Zeiss Historica Fall 2009 In the Fall of 2009 Zeiss Historica told the stories of two men who helped make the company what it was, Ernst Abbe and Otto Schott. There’s also two book reviews, a telling of Zeiss’s 75th Anniversary, and a great article about the Ikonta and Super…
Zeiss Historica Fall 2006 Pg 2. Carl Zeiss Jena Contax lenses in Leica Thread Mount. Although Zeiss was heavily invested in making lenses for their own Contax cameras, they also made them for the competition, why? Pg 7. The Zeiss Jena 10×70 H, an unknown member of the H-Binocular family Pg…
Zeiss Historica Fall 2005 Holy moly! What is that on the cover of this issue? The 40 cm f/1.5 UHU lens makes the Contax II and it’s viewfinder look like toys when placed side by side. What is it like to shoot a 400mm telephoto lens at f/1.5? In addition…
Zeiss Historica Spring 2007 Sometimes people ask me where I get my information from for my in depth camera reviews. A combination of other internet sites, forums, old magazines, catalogs, newspapers, and sometimes issues like Zeiss Historica are all places I’ve gotten my facts from. The Spring 2007 issue was…
Zeiss Historica Spring 2008 The 10 page story on Siegfried Bohm dominates the Spring 2008 issue, and for good reason. There’s a lot of information to share. Other stories include information about Zeiss Ikon’s early camera production, including their first all new model, the Ikonette from 1928. Pg 2. After it’s…
Zeiss Historica Spring 2006 Although the Spring 2006 issue has only 4 articles, there’s some great stuff here. First, we have Peter Dechert’s look at the Tenax, an 11 page article on Zeiss observatory telescopes, some Russian history, and an in depth look at one of Zeiss’s triplets, the Triotar.…
Zeiss Historica Spring 2005 I previously wrote an in depth article on the Wehrmacht Leica, with Jim Lager of the Leica Historical Society, but Leitz wasn’t the only supplier of photographic goods to the German Wehrmacht. Zeiss also did it, and in this issue, there is a fascinating look at…
Zeiss Historica Spring 2004 I love prototypes! I’ve written about Kodak prototypes of the 1930s and others by Voigtländer, but one I’ve never heard of was the Prototype 132, a cleanly designed, but revolutionary camera that was designed in the late 1950s. Had the camera been produced, it would have…
Zeiss Historica Spring 2003 There’s lots of wartime talk in this issue, with Werner Widdlers tales of what it was like to work in USSR occupied Jena, stereo devices, the quality of prewar Zeiss lenses, and an uncommon 21st century Japanese made camera with a Contax lens mount. Pg 2. A…
Zeiss Historica Fall 2004 More prototypes! Did you know the Ikoflex III was almost called the Veraflex? Also more prototype goodness about a Contax III with a dual range exposure meter, and more supporting evidence that a Contax IV was in the works. Pg 2. Rifle telescope sights from Zeiss. Pg…
Zeiss Historica Fall 2003 The cover image shows workers from 1952 in the shutter assembly room at the Gauthier plant in Calmbach. The Fall 2003 issue remembers Arthur Gauthier. Pg 2. Zeiss produced “Feldstechers” or “field piercers” from 1894 through 1908, a period that saw continued and detailed evolution of their…
Zeiss Historica Fall 2002 The Fall 2002 issue of Zeiss Historica could be my favorite issue as it has detailed info about two prototypes of two of the best Zeiss-Ikon cameras, the Contarex and Contax IV. It puts a few more pieces together of the confusing events of post war…
