Zeiss Historica Fall 2010 Goerz was at one time Carl Zeiss’s biggest competitors in the lens market, and their merger with Zeiss in 1926 was a huge win for Zeiss. The fall 2010 issue tells part of that story. Pg 2. The Contessa was Zeiss-Ikon’s answer to the Kodak Retina,…
Zeiss Historica Spring 2016 The Goerz Hypergon is one of the strangest looking lenses ever made. A wide angle for medium and large format, it uses a star shaped aperture that helped control the amount of light that entered it. Pg 2. Larry Gubas takes us through the early years of…
Zeiss Historica Fall 2016 In what would sadly be the very last issue of the Zeiss Historica newsletter, the Fall 2016 issue features the following stories. Pg 2. Three Alaskan explorers from the 1930s with Contax I rangefinders. Pg 4. A detailed look at how depth perception works with the…
Zeiss Historica Spring 2015 From Riflescopes to automotive headlights, 125 year anniversaries and two mysteries of war time and Chinese marked cameras, the Spring 2015 issue is full of mystery and intrigue. Pg 2. Teleweit and Telekipp were two early Zeiss Riflescopes that were produced from 1905 to 1914. Pg…
Zeiss Historica Spring/Fall 2014 Due to declining health of Larry Gubas, only a single issue of the Zeiss Historica Newsletter was published in 2014 as a combined Spring/Fall double issue. Pg 2. The growth of Carl Zeiss Oberkochen from 1947 – 2013. After the war, a new location in Oberkochen was…
Zeiss Historica Spring 2012 The Contax bayonet lens mount was good enough for Nikon, but it certainly wasn’t perfect. The Spring 2012 explores the merits of this lens mount, along with detailed articles about Retrofocus lenses, Zeiss Ikon’s only Bakelite camera, and Zeiss in Dresden. Pg 2. The Contax bayonet…
Zeiss Historica Spring 2011 We know today of the fate of the German optics industry after World War II, but back then the future was less certain. Read what Carl Zeiss Jena thought about their own situation in this fascinating issue. While you’re at it, read about how two identical…
Zeiss Historica Spring 2010 One way in which cameras are superior to humans is that with the right care, they can last for a very, very long time. People on the other hand, have a finite shelf life, and in the Spring 2010, the Zeiss community lost three of it’s…
Zeiss Historica Spring 2009 The Spring 2009 issue looks at a very rare Zeiss lens, a failed “Instamatic” SLR, and explores 100 years of Zeiss Optical design. Pg 2. One of the rarest Zeiss lenses was the Herar a 3.5cm f/3.5. It was available in Contax and M39 mount. Pg 5. The…
Zeiss Historica Fall 2008 Zeiss-Ikon made two completely different cameras named the Contaflex, and in this Fall 2008 issue, we get 8 pages of the 35mm TLR Contaflex. Pg 2. A visit to Jena and Dresden, the birthplaces of some of the best cameras and lenses ever made. Pg 5. Zeiss turret…
Zeiss Historica Fall 2007 Most camera collectors know August Nagel as the man who worked for Kodak and made the Retina, but before signing on with Kodak, Nagel worked for Zeiss-Ikon. Other stories include a modern Zeiss Ikon camera from the 21st century with a Leica M lens mount. Pg…
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…
