Carl zeiss said:
An apprentice who graduated from high school; Jena, an ancient German town, is the hometown of carl zeiss. At the beginning, perhaps no one thought that the apprentice of Guzhen would become a world optical giant.
Because of his interest in optics and chemistry for many years, Carl studied at the local University of Jena for a long time after his apprenticeship. 1846, 30-year-old Carl started a studio. His early products were magnifying glasses and simple microscopes. Thanks to two great scientists, Ernst Abbe and Otto Short (have you heard of the famous "Short" glass in optical glass? With the help of pioneer, the quality of Zeiss optical lens has always been in the leading position. Before World War II, the workshop in Dresden was the largest camera factory in the world.
A tortuous experience
1945 14 On the night of February, disaster struck, and the camera factory in Dresden (you must go to Florence on the Elbe next year) was bombed by the allied forces. At the end of World War II, General Patton's Third Army occupied Jena. Because the Yalta Treaty stipulated that American positions must retreat to the west, Germany was split in two, and Jena and Dresden were occupied by Soviet troops.
Of course, the Russians will not let "American imperialism" get their hands on the wealth of this optical giant. As compensation for the war, the Soviet army dismantled the remaining 94% of the factory equipment. The current Kiev camera factory was established in Kiev (through this lineage, Russian lenses can still occupy a place in the optical field).
However, it seems that German technology cannot be taken away. With the support of the University of Jena, the logo of "Carl Zeiss Jena" soon appeared again. The key management and technical personnel of 126 Zeiss plundered by Barton, with the support of the United States, also rebuilt the factory in Oberkochen, Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany). Carl Zeiss also gained a new life in the "capitalist" society, and the Zeiss factory was split in two.
Carl Zeiss Jena in East Germany was called "East Cai" in history, and carl zeiss in West Germany was called "West Cai" in history. Everything about Cai has been labeled as genuine Zeiss. In fact, both sides inherited the tradition of Zeiss in design. It is this competition that makes Zeiss more perfect in optical technology.
After the reunification of Germany and Germany, the Zeiss factory in East and West Germany came into contact again. Headquartered in Oberkochen, it has 3,500 employees and branches all over the world. At this time, Zeiss's combination of double swords has become the first strong player in the field of optics. In the field of 135, Contex still competes with Leica (Contex uses carl zeiss), but in the field of 120, carl zeiss is the world leader: both Hasselblad and Lulai use carl zeiss lenses. In the digital age, with the help of Zeiss, Sony, originally an optical amateur, has become one of the industry leaders in consuming digital cameras.
Creator of classic works
Zeiss pioneered many classic designs in the lens industry. Paul rudolph, the founder of Zeiss, is one of the most famous designers in the history of lens manufacturing. 1890, he designed the first Anastigmat, which opened a new era of Zeiss lens. 1896, Rudolf published the famous plane lens with double Gaussian structure, which corrected all kinds of lens aberrations well. Since then, the standard lenses of various brands produced all over the world (including Leica) have borrowed from the flat lens design.
1902, he designed four sets of "Hawkeye"-Tessa lenses. Although the structure is simple and the price is moderate, the imaging quality is shocking, bright and sharp.
Others, such as Holgon, Sonnar (the lens of Sony DSC-F828 is based on Sonnar lens structure), Bio-gon specially designed for paraxial cameras, etc. , are classic mirrors created by Zeiss. It is a fact that there is a market for optical products as long as they touch the edge of Zeiss lens.
Under the dazzling aura of Zeiss and Leica, Rodenstock and Schneider became unknown in the eyes of laymen. In fact, there have been a large number of excellent brands in Germany's century-old optical traditional industry, but most of them have withered under the monopoly of Zeiss and Leica, but Roden Schneider still exists strongly with its first-class design. If you see which digital camera uses Rodenster and Schneider lenses, the optical performance can be guaranteed. Although there are rumors that the German lens used in digital cameras is only designed or even authorized by Germany, even if the lens is manufactured in Japan or other places, Germans will care about their own face and their performance will never be too outrageous.