Additional notes garnered after posting a query about Carl Zeiss Jena
lenses for other OEM SLR systems to the Zeiss mail list some time ago:
Carl Zeiss Jena was the East German post-war resurrection of Carl Zeiss,
and could not use its name, nor many of its trademarks in the U.S. or a
good number of other countries. *The* Carl Zeiss was relocated along with
many of its key people to Stuttgart following W.W.II and the partitioning
of Germany. The same thing was done with its parent, the Zeiss Foundation
(Zeiss Stiftung, which owned and controlled Carl Zeiss, Schott Glass, Zeiss
Ikon, and a number of other companies). Carl Zeiss Jena was set up by
workers that were not relocated as an East German state owned company,
using parts and machinery that were not carted off to Kiev and other
locations in the Soviet Union as part of the war reparations.
When the legal dust settled from all the lawsuits over ownership of
trademarks and patents, Carl Zeiss Jena was allowed to use all pre-war
designs, but none of the trademark names, including the words "Carl Zeiss"
or "Zeiss." Anything legally imported into the U.S. (and a number of other
western countries) was marked with one of several company names, one of
which was "Jenoptik."
Lenses marked Carl Zeiss Jena were imported as individual, personally owned
lenses, slipped into the U.S. by their owners who bought them abroad, or by
an importer using some illegal means of slipping them in. The products
weren't banned, but the trademark name was. Even a person bringing one in
as personal property would be required to remove any banned trademarks, if
they were found on the way through Customs. That doesn't mean Customs
always knew and looked for *all* banned trademarks either.
At some point during the 1970's when Carl Zeiss Jena was on the rocks
financially, they prostituted their name and reputation on a line of third
party lens designs to sell them as aftermarket lenses for other SLR
systems. One of them was the Olympus OM system. They are not Carl Zeiss
or Carl Zeiss Jena designs. This doesn't make them bad, but the design
formulation lineage does not trace to pre-war Carl Zeiss, or post-war Carl
Zeiss Jena designs either. They are just a third-party (non-Zeiss) design
with a Carl Zeiss Jena trademark. Don't be fooled into thinking you are
buying a real "Carl Zeiss" lens, or a real "Carl Zeiss Jena" lens, or pay
any premium for the name marking.
Some of our European list members may recall advertising for these lenses,
which is where the bulk of them were sold in the "West."
-- John
At 12:07 9/22/00 , you wrote:
>As the name suggests, these lenses were produced at the now defunct Jena
>Works factory in (I believe Osaka) Japan for Carl Zeiss Optics Inc. back
>when the OM line had alot more consumer support than it does now.
>
>Regards,
>-Mike
>
>>Two or three of the OM lenses I've picked up at flea markets are branded
>>'Carl Zeiss - Jena', though they are marked as having been made in Japan,
>>under licence. They work quite well. Does anyone know who made them in
>>Japan?
>>Cheers
>>Michael
>
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