Zeiss to Discontinue Lenses for Pentax

A press release from Carl Zeiss, Oberkochen, Germany, this morning confirms that Zeiss will discontinue its ZK line of manual-focus lenses for Pentax K mount. The time frame is "Fall 2010," a.k.a., imminently.

Zeiss says, "Based on the market situation, the division will focus on SLR lenses from the ZE [Canon] and ZF.2 [Nikon] series in the future." The move makes a certain amount of sense, considering the Zeiss Z[x] lenses cover 24x36 and Pentax doesn't have a full-frame body—and considering that Pentax has an excellent lineup of AF primes that match its bodies.

Amazon still lists the ZK lenses as available, sometimes with a shipping delay—which is not necessarily a guarantee that your order will be filled. B&H has them, but goes on extended hiatus for the Jewish religious holiday at 1 p.m. today. Orders placed during the break will be processed when it reopens.

Anyway, if you want one, better buy soon or trust to the used market.

Zeiss also says that there has been "fantastic response" for its CP.2 or "compact prime" line of cine lenses (complete with T-stops instead of F-stops), recently made available in Canon EF and Nikon F mount and soon to be available in Micro 4/3 and Sony A mount as well. Another sign of the convergence.

Mike

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Original contents copyright 2010 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.

Featured Comment by Edd Fuller: "I suppose as a longtime Pentax user I should be saddened by this news, but the fact is I would probably never buy a Zeiss lens anyway. I have given up on the notion that I can purchase 'magic' to improve my photography and the Pentax lenses that I own more than match my abilities."

Featured Comment by Semilog: "It's not as though any of the Zeiss lenses are better than the 31 Limited!"

Featured [partial] Comment by Pak-Ming Wan: I think the real shame about this news is for those of us who prefer the manual versions of Pentax lenses. I just bought an ME Super second-hand and mounted a 50/1.4 M (from the late '70s) then a 50/1.4 FA (current AF). No contest—the old 50/1.4 is just a joy to use compared to the modern version (although the new version does have a larger aperture ring—but the click stops aren't as defined). I suppose that if I preferred using manual controls on Pentax lenses, I would definitely want these Zeiss lenses to hang around. But I guess that market is incredibly small...(and only getting smaller as Pentax migrates everyone off to digital)."

Comments

[SeanG]

And some are worried about Sony's future [products]. The situation and Oly and Pentax seem, to me, to be dire, if not dead-end. The Oly 4/3 debacle and the lack of value-added from Pentax APS-C DSLRs means that competing against Nikon and Canon straight up, is quite the challenge.

[James McDermott]

Blast! Even if I couldn't afford them, it was nice to dream. Looks like Cosina's now a completely Pentax-free zone.

[Rick in CO]

Face it - they're not selling. I imagine their market is for the full-frame users, digital & film.

[David Dyer-Bennet]

I've been admiring Zeiss' run as an independent lens manufacturer for mainstream cameras (of course they've done similar things on contract in special cases, and lenses for several lines of medium-format gear in the past). A bit sad that Pentax users apparently aren't making it worth their while. But, as not a Pentax user, and quite committed to auto-focus, it's not a very personal, immediate, sadness.

[lith]

Oh no, where oh where will Pentaxians go for high-quality primes...?

[El Jaco]

It might sound like a bad news, but Zeiss are niche lenses, and Pentax is a niche brand. So sales of ZK must have been rather low... Was to be expected, after Cosina doing the same.
From a personnal pt of view, it does not matter to me: too expensive, too big, and too manual for the price. I'd be much more alarmed if Tamron or Sigma would stop supporting the K mount...

[RawheaD]

It's too bad, but it kind of does make sense. Besides, sales of ZK had been bad compared to ZE and ZF, mostly because Pentax already has a great lineup of primes themselves. Cosina also discontinued the Voigtländer line for PK. I wonder if the situation will change if Pentax ever releases an FF camera (I think it's unlikely), *or* Cosina/voigtlander/Zeiss decide to design lenses for APS-C.

On a related note, I've heard rumors that Zeiss will start releasing Alpha mount versions of their lenses.

[Mark Johnson]

What we need is a ZS lens - for Sigma!!!

[Nathan]

If the Zeiss lenses had autofocus, I would have dreamed of the day when I could afford this amazing glass. However, I'm not going to pay a premium for a manual focus lens, especially when Pentax has legendary primes, and Sigma's EX line is also developing a strong reputation. My glass already exceeds my capability as a photographer. Perhaps, I'll look for a Zeiss lens on the used market when the only complaint anyone can make about my photographs is that it would have been a bit sharper or have better bokeh if I'd used a Zeiss instead of a Pentax or Sigma EX prime. First, I've got to improve my composition, posing, lighting, pre-visualization, etc.

[Lubo]

The only DSLR I own is a Pentax. I was lucky to purchase a Voigtlander 125 APO macro lens for a reasonable amount and it is a superb lens.

As for Pentax' future, you hear dire predictions... and you would have heard them a few years ago too. I think that the future will be between dire and really amazing. I believe that Hoya's deep pockets and a niche market of Pentax lovers will extend the lifetime of the company and its future new products for a long time. Their release of the 645 no-competition camera will help with this too.

I draw a comparison to the number 4 relational database management software development company in the world, Sybase, that is not at all a small company but far smaller than the top 3 (IBM, Microsoft and Oracle). 10 years ago when I worked for Sybase we were wondering if it would still be around by 2010. It has been bought recently by SAP, a very strategic move on behalf of a huge and serious player in the software world. Sybase always offered quality products and still has some unparalleled products today and it has also made many inroads into the China market. I believe its life will extend a long time. End of the tangent :-).

[Paddy C]

"Oh no, where oh where will Pentaxians go for high-quality primes...?"

To Pentax I would assume.

Using these Zeiss lenses on a crop sensor camera always seemed like a waste of money to me. I could be wrong but I could never really see the "why". Perhaps if Pentax had a full frame it would make more sense.

[Sam]

Zeiss made a Pentax mount because Canon users had a choice for either mounting K or F mount. Since Zeiss started
selling the Eos mounted, there
was even less reason to keep the K mount.

[NucularHolyWarrior]

shame for me, not sure if they are releasing in M42 mount still, and if they are, this is what I will buy eventually...

Sl Voiglander 180mm M42 is doing great on my K20D, part of my regular kit... wanted to eventually add Zeiss 100 f2, and maybe 25mm f2.8 but... should do it now I guess, not that I can afford to @£1100 for the first one and £600 for the second...

or most likely never as it turns out... well I guess at 28mm DP1s will have to do, and for 100mm arghhh... buy PK macro eventually instead at half price... or hope they keep M42 going.

[NucularHolyWarrior]

because I cannot edit: here it is, for 28mm DP1s comment, yes 25mm Zeiss is almost normal on APS-C and 28mm sigma a lot wider... but it was the first thing on my mind... the chances that Pentax releases a 25mm "near normal" prime are low, but it may just as well happen by the time I get the money to expand the lens collection comfortably.

[Siegfried]

Everybody has his own 1st post on this great site and here goes mine.

I've been Pentaxian (digital) for some time and I take this system mostly to welcome those who are fond of Pentax lens. Pentax (digital) bodies are not that fast or noiseless as N/C counterparts. They're not known for best skin-tones ever like Olympus. They're not that special like foveon'ed Sigma. They're just good but there's nothing special in Pentax bodies (green button? Tv mode? c'mon, don't be that trivial). Secondly, Pentax bodies do suit well for those, who love old M42 glass: in-body image stabilization, AF assistance w/o any need of special 3rd party adapters. Long story short: Pentax bodies are needed just to carry Pentax glass or old M42 lens, IMO.

Surely it's nice to have ability to choose lenses from different vendors (Sigma, Tokina pre-'07, Tamron, Voight, Zeiss, others), but from the point of view mentioned above it's better to go with another system if you feel you do need Zeiss. Probably Alfa by Sony is the best choice in this case since AFAIK their lenses are more Zeiss then ex-K/M. "Just saying" (C) Mike J.

P.S.
To be honest, I'm feel like being sad to see Zeiss giving it up, everybody needs darn good counterparts to compete with (Merc vs Bimmer, yankees vs russky's, Eton vs Dynaudio, blondes vs brunettes, et cetera). But being a Pentaxian I'm more sorry about Voight that gave it up since should I need an APO lens Voight was the only way to go with.

[JR]

My advice: get the Pentax FA 31mm F1.8 and be done with it. It is rather "normal" on digital SLRs and a real beauty on film.

[Robin Parmar]

Zeiss is simply admitting they cannot compete with the superior Pentax lenses. No surprise here. Last time I hankered after Zeiss was in Contax days. Now I've got FA Limiteds so all is fine.

[Michael Barkowski]

Lenses like the Voigtlander telephotos and the Zeiss 35mm f/1.4 Distagon (http://diglloyd.com/diglloyd/2010-09-blog.html#blog20100916Zeiss35) would be quite desirable on Pentax APS-C with their bright viewfinders. The tunnel-like APS-C viewfinders are APS-C's Achilles' heel.
If I should ever return to using big cameras, this is one more good reason not to return to Pentax but to turn to EVIL or Full Frame instead.

[Pentax Fan]

Wow! Well I never liked Nikon, their
politics and public persona....so now on to Canon...nope not them either, but for other flavours of my reasoning.

I just love Zeiss.... so A Zeiss Ikon for me!

I figure it's onlygoing to get worst so why not chew the dust now and get back to film.

Where is a 4X5?