Rodenstock stops production of several lenses

[Amedeus]

Drew is dead on.

You have to see the amount of equipment needed to make those lenses, glue them, laser align them, coat, package them, QA etc, etc in to fully grasp what the real cost is. Not even talking about all the resources needed for proper design. The used market lenses are at a fraction of BOM cost. Designing "new" old lenses for an extremely small market in the big scale of things is not going to happen any time soon as those same resources are fully utilized reveling industrial grade optical systems for money making businesses.

I personally believe that there's possible room for some specialty runs and I'm talking about this with the powers at Excelitas/QiOptic to find out how much appetite there is for small ventures similar to what Cooke has done for 2 specialty lenses.

Making fine lenses requires special glass types, some of which are no longer feasible due to environmental, cost, or labor issues. It's also a slow, expensive process to properly cool or cure the glass before machining. It might be the case that expensive limited or prepaid runs pop up from time to time, much like Cooke does. But I
simply don't see the financial incentive anymore for all these redundant general-purpose plasmats, when there's already a glut of used ones out there. Heck - some
people here will buy hundred-year-old view lenses that are still perfectly functional. These things don't just decompose on their own. Maybe if the big manufacturers
would resort to biodegradable glass and shutters, they'd get more repeat sales.

[Amedeus]

There's hardly anyone complaining ... sure, there's some noise on bulletin boards but that hardly reaches the business managers at the lens manufacturers. All they have is hard numbers of declining lens sales, E&O stock, distributors not buying any because they still have NOS on the shelves. Once the fixed overhead cost to maintain a production line is significantly higher than the sales of the product line, shut down decisions are being made. Makes Euro/Yen sense.

your stockholders, who are all large format photographers that are complaining that they can't buy new large format lenses anymore.

[Jac@stafford.net]

We have all the LF lenses we can possibly wish for. That is the final statement, the Bottom Line.

Any wishes to 'revive' LF through the introduction of new lenses or the re-manufacturing of classics is just silly. The market is not there.

[john borrelli]

I am not saying I disagree with others, but Cosina is known for making series of lenses that are geared toward a small market.

Cosina presently sells under the Voigtlander name and has helped Zeiss manufacture lenses that are sold under the Zeiss name. They are apparently profiting from a model where they can produce these small runs of lenses. These lenses have been geared toward 35mm, but they did also recently work with Fuji to produce two medium format folder film cameras, one with a wide angle and one with a normal focal length lens. These may still be in production today.

They also have been able to compete with Leica by producing competitive lenses at 50-75% of new Leica prices. In fact, Cosina's new lenses are even less than used Leicas.If you look at what some of the classic LF lenses are going for on Ebay these days, I'm guessing a company like Cosina could sell a new lens in the $1000.00 range.

[angusparker]

Those Cosina MF cameras - the Fuji GF670 / Bessa III and wide versions of the same are great cameras. But I imagine the last new MF camera to be made. I think the production run is over but you can still buy new in some places.

I am not saying I disagree with others, but Cosina is known for making series of lenses that are geared toward a small market.

Cosina presently sells under the Voigtlander name and has helped Zeiss manufacture lenses that are sold under the Zeiss name. They are apparently profiting from a model where they can produce these small runs of lenses. These lenses have been geared toward 35mm, but they did also recently work with Fuji to produce two medium format folder film cameras, one with a wide angle and one with a normal focal length lens. These may still be in production today.

They also have been able to compete with Leica by producing competitive lenses at 50-75% of new Leica prices. In fact, Cosina's new lenses are even less than used Leicas.If you look at what some of the classic LF lenses are going for on Ebay these days, I'm guessing a company like Cosina could sell a new lens in the $1000.00 range.

[Sal Santamaura]

...Your stock holders are likely to be counted on one hand.

And it's unlikely you'll need to use a majority of the fingers.

[koh303]

And it's unlikely you'll need to use a majority of the fingers.

+1 (i was going to say you will have enough fingers left to make coffee...

[Kirk Fry]

Have a look at this outfit. I have one of their 303.53mm lenses. Clearly if you want a small run of lenses made they can do it. All you need is $$$$$. www.jmloptical.com