RE: [Leica] Contax and Kyocera

[Marc James Small <msmall@roanoke.infi.net>]

At 06:24 AM 8/18/1999 +0000, Dan Khong wrote:
>1. In what manufacturing arrangement has Zeiss gone into with Kyocera
>(which I presume is a big Japanese company which bought over Yashica)?
>
>2. What are Kyocera's other camera/optic/and not so optic business interests?
>
>3. Why did Zeiss have to partner with Kyocera or for that matter with
anybody?

Kyocera is a ceramics company which has made it big in producing computer
components such as micro-chips.  They purchased Yashica when that company
went bankrupt.

Zeiss had decided by the 1950's to concentrate on military, scientific, and
industrial optics, as the profits were so much greater:  Zeiss makes ten
times the profit off a single periscope, say, than it does off a hundred
Hasselblad lenses.  Once this decision was made, it was only a matter of
time before the plug was pulled on Zeiss Ikon Voigtlander.  That ZIV
soldiered on for another 15 years was a tribute to the high esteem accorded
the head of Zeiss, Dr Heinz Kuppenbender, who had come out of Zeiss Ikon.
When Kuppenbender retired, the Zeiss Foundation refused to pay any more of
ZIV's losses, and they left the camera market in 1973 to the general relief
of the rest of Zeiss.

Zeiss, however, had been unwilling to completely abandon the camera market.
 Hence, they worked closely with Franke & Heidecke and Victor Hasselblad
and Linhof and Arnold & Richter to supply lenses for these firms' cameras.
They also sought a partner in the Orient to produce cameras which would use
Zeiss lenses, the one kicker being that the partner company was to produce
most of the lenses in Japan.

The first talks were with Asahi but failed over the lens-production issue:
Asahi was convinced that the public, especially in Japan, would never
accept a Japanese-built Zeiss lens as being "real Zeiss".  The second firm
with whom Zeiss negotiated was Yashica, and they did agree to make most of
the lens line in Japan.  And, hence, the Contax RTS system, a brilliant mix
of Japanese and German technology.

In brief, Yashica designs the camera bodies with strong engineering input
from Zeiss (it might be fair to see the camera bodies and accessories as
being a 65% Yashica, 35% Zeiss mix), and the bodies are built in Japan.
Zeiss and Yashica determine what the lens line shall consist of.  Zeiss
designs the lenses.  The exotic lenses are built in Germany, the more
conventional lenses in Japan.

It is a marriage which has prospered mightily.

Marc

msmall@roanoke.infi.net  FAX:  +540/343-7315
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