Carl Zeiss AG is a German company that manufactures optical systems, industrial measuring instruments and medical equipment. The company's name comes from one of its founders, the German optician Carl Zeiss (1816-1888). It was founded in Jena in 1846 by Carl Zeiss, Ernst Abbe and Otto Schott.

Due to the partition of Germany during World War II, the original company was divided into two parts.

One is Carl Zeiss AG in Oberkochen, which has two important affiliated factories in G?ttingen[1] Aalen and Hallbergmoos. The other one is Carl Zeiss GmbH in Jena, with satellite factories such as Meyer Meyer nearby.

Carl Zeiss is the first constituent company of the Zeiss Group (Zeiss Gruppe) and one of the two largest components of the Carl Zeiss Foundation (Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung).

The West German Zeiss Group is located in Heidenheim. East German Zeiss VEB (Carl Zeiss VEB) is located in Jena

The history of Carl Zeiss GmbH began in Jena before World War II, when it was the world's largest camera product base. Zeiss Ikon is an important symbol among these many brands and manufacturers. In 1849, Carl Zeiss established the Zeiss Precision Mechanical and Optical Factory in Jena. After the war, after Germany was divided between the United States and Russia, Zeiss was divided into three parts.

Although the United States and the Soviet Union had already negotiated the conditions for dividing Germany in the Yalta Treaty, Jena is located in East Germany and should be occupied by the Soviet army. But General Patton's Third Army still crossed the border and invaded East Germany: Jena and Dresden (Dresden), where Zeiss' factory was located.

Under the coercion of General Patton, in the name of "assistance", some technical personnel and equipment were moved as quickly as possible through the night to their own territory, Desi. As a result, 127 scientists and engineers who originally belonged to Jena, East Germany, were plundered to the American-occupied areas in Western Germany such as Oberkochen (located in southwestern Germany) and Braunschweig.

At the same time, Carl. The Zeiss Foundation moved to Stuttgart in the German-American occupation zone and established Carl Zeiss AG. This Zeiss is currently known as the blue label Carl Zeiss.

When the Soviet army took over Jena, there were only empty factories and some first-class optical glass and production machinery that the US military could not take away. The Soviet Union used war compensation as an excuse to plunder and transport these remaining resources back to the Soviet Union, Ukraine, and Kiev. After the Soviet Union arrived in Jena, they immediately seized all the machines at the Zeiss factory as war compensation supplies, and flew some of the remaining scientists back to Russia to serve in the Russian optical industry for several years.

However, after all, Jena and Dresden have been important optical equipment production centers for nearly a century. Even if they were plundered by the United States and the Soviet Union, the local technical personnel soon left behind. The Zeiss factory was restored in Jena, East Germany, and was called Carl Zeiss Jena to distinguish it from Carl Zeiss AG in West Germany.

Since the 1990s, West Germany's Carl Zeiss AG companies in Dresden and surrounding areas have strived to develop some new technologies, such as products for industrial automation.

However, West Germany's Carl Zeiss AG is still a lens blank manufacturer. So far, it has not produced a camera. Even the Zeiss Ikon series is manufactured by Japan's Cosina It is dominated by the camera, so there is no complete set of mount and body.

The Contax brand of Carl Zeiss AG in West Germany has been sold to Yashica of Japan's Kyocera Group. Based on its existing technology, kyocera has developed various mount systems such as Contax 645 / Contax / Yashica Mount (c/y mount) / N Mount (N mount), and later launched the world's first Kodak Model 135 full-frame digital SLR Contax N Digital.

For products named after West Germany’s Carl Zeiss AG, the electronic technologies are all developed in Japan. Carl Zeiss AG in West Germany can only do metering at most, and even the autofocus AF technology is provided by Japan's Kyocera Group and its subsidiary Yazhou Optical. Carl Zeiss AG does not have access to these technologies.

Pentacon and Praktica belong to Carl Zeis JENA (CZJ) of East Germany and have nothing to do with Carl Zeiss AG of West Germany. The lenses produced by this factory are all marked Carl Zeiss Jena (some are also marked with DDR), which is quite easy to distinguish. And it has its own set of cameras with M42 system and another set of Pentacon Six (P6) medium format system. Zeiss produces lenses for space telescopes.

After World War II, all R&D and innovation related technologies were dominated by Japan’s Kyocera Group and Cosina.

At this point, Carl Zeiss AG, in the camera industry, except for only producing a few interchangeable lenses for Contax, the rest has been developed in Japan

The blue Zeiss trademark It has always represented cutting-edge optics and expensive prices. The metal mirror body and elegant craftsmanship make many users put it down.

Zeiss licenses its technology to third-party companies for manufacturing. Noteworthy names include Hasselblad, Rollei, Yashica, Sony, and Logitech. and Alpa. Among them, the most famous Contax 35mm camera was produced by Yashica and Kyocera until 2005.