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Re: [OM] Zeiss Jena OM zoom

Subject: Re: [OM] Zeiss Jena OM zoom
From: "John A. Lind" <jlind@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 15 Aug 2003 13:15:58 -0500
It's ***NOT*** a "Zeiss" lens, in manufacture or design, or technically in name either. They were a "pass-through" product in which the **East** German Carl Zeiss Jena, VEB, prostituted its name on lenses designed and made somewhere in the Pacific Rim in various lens mounts popular at the time to increase its sagging revenues.

Following WWII and the partitioning of Germany, the ONLY "Zeiss" was the Zeiss Stiftung reconstituted in/near Stuttgart. Zeiss Jena, VEB, was formed by former employees of Zeiss who were not fortunate enough to get spirited out of the Soviet Sector to the U.S. Sector, but were fortunate enough not to get spirited off to the Ukraine along with all the surviving Zeiss tooling to Kiev (which is what the Soviet's created from Zeiss people and tooling siezed as war reparation).

The reason these lenses are not found in the U.S. or some other countries with the name "Zeiss" on them is a result of the trademark lawsuits that followed the partitioning of Germany. The East German Zeiss, VEB, was forbidden from using any marking, name or symbol associated with the Zeiss name in the U.S. Anything from them that was imported was under the names such as Jenoptik, and AFIK there wasn't much. There are a few that were brought in by individuals in single quantities who purchased the lenses in Europe and weren't caught by U.S. Customs officials (who would force them to grind off the name/marking or forfeit the item for destruction).

As to how good it is, they are run-of-the-mill generic zoom lenses from their era and you should NOT pay any more for one of them than you would for any other reasonable 3rd-party lens from their era.

At 12:22 AM 8/15/03, you wrote:


Quck question -- I'm teaching in Singapore this weekend and
although working flat out managed to find a few minutes
to check out the nearby shops.


Found a Carl Zeiss Jena 35-70mm 3.5-4.8 OM mount zoom.
Personally I've never come across one such before.


Is this a good lens?


Is approx $US250 a good price? It's NIB.
Seems a little high to me.


thanks
  Andrew


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