carl zeiss

After reports surfaced last week on the Fred Miranda forums stating that Zeiss was leaving the photography industry, Zeiss has put out a statement. The initial report said the Zeiss Australian distributor claimed that Zeiss was leaving the photo industry. Given past photo and cinema lens releases, the death of the ZX1, and outlets reporting that communication with Zeiss had ended, it seemed believable.

Now, Zeiss has apparently released a statement. It states unequivocally that Zeiss is not leaving the photography industry. The company says they’ve faced some challenges during the pandemic, as every company has. They also talk about their continued ventures into smartphone camera modules.

According to reports stemming from a post on the Fred Miranda forums, Zeiss is leaving the world of photography. The post, by the user Petegh, states that they’ve received confirmation from the Australian Zeiss distributor that they will be discontinuing all of their lenses and filters, including Batis, Loxia, etc.

It’s probably not much of a surprise. While Zeiss was once one of the biggest names in the industry, in recent years, they’ve been rather limited. Their recent mirrorless lenses releases are only really available for Sony E mount, and since Sony caught up and started making their own lenses, Zeiss kind of fell by the wayside. And then there’s the somewhat disastrous and recently discontinued ZX1 camera.