounted on a Classic EOS 20D.

Simply marvellous.

WW

Bill, I hadnt realised that Canon ever produced any "EF-S" L (Luxury) grade lenses. No wonder you cherish this one.

[george013]

Some photographic history trivia, Ted.

Jena is located in the eastern part of Germany and was occupied by the USSR after WW II. The Western allies did not want the advanced optical technology to fall into Soviet hands and evacuated key members of the Zeiss works to Oberkochen in the Western part of the country. After the partition of Germany there were two companies using the Carl Zeiss name; one located in Oberkochen and another in the old Zeiss works in Jena.

At one point they got into a trademark dispute as to which of the two companies were entitled to use the Carl Zeiss trademark. The Oberkochen based company won the legal battle and the East German company could no longer use the Carl Zeiss brand. They started labeling their lenses "Aus Jena", i.e. 'from Jena". This is why your lens was labeled with this branding.

Yes.
That part of Germany was once the cultural center of Europe. Worth visiting.
There's a Zeiss Ikon and a Carl Zeiss. It's the same Zeiss but I thought Zeiss Ikon was more camera related.

The lens is from Jena East Germany. And I've an optical waterlevel instrument from Zeiss, and that's from West Germany, search for Zeiss Ni52.

Ted,
Here is a list of Nikon lenses http://www.photosynthesis.co.nz/nikon/serialno.html. It also shows where the lens was made.
Don't pay to much attention to where it was made. Nikon, in this case, is responsible for the quality. And even when Nikon imports all of the components from China and just assembles them in Japan it's 'Made in Japan', with all Chinese products.

George

[rpcrowe]

I would be quite angry if I had invested three grand in a lens thinking that it might have reputed "magical" qualities ike some folks purport to the Meyer Optik glass only to find out that it was actually a rebranding of a Mitagon lens which I could have purchased at less than one third of the price.

However, rebranding as well as the remanufacture of some lenses have been pretty common in photographic history. Many of the Japanese companies did not actually make the lenses that their brands indicated and some giant retailers placed their house brands (for better or worse) on lenses made by various companies (usually Japanese companies).

A great example of rebranding of equipment to retailer's brand names is the line of products sold by the giant Sears Robuck Company in the USA. When you purchase a Sears branded item, you never know (without doing some research) just who manufactured the product. Sears did/does not manufacture any products but, had/has a wide range or products for sale under the Sears name and under various proprietary names owned by Sears (Craftsman is just one example).

Occasionally the consumer hits the jackpot and gets a Sears branded item that is of excellent quality. An example of this in the photographic area was the really top-notch Sears Auto 55mm f/1.4 M42 mount lens sold by that company in the second half of the 20th Century. Sears had contracted with Ricoh to sell their Auto Rikenon (not to be confused with Rokinon) 55mm f/1.4 lens as a Sears branded product. This lens turned out to be of excellent quality. This lens was actually made by the Tomioka company and has developed a cult following amongst devotees of vintage glass.

Sometimes, companies sell their lens designs for one reason or another. Angenieux, the French manufacturer of top line cine lenses (the 12-120mm f/2.2 lens was a standard of the industry for 16mm film production) also produced and marketed a 28-70mm f/2.8 lens for still cameras in various mounts such as Canon EF. This lens was contemporary with the 28-70mm f/2.8L Canon lens. Although this was an excellent lens in its day, Angenieux found that it could not compete with Canon and Nikon at the price point it had to charge for this lens to make a profit. So Angenieux sold the design to the Tokina company which began to produce the lens as the 28-70mm f/2.8 ATX. This lens was quite good. In fact, it can still compete pretty well with more modern top-line glass. It was just about as sharp as the 28-70mm f/2.8L but, was smaller, lighter in weight and had internal focusing. I really like my copy and don't consider it a vintage lens.



However, Tokina found out that it could not compete with CANIKON at the price they had to charge for this lens. In order to salvage something out of the Angenieux deal, Tokina introduced a cheaper version: 28-70mm f/2.8 SV lens (SV stood for Special Value but, it wasn't).

Now lenses for various companies are being made in Thailand, Malasia and other countries with Chinese and Korean lenses becoming better and better and thus more popular. They are being manufactured for Nikon and Canon as well as being sold under their own names. Rokinon/Samyang has begun releasing manual focus lenses of excellent optical quality. In fact, many reviewers have stated that they consider the 135mm Rokinon/Samyang 135mm f2.0 lens to be even sharper than the Canon 135mm f/2L lens and oneof the sharpest lenses being sold today. I have a Rokinon/Samyang 12mm f/2.0 manual focus NEX mount lens that is excellent optically.

Lenses and lens manufacturers tend go in cycles. Early on, I did not think too much of Sigma glass. However lately, these lenses are becoming quite excellent and can easily compete with their CANIKON and Sony counterparts. So the ultimate parameter of Sigma lens quality could be the era in which it was produced.

[Manfred M]

Yes.
That part of Germany was once the cultural center of Europe. Worth visiting.
There's a Zeiss Ikon and a Carl Zeiss. It's the same Zeiss but I thought Zeiss Ikon was more camera related.

The lens is from Jena East Germany. And I've an optical waterlevel instrument from Zeiss, and that's from West Germany, search for Zeiss Ni52.

Ted,
Here is a list of Nikon lenses http://www.photosynthesis.co.nz/nikon/serialno.html. It also shows where the lens was made.
Don't pay to much attention to where it was made. Nikon, in this case, is responsible for the quality. And even when Nikon imports all of the components from China and just assembles them in Japan it's 'Made in Japan', with all Chinese products.

George

Gorge the current Carl Zeiss company is owned by the Carl Zeiss Stiftung (Carl Zeiss Foundation), which was founded by Ernst Abbe the mathematician and physicist who designed many of the early Zeiss lenses. The Foundation Also owns Schott, a major manufacturer of optical and other commercial glass. Zeiss Ikon was the camera line produced by Zeiss.

Current Zeiss camera lenses are designed by Zeiss but manufactured by Codina in Japan. Sony also designs and produces Zeiss branded lenses, but these are Sony lenses. Zeiss does manufacture high end motion picture lenses in Germany.

[Manfred M]

Yes.
That part of Germany was once the cultural center of Europe. Worth visiting.
There's a Zeiss Ikon and a Carl Zeiss. It's the same Zeiss but I thought Zeiss Ikon was more camera related.

The lens is from Jena East Germany. And I've an optical waterlevel instrument from Zeiss, and that's from West Germany, search for Zeiss Ni52.

Ted,
Here is a list of Nikon lenses http://www.photosynthesis.co.nz/nikon/serialno.html. It also shows where the lens was made.
Don't pay to much attention to where it was made. Nikon, in this case, is responsible for the quality. And even when Nikon imports all of the components from China and just assembles them in Japan it's 'Made in Japan', with all Chinese products.

George

Gorge the current Carl Zeiss company is owned by the Carl Zeiss Stiftung (Carl Zeiss Foundation), which was founded by Ernst Abbe the mathematician and physicist who designed many of the early Zeiss lenses. The Foundation Also owns Schott, a major manufacturer of optical and other commercial glass. Zeiss Ikon was the camera line produced by Zeiss.

Current Zeiss camera lenses are designed by Zeiss but manufactured by Codina in Japan. Sony also designs and produces Zeiss branded lenses, but these are Sony lenses. Zeiss does manufacture high end motion picture lenses in Germany.

[xpatUSA]

Some photographic history trivia, Ted.

Jena is located in the eastern part of Germany and was occupied by the USSR after WW II. The Western allies did not want the advanced optical technology to fall into Soviet hands and evacuated key members of the Zeiss works to Oberkochen in the Western part of the country. After the partition of Germany there were two companies using the Carl Zeiss name; one located in Oberkochen and another in the old Zeiss works in Jena.

At one point they got into a trademark dispute as to which of the two companies were entitled to use the Carl Zeiss trademark. The Oberkochen based company won the legal battle and the East German company could no longer use the Carl Zeiss brand. They started labeling their lenses "Aus Jena", i.e. 'from Jena". This is why your lens was labeled with this branding.

I guess my lens was antebellum then (legal, that is):



Eagle eyes will note the aperture not quite at minimum which is why I sold it for parts ...

[george013]

I guess my lens was antebellum then (legal, that is):



Eagle eyes will note the aperture not quite at minimum which is why I sold it for parts ...

Depends what you mean with antebellum. It says DDR.

George

[xpatUSA]

Depends what you mean with antebellum.

Manfred said "At one point they got into a trademark dispute as to which of the two companies were entitled to use the Carl Zeiss trademark. The Oberkochen based company won the legal battle and the East German company could no longer use the Carl Zeiss brand. They started labeling their lenses "Aus Jena", i.e. 'from Jena". This is why your lens was labeled with this branding."

By 'antebellum' I meant before-that-legal-battle because my lens did not say "Aus Jena" on it, even though Manfred said that it did.

It says DDR.

George

Yes, I think we can all see that ...