Zeiss Existing the Photography Market?

Rumors swirled recently that Zeiss, one of the industry’s most revered lens manufacturers, may be exiting the consumer photography market. Having only put out a couple of new products in the past several years, I can’t say I’m surprised. While they’ve put out a statement reassuring users they intend to stay in the market, they seem to be reeling from the effects of the pandemic and a rapidly changing photography landscape.

Just speculating, but I believe many companies were already expecting downward shifts in the industry and consumer buying habits to change. New technology on the horizon that makes taking pictures easier via your smartphone, people not being interested in photography as much as before, etc. They probably could see things going downhill years ago, but the pandemic accelerated the decline far faster than they expected.

Like other companies have done in the past(e.g., Samsung), I think Zeiss put out a “relax, everything is okay” statement so there isn’t a panic and people don’t buy up any remaining stock they have on the market. My guess is they’ll play coy for a bit then in about 1-2 years after they’ve determined their exit strategy, they’ll bow out gracefully. They’re an optics company so they have far greater and more profitable ventures they can focus on than making lenses for photography. However, I do see them continuing to make high-end lenses for filmmaking(which probably have a much greater profit margin), but the photography segment is probably no longer viable for them.

It’s sad, but it was only a matter of time. May want to pickup some of their lenses before they’re discontinued.