Carl Zeiss AG

A German manufacturer of optical systems, industrial measurements and medical devices, located in Oberkochen with important subsidiaries in Aalen and Jena. Carl Zeiss is the premier company of the Zeiss Gruppe, one of the two large divisions of the Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung. The Zeiss Gruppe is located in Heidenheim and Jena.

The organization is named after its founder, the German optician Carl Zeiss (1816-1888).

The other division of the Carl Zeiss Foundation, the glass manufacturer Schott AG, is located in Mainz.

Zeiss still continues to be a camera manufacturer, and still produces the Pentacon, Praktica , and special-use lenses (e.g., Exakta). Zeiss also owns the Contax brand and produces other international brands.

Zeiss also produces lenses for space projects.

There are arguably three companies with primarily Zeiss Ikon heritage: Zeiss Germany, the Finnish/Swedish Ikon (which bought the western German Zeiss Ikon AG), and the independent eastern Zeiss Ikon. Jenoptik produces cameras in the same city as Zeiss Germany (Jena), but is not related. There are additionally some Asian firms which still produce products under the Exakta brand, although it is rumored that this will be changed for quality reasons.

Carl Zeiss AG has been responsible for a number of optical innovations since the early 20th century.

* Tessar® lens: from the Greek 'tessara' ('four' [things]) (Carl Zeiss's daughter was also called Tessa) and patented in 1902, this lens was invented by Dr. Paul Rudolph and featured four glass elements. Tessars were originally fixed focal length and are otherwise typically normal lenses. Further development yielded longer focal length telephoto lenses, and in 2002 Kyocera produced the T4 Zoom 35mm camera, equipped with the 28-70mm Vario-Tessar® T* f/4.5-8.0 lens, the first zoom Tessar.

* T* Coating: a multi-layered antireflective coating for lenses. Pioneered by Zeiss, the technology was further expanded in a joint venture with Rollei to yield 'HFT' lenses, sold under the Rollei name. Zeiss claims that there is no detectable difference between the two and that HFT was developed in response to the low output volume the Zeiss plant was capable of at the time.

Zeiss continues to be associated with expensive and high-quality optical lenses. Zeiss lenses are generally thought to be elegant and well-constructed, yielding high-quality images. Even old lens designs such as the Tessar demonstrate engineering elegance and in the modern age of plastic parts, many Zeiss lenses are still made with predominantly metal components.

Although many lenses of other manufacturers commonly generate the sharpest images while operating at a very small aperture, Zeiss maintains that their lenses are sharp "wide open."
Zeiss licenses its technology to be manufactured by third party companies and, indeed, a great many have done so. Notable names include Hasselblad, an independently prominent name in medium format professional cameras; Rollei; Sony; and Alpa. Notably absent from this list are the Japanese companies Canon and Nikon, who by and large produce their own lenses.

On April 27, 2005 the company announced a collaboration with Nokia in the camera phone market. The first product to emerge out of this collaboration is the Nokia N90.

See also:
* Contax
* Rangefinder camera
* teleconverter
* Lens hood
* Large format lens

• Binoculars
• Telescopes
• Camera Lens

• Enjoy the View - Use a Binocular

• Nikon 8x42 Monarch ATB

• Zhumell 7x50 Marine with Compass and Reticle

• Zhumell Bring em Near Pirate Spyglass 25x30

• Swarovski 10x42 EL Binoculars

• Binocular Cases

• New ATN Night Vision Technology

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It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Zeiss".