Zeiss, the German company, announced the interchangeable lenses for the digital and film F-mount Nikon cameras. The new lineup is called ZF, and the first lenses will be Planar T* 1.4/50 ZF and Planar T* 1.4/85 ZF. So far, the only 35 mm SLR cameras which benefited from the Carl Zeiss optics have been the Contax cameras, even though Kyocera has discontinued the Contax business a year ago. In the point and shoot and prosumer field, the company has a partnership with Sony as most of the Sony camera and camcorders are branded Carl Zeiss. It’s worth mentioning that the Planar T* 1.4/50 ZF version for Contax RTS was rated the world’s best fast standard lens by “Popular Photography” in 1999. Some online shops in Japan are showing the price of Planar T* 1.4/50 ZF at 58,800 Japanese Yen (around US$530). Available in February. The Planar T* 1.4/85 ZF is priced at 117,600 Japanese Yen (around US$1069). Available in April.

So, how about Canon camera users? According to Dr. Winfried Scherle, Vice President & General Manager, Camera Lens Division, they keep receiving that requests from Canon users day-in day-out. So along with the ZF line, they are also introducing “ZS” lenses. Carl Zeiss ZS lenses come with the same optics as the ZF line; only the mount is different. ZS has the M-42 screw mount, the one that used to be called the “Universal SLR mount.” There are M-42 adapters available for any SLR bayonet mounts, including Canon EOS and FD. So you can adapt a ZS lens onto any 35 mm SLRs (and many other applications as well) if you crave the optical characteristics of this lens line and are willing to get along without the convenience functions of recent lenses.

Website : The new lenses Planar T* 1.4/50 ZF and Planar T*1.4/85 ZF technical data

Website : Questions and Answers on this announcement from Zeiss