Please feed the rumor mill! Where'd you hear this?

Wow. Now I miss my old Exakta 500's with the Zeiss Jena lenses.

Dpreview.com in the news section. Zeiss also says something about announcements Wednesday and on the 18th. Until then it's anyone's rumor. The Minolta/Sony/Zeiss rumors on minotla lenses stems from Minoltas G glass lenses seem to be hard to get resently. Others seem to go the route that Zeiss is going to produce 3rd market high quality lenses. Maybe we'll hear something Wednasday. There are many questions?

Carl Zeiss made it offical today that they are making lenses to fit the Nikon F mount. They are also setting up their own distribution system. www.zeiss.com

while i have to admit it's intriguing to consider the possibilities of this development....

i will reserve my comments until i see price projections and see some reviews of test samples.

Zeiss makes some great glass BUT lately they've been attaching their products to everything from Sony EVFs to Nokia camera phones. THAT kind of trend can only help to cheapen the name and lead one to question the quality. People would stop buying into the Rolls Royce mystique if they started making economy cars.

who knows? if they come in at competive pricing like they CLAIM on the website vs Nikkor glass then it might be a great move for them

OR it could be looked back upon as the point where Zeiss whored itself out to everyone who would buy in a last ditch effort to stay relevant in the digital age.. time will tell

its going to be a tough sell even if pricing is very competive. Nikkor glass does not suck, especially in the prime lens category. The sale might have to be made ENTIRELY on mystique...and if they cheapen the mystique selling camera phone lenses and EVF lenses then it might be a VERY tough sell indeed.

Well you made two good points about price and test reports. Another is will the lenses work completely with Nikon electronics present and future? A big problem with any 3rd party lense.

As far as cheapening their name by selling to Sony and Nokia. I don't see it, sounds like smart business. Probably better than bankruptcy. Nikon, Canon, and Minolta all put their better glass in their top EVF's cameras. So why shouldn't Sony try to supply top glass in their EVF's to compete.
Just as you pointed out about pricing and test reports the proof is going to be in the pudding. All lense manufactures make a barker lense now and then but Zeiss can't afford to make a mistake, especially with Nikon people. Let's see what the announcement on the 28th says?

I am actually kind of interested in what Zeiss has planned...i will definitely be reading the reviews once the production samples come out. If they produce any "must have" glass for the F mount I certainly won't raise my nose to it..

until we know more.........