A related question that might provide some insight into the original question is, where has Rodenstock established a new direction or standard in their lenses?
A related question that might provide some insight into the original question is, where has Rodenstock established a new direction or standard in their lenses?
Rodenstock..
Imagon.
200mm Grandagon.
APO Ronar.
Bernice
Zeiss pretty much gave up on the general photography market years ago and focused on other industries that are far more profitable. Have a look at Zeiss optical microscope offerings for medicine, industry and.. This is just one of the many other markets Zeiss has focused on in place of general photography..
Zeiss has a highly regarded reputation and brand identity among many photographers, yet based on my experience with Zeiss photographic lenses, they are good, but no better than many of the other competitors who offerer similar products in the same price range. This brand identity stereotype has driven market values for Zeiss photographic optics to IMO, silly numbers.
While Zeiss made their name, brand identity and reputation very early on in the photographic optics game, times and technologies have moved on and they are faced with the same issues, problems as any other optics manufacture today.
Bernice
Thanks for the link Ian.
I wonder if the market has changed enough since then to reconsider these lenses. Now that top end 35mm cameras are becoming alternatives to medium format digital, $3K and $4K lenses don't seem as absurd as they once did.
Any sense of what one of the Rodenstock t/s lenses might have cost if produced?
I realize this is still a very small market, and the margins are probably quite low as well. But Rodenstock does seem to be the company that has the right optical designs just waiting to be put in a new enclosure.
I don't have any real comment on this thread except that I own a quite early RR from Rodenstock that is apparently worthless compared to Voigtlander and Dallmeyer period offerings, and I have never had a bad Rodenstock lens. Every single one I have used has been a superb performer. I think they get a bad rap from collectors.
So I went rummaging through my literature collection, dug up MTFs for the Apo-Symmar and Apo-Sironar-S series, and picked a couple of focal lengths - 135 and 210 - for close comparison. Taking care to match working apertures and magnifications, they are indeed difficult to tell apart.
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