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PopPhoto Article on Cosina pres, Hirofumi Kobayashi

The News - the Cosina-Voigtlander Universe

Written by Brian Webb

Friday, 21 April 2006

Interesting article on Cosina pres by PopPhoto's Keppler: Speaking Frankly: The Contrary Mind of Hirofumi Kobayashi. Overall it's a very good article, a very rare thing nowadays in PopPhoto (in my humble opinion). It is good to see such an article in a mainstream magazine.

Here are some bits that I find interesting...

Quote:

Kobayashi has gained something of a triumph with his 19–35mm f/3.5–4.5 lens, sold under the Phoenix, Promaster, Ritz Quantaray, Tokina, Tamron, and Vivitar labels, all at the same time.

Wow! I actually never equated Pheonix, Promaster, and Quantaray with Tokina, Tamron, and Vivitar. I wonder how many people have bought or considered the Tokina or Tamron, dismissing the Pheonix or Promaster as "inferior"...and they're all the same exact thing made by Cosina

Quote:

I had what I thought was a brilliant idea for Kobayashi. Just as he had made basic, inexpensive 35mm SLR camera bodies with various lensmounts, why not do the same for digital cameras?

"Look at the short life of digital SLRs and their continuously falling prices," rejoined Kobayashi. "Why should I get into that mess?"

It's funny that the digi-folks always talk about upgrading (camera bodies for higer MPs, then computer equipment to handle the bigger files).... Cosina *is* involved with the Epson RD-1 and RD-1s (a digital rangefinder) but only the chassis and mechanical components. From there they ship it to Epson, who manufactures/installs all the electronics.

Quote:

Ringfoto, however, retains ownership of the names, and uses the Voigtländer in Europe as a brand name for some film and inexpensive cameras.

This I didn't know. There are currently in-production cameras with the Voigtlander nameplate made by Ringfoto? Anyone know what kinds (PnS, SLRs, etc...)? "Inexpensive" leads me to think PnS...

Quote:

A blizzard of Voigtländer lenses appeared: a 21mm f/3.5 Skopar, 35mm f/4 Skopar, 35mm f/1.2 Nokton, 40mm f/1.4 Nokton, 50mm f/1.5 Nokton, 75mm f/2.5 Heliar, 90mm f/3.5 APO-Lanthar, 28mm f/1.9 Ultron, 50mm f/1.7 Ultron, 50mm f/2.5 Skopar and a 50mm f/3.5 Heliar. Many available in both chrome and black mounts, and all were optically high-scoring, but with far lower prices than comparative Leica lenses.

50mm f/1.7 Ultron? Yeah, minor mistake

Quote:

Cosina is starting a Zeiss-designed, Cosina-made, manual-focus 35mm SLR ZF series of lenses in Nikon mounts starting with 50mm f/1.4 and 85mm f/1.4 Planars

Anyone wanna get me the 50 for an early Christmas?

Quote:

If you flip through the pages of Japanese Asahi or Nippon photo magazines, you'll be shocked at how much coverage the new Voigtländer and Zeiss photo equipment and other film cameras get. You may shake your head and figure such equipment must be a Japanese passion.

It is.

And my wife likes Hello Kitty...I've decided...I'm moving my family to Japan.

{mos_smf_discuss:7}

Last Updated ( Monday, 09 April 2007 )