Carl Zeiss 2011 Photography Contest: “Every Moment Tells a Story”

Entries until January 15, 2012 on Flickr photo community

OBERKOCHEN/Germany, 15.12.2011.  Every moment tells a story. That is the theme of the Carl Zeiss Photo Contest 2011, which was launched today. Anyone can enter the contest provided the photos are shot with a ZEISS lens. It also does not matter if the photographer uses an SLR reflex camera or a smartphone with a ZEISS lens. The theme “We are looking for that moment when you not only see a subject, but also a story. We are searching for that very special moment,” says Martin Dominicus, Head of Marketing of the Carl Zeiss Camera Lens Division. “Every life, every situation and every place is full of such moments. The ability to capture a moment in such a way that you recognize the story behind it — this is, and has always been, the high art of photography.”  Carl Zeiss encourages photographers from around the world to look for moments that fit the theme, and to submit their best image. The ability to consciously stage a moment of time into an image and press the shutter button at just the right time was mastered by the legendary photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson. He always knew what image he wanted to depict when the shutter was released. “Cartier-Bresson had an unmistakable way of expressing the story of a moment. We look forward to seeing how the participants of our photography competition capture the moments of everyday life in their own individual style,” says Dominicus.  As in 2010, this contest will again take place on the global online photo community Flickr. Participants should upload their best image to the theme “Every moment tells a story” on the  official Carl Zeiss group on Flickr and tag it with the keyword “ZEISSContest2011”.  For more information about the contest and the terms of participation, visit:  www.zeiss.com/photo/contest The jury Photographers and photo enthusiasts have until Sunday January 15, 2012 to submit their images on Flickr. Subsequently, the jury, consisting of Carl Zeiss employees and professional photographers, will shortlist the best images. One of the jury members will be the well-known Slovak photographer and researcher Filip Kulisev, who has received several international photography awards for his spectacular landscape photography. The highest number of points will be given to images that have been consciously composed and in which one can recognize a story. The Flickr community will select the ten best images from the jury’s shortlist by designating them as a “favorite”. The images that receive the most “favorites” on Flickr will win.  The prizes 1st prize:  A ZEISS lens of the winner’s choice (ZE or ZF.2) with exclusive engraving +  Carl Zeiss T* UV filter +  Carl Zeiss Comfort Camera Strap +  Carl Zeiss Lens Cleaning Kit 2nd prize:  Nokia Lumia 800 smartphone with Carl Zeiss Tessar lens 3rd prize:  Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX55 digital camera with Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar lens 4th prize: Logitech HD Pro webcam C910 with Carl Zeiss Tessar lens 5th and 6th prizes:  Carl Zeiss Comfort Camera Strap +  Carl Zeiss knapsack+  Carl Zeiss watch +  Carl Zeiss umbrella +  Carl Zeiss Lens Cleaning Kit 7th and 8th prizes:  Carl Zeiss Comfort Camera Strap +  Carl Zeiss umbrella +  Carl Zeiss Lens Cleaning Kit 9th prize: Carl Zeiss Comfort Camera Strap +  Carl Zeiss Lens Cleaning Kit 10th prize: Carl Zeiss Lens Cleaning Kit

Crazy Steve Huff comparison: SLR Magic 23 1.7 vs Zeiss 24 1.8 on NEX-7

Steve Huff over at stevehuffphoto.com often has some interesting (sometimes crazy) comparisons on lenses. Today, he just published a comparison between the SLR Magic 23/1.7 and the Zeiss 24/1.8 for NEX.
The comparison looks at sharpness, distortion, bokeh, close-up performance. Just as you could possibly guess who the contender is for each (and all) the category (including color rendition), let's also keep in mind that it is a comparison between a $379 lens with a $999 lens, and the added size/weight to the $999 lens.

Link: http://www.stevehuffphoto.com/2011/12/14/slr-magic-23-1-7-hyperprime-vs-zeiss-24-1-8-sonnar-on-the-nex-7/

Carl Zeiss revenue tops 4 billion EUR mark for very first time

Carl Zeiss reported a record revenue of EUR 4.237 billion for the fiscal year 2010/11:

STUTTGART, Germany — 14 December 2011. Carl Zeiss has now presented its annual financial statements. In fiscal year 2010/11, the company generated revenues of EUR 4.237b (prior year: EUR 2.981b), an increase of 10 percent*. With a figure of EUR 607m, EbIT was clearly above the prior year's figure (EUR 423m).

“We have achieved record figures for almost all performance indicators,” said Michael Kaschke, President and CEO of Carl Zeiss AG. “Carl Zeiss has remained on track to continued profitable and sustained growth and has further consolidated its position as a technology leader and global player.” Carl Zeiss generated 87 percent of revenue outside Germany. Particularly strong growth in revenue was posted in Asia (+12%*) and America (+11%*).

The entire press release can be found here.

Original post from Photo Rumors. 

New cine lenses coming in 2012

Zeiss will be announcing more cine lenses in 2012.
There will be a new light weight zoom lens (in picture), and more CP.2.
The new arena that will be opened in 2012 is a series of anamorphic lenses.

What is it you ask? Rather than projecting the image as it is on a sensor/film (i.e., a circle appears as a circle on the sensor), an anamorphic lens will squeeze the horizontal dimension, so a circle will appear as an ellipse like a standing american football. The reason of doing that is that one can project a wide screen format like 2.39:1 onto a 4:3 sensor like the one in a m43 camera (Panasonic/Olympus).
For more info. on the new cine lenses can be found on page 16-18 in this PDF.

Links:
http://www.fdtimes.com/pdfs/45FDTimes-LoRez150.pdf
http://twitter.com/#!/carlzeisslenses