Contax is NOT Dead

"Bob Salomon" wrote
So Contax is a brand not a company.


But the question is simply this:

If Kyocera has, in fact, shut down production lines, is this the end of the
Contax cameras we are currently familiar with? Is the new distributor just
going to liquidate the existing stock?

If production lines are not running, are we facing the end of the line for
Contax-branded products?

"Jeremy" wrote in message
nk.net...

"Bob Salomon" wrote
So Contax is a brand not a company.


But the question is simply this:

If Kyocera has, in fact, shut down production lines, is this the end of
the
Contax cameras we are currently familiar with? Is the new distributor
just
going to liquidate the existing stock?

If production lines are not running, are we facing the end of the line for
Contax-branded products?

Or maybe we'll just see Contax braded Sanyo or Samsung product?

"Darrell" dev/null wrote:

Or maybe we'll just see Contax braded Sanyo or Samsung product?

Of course not. Cosina will start production soon, but to save costs, they
will outsource the menial work to arsenal.

-- Lassi

in article , Bob
Salomon at wrote on 11/3/05 10:40 pm:
snip
"no one should automatically trust the word of a company which has a
vested interest in some product in question."

Then who should one take the word of? You quote an article quoting the
company that has a vested interest.

If you want the correct answer to something it is frequently better not
to get it from a major source of rumors like the internet. And it is
very unlikely that a manufacturer is going to inform someone on the
internet about their future before they tell their distributors.
snip

Looks like DPreview had better information than the US distributors (ToCad):
http://global.kyocera.com/news/2005/0402.html

Ben

Kyocera has offically announced that the brank "Contrax" will be
discontinued yesterday. Except Contax 645 all other Contax camera bodies
and lens will be discontinued in May 05 and 645 will be in December 05.

"Ben Micklem"
...
in article , Bob
Salomon at wrote on 11/3/05 10:40 pm:
snip
"no one should automatically trust the word of a company which has a
vested interest in some product in question."

Then who should one take the word of? You quote an article quoting the
company that has a vested interest.

If you want the correct answer to something it is frequently better not
to get it from a major source of rumors like the internet. And it is
very unlikely that a manufacturer is going to inform someone on the
internet about their future before they tell their distributors.
snip

Looks like DPreview had better information than the US distributors
(ToCad):
http://global.kyocera.com/news/2005/0402.html

Ben

"Cameras" wrote in message
...
Kyocera has offically announced that the brank "Contrax" will be
discontinued yesterday.

All they are discontinuing is their production of it. They don't own the
brand Contax, Zeiss owns that.


Alex

"Cameras" wrote in message
...
Kyocera has offically announced that the brank "Contrax" will be
discontinued yesterday.

All they are discontinuing is their production of it. They don't own the
brand Contax, Zeiss owns that.


Alex

"Alex MacPhee" wrote in message
news

"Cameras" wrote in message
...
Kyocera has offically announced that the brank "Contrax" will be
discontinued yesterday.

All they are discontinuing is their production of it. They don't own the
brand Contax, Zeiss owns that.

Zeiss sold the brand name to Yashica over 20 years ago, AFAIK

" Darrell" dev/null wrote in message
...

Zeiss sold the brand name to Yashica over 20 years ago, AFAIK

They only entered into a partnership to produce Contax branded cameras under
licence, after previous overtures with Pentax came to nothing. Zeiss still
own the Contax and Ikon brands.

Alex

Alex MacPhee wrote:

They only entered into a partnership to produce Contax branded cameras
under
licence, after previous overtures with Pentax came to nothing. Zeiss still
own the Contax and Ikon brands.

Since Zeiss does not produce cameras, is not likely to begin doing so, the
point who owns the Contax brand is moot.
With Kyocera out of it, the current Contax camera line is dead.

Then there's another issue, more important than who owns the Contax name:
who owns the technology in the Contax cameras?
If (which is highly probable) it is Kyocera, there is no chance of anyone
else continuing the production.
So the current Contax camera line is dead, never to return again.

Then, even if someone is willing to pick up where Kyocera left off, they
will inherit Kyocer'as problems too: there is almost no market for the
Contax cameras.
So even then the current line will remain dead. Expect to see digital
thingies of different size.