> Tom Foote wrote:
>
> > There seems to be an unusually good deal on binoculars in the
> > recent issue of Better View Desired that came in the mail
> > yesterday. The short version is they are E. German Zeiss
> > formerly sold under the name Aus Jena and currently marketed
> > as Docter.
>
> [Lots of stuff about binoculars munched]
>
>
> Carl Zeiss went out of business shortly after East Germany was unified with
> West Germany. My understanding is that the binoculars and cameras (Praktica)
> were then manufactured in Japan, for short time before production ceased. I
> think this had a lot to do with the brand name 'disappearing' and also quite a

Tom is right about Jena, which was the home of Zeiss until the defeat of
Germany in 1945. A bunch of Zeiss stuff ended up in Kiev, where genuine
193x model Hasselblad copies were built by the Russkies. They're now sold
in the west and suffer from quality control problems as well as the rather
elderly design.

Jena still makes lenses and binoculars, though I don't know much about
them.

Carl Zeiss reopened in Western Germany at some point during reconstruction,
where they still make their well-known binoculars and lenses for real
Hassleblads and other cameras.

I'm not sure if Zeiss actually built Praktica cameras, I think Praktica
was a separate company. Today, Carl Zeiss makes lenses for different
cameras but isn't in the camera business per se.

I've heard that the Jena products are of higher quality than those
manufactured at the relocated facility in Kiev. Something to do with
Germans being good at that sort of things. Also, since this is a
spinoff of reunification I should think there's West German money in
the effort and these folks know about quality. But, overcoming fifty
years of grinding out the same old lenses without upgrade will take a
while.

-Don Baccus-