Previous news story Next news story

Roger Cicala gets inTouit with a new Zeiss lens

Jun 13, 2013 at 21:02:55 GMT

Print view

Now that he has his own copies of the new Zeiss Touit lenses, Roger Cicala of Lensrentals decided to crack into the Planar 32mm F1.8 lens. His mission was to see if the renowned build quality of Zeiss optics was compromised to make the lenses more affordable. His teardown detailed the Touit's polymer construction and its use of a DC motor. Click on the link below to go to his blog post.

Removing the filter ring barrel reveals the focusing ring.

Click to read the full teardown of the Carl Zeiss Touit Planar 32mm F1.8 lens

LENS NEWS LENSES LENSRENTALS TOUIT ZEISS

Comments

Total comments: 46

No gold and diamonds inside. Just plastic and a little bit of glass. Strange, the price suggested otherwise.

Comment edited 23 seconds after posting

1 upvote

So you expect gold and diamonds in every single Zeiss lens which start at around $900? Or just this particular one..

1 upvote

[insert obligatory Nikon/Canon/Sigma/Sony/Leica/Tokina fanboy comment here]
(and note that if you snark me I will call you, or imply that you are, a fanboy)

Comment edited 26 seconds after posting

2 upvotes

Stupid, the only concern is that the elements maintain alignment, no attempt to disassemble them. I don't suppose there's a chance someone could actually take a picture with the lens.

Comment edited 4 minutes after posting

2 upvotes

Whats the exact name of the Yashica-company which announced to revive its lens-production for April 2012. Announced they have two german options for cooperation? To my mind its the same company who produced the Contax/Yashica Zeiss lenses Made in Japan. Very good decisions made.

0 upvotes

a company acquired by Kyocera after which the name Touit was made (that I guess), Tomi'oka or Tomi.

though they did have good reputation in making old lenses, they have a learning curve to climb on IF optics and AF mechanics & electronics, so does the whatever German brand. it took Oly several years before they got it right (around 2007).

Comment edited 2 times, last edit 5 minutes after posting

0 upvotes

No, that would be Touit as in the South American parrot which Zeiss says stands for “good visibility, agility, mobility and diversity, qualities.”

0 upvotes

exactly Zeiss' part of the job is marketing hype.
nothing else they can do.

0 upvotes

I wasn't impressed with that "review" or "tear down".
All he did was remove a few screws and the outer shell... something 8-year-olds do with stuff.

2 upvotes

Want your money back?

18 upvotes

So you'd be OK with an 8-year-old taking your lenses apart and putting them back together, right?

7 upvotes

there are many things that people are divided on whether they are impressive or not, like underware.

0 upvotes

Dear Mr. Cicala,
I am 7-years-old and I want to know what is in my new Leica X Vario. Does it do what it says on the tin?
Would you recommend I should wait 'til my 8th birthday or would you do the job for me now? Yours sincerely

Comment edited 34 seconds after posting

1 upvote

You sound like an 8 year old...Mommy I dropped my Loly.

1 upvote

It is hard to believe that you guys are actually impressed with someone removing a front and back plate and a few screws.
...and acting all indignified at my remark, commenting about dropping a loly, or having an 8yo take a lens apart. If anything is childish, it is your remarks. I remember what I was capable at a young age, and this is nothing hard. At age 11 I build an enlarger, because my dad wouldn't buy me one, and it produced some very nice prints.
My comment was very serious: it's a link to a teardown that isn't one.

2 upvotes

Well Timmbits I was taking apart my hot wheels at 8 but could never put it back together again I must just be stupit

0 upvotes

if it makes you feel any better, let's say 12, instead of 8. I'm sure that by then you had the intelligence to make model airplanes and such, and by then had acquired the manual dexterity to use a screwdriver. Nevertheless, my comment still stands. As far as teardowns are concerned, this one was aborted.

1 upvote

So your going to show us how it's done, right Timmbits?

0 upvotes

Come on, we guys all understand that boys have a curious interest in taking apart things from teddy bears to sophisticated technical stuff to see what's in.

There is some age whe should add some serious understanding of how things and persons really work and how to deal with it properly.

This is why I find Mr. Cicala's ideas absurd.

Comment edited 3 minutes after posting

1 upvote

Thanks for investigating. We hope your test report will come out soon.

Please do not do it a year later like what DPR did with the Canon 40mm f/2.8 STM?

1 upvote

Well, it's reasurring that you are actually getting something superior in build quality for your money and it also contradicts the cynics who think it's all about the branding and nothing else.

3 upvotes

> all about the branding and nothing else.

actually there is little in the brand and tones in the real quality of the lens, like the stone age design with all the stone age issues, the primitive AF, awkward MF (thanks partly to the AF design), ...

what's in a brand? that which we call a Zeiss, by whatever the quality, would sell as expensive.

after all this is a 50/2.8 equivalent lens that can do no more job than a 50/1.8 stopped down more than one stop.

Comment edited 7 minutes after posting

1 upvote

Build quality wise, it's just another plastic AF lens. Whether it received much tighter QC to warrant the asking price is up to anyone's guess.

3 upvotes

Metal outside, rubber focus ring, and impeccably smooth focusing...whats plastic about? Only the element housing uses a strong composite material to keep the weight down...I don't understand why using full steel would be any better, in fact it would require an even larger motor since the weight would be more. The elements actually shift in focus.

0 upvotes

I think the reason for the slack focus in m4/3 lenses is the size. It's possible the focus motors don't have that much torque and need the mechanism to be slack to move it. Just a theory.

Comment edited 5 minutes after posting

0 upvotes

basically Roger says that the high price might be justified by some larger than usual screws.

4 upvotes

And some thicker than usual shims.

1 upvote

...and three $0.07 springs to shock-mount the lens assembly.

3 upvotes

@new boyz

like the idea "buy a Zeiss and get a piece of iron for free"

0 upvotes

You joke, but with the way things are designed and engineered today, this is the difference between it going in the trash or giving you another 10 years of service. Just because something looks cheap, and uses inexpensive (but quality) parts does not mean it is a ripoff.

4 upvotes

Very cool to see - thanks Roger!

0 upvotes

I can see why they invited Roger and loaned the lenses. These lenses could have been made more cheaply and perform the same but it's nice to see what you get for the money. It also follows that quality control is likely to be very good.

1 upvote

It shows a lot about German ingenuity, to have the spring-loaded screws, so that if you bump the lens, the springs will let the lens assembly move forward a bit and not take the brunt of the energy.
It would have been nice for them to go further, and actually disassemble the whole thing... there's no telling what other nice surprises await inside.

1 upvote

These springs cost 3 cents extra. Plastic barrel is not magnesium alloy, hard to find anything cheaper. Use of glue is also cheap (and does not hold well with aging).

0 upvotes

The to-it double entendre has been played...its old. Let it go.

1 upvote

Yes, no KFC before this project!

0 upvotes

Amazing that he doesn't wear any gloves while doing this. Isn't there a risk of getting oil from the finger tips onto the components? It doesn't seem like a very good practice.

0 upvotes

Some do wear gloves but I hate the loss of tactile feel that causes. I'd rather clean things if necessary during reassembly than strip a screw or tear a flex that was glued down during the disassembly of a lens for the first time. It's amazing to me how much fine sensation is lost by even a thin pair of gloves doing work like this. After we've been in a given lens a time or two and know what to look out for, it's less critical, but the first time I want everything on my side.

I keep my hands off any electrical contacts, touching those only with tools - rubber shod forceps - but generally avoid touching them at all. Same with glass elements.

If I do put on gloves its during reassembly which also includes a lot of cleaning with contact cleaner, alcohol, etc.

Roger

Comment edited 2 minutes after posting

10 upvotes

He's done this "once or twice" OK ?

3 upvotes

Roger, thanks for your comments. I just thought wearing gloves would be a standard practice, as I believed it was at the factories and service centers. But maybe they don't as well.

Comment edited 5 minutes after posting

0 upvotes

gloves are good for impressing neophytes when they are watching... it gives it all this clinical precision look and life-or-death feel to the whole scene.

2 upvotes

/\ The truth!

0 upvotes

He could just have watched the video that Zeiss made for us:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXFFdg73b98

And there are more:
http://www.youtube.com/user/CarlZeissLenses/search?query=touit

0 upvotes

I always like Roger's take on things...one quibble though, sony has had auto focus zeiss lenses for years, not sure about electronic aperture.

1 upvote

ha sort of...one quibble here...Sony has SONY-BUILT Zeiss lens for years....Zeiss didn't build, Now they build Touit

0 upvotes

Nice.

0 upvotes

Total comments: 46

Editorial content

Product database

Community


Roger Cicala investigates accuracy of lens adapters Sep 30, 2013	LensRentals shipping Canon EOS 5D Mark III with Magic Lantern Aug 23, 2013	Epic fail? 70-200s of all makes among least reliable lenses Aug 13, 2013	Roger Cicala compares Zeiss and Canon 135mm f/2 lenses Apr 29, 2013

	Nikon 1 AW1 Sep 19, 2013
	Fujifilm X-A1 Sep 17, 2013
	Olympus OM-D E-M1 Sep 10, 2013
	Leica C (Typ112) Sep 8, 2013
	Nikon Coolpix P7800 Sep 5, 2013
	Nikon Coolpix S02 Sep 5, 2013
	Sony Cyber-shot DSC-QX10 Sep 4, 2013
	Sony Cyber-shot DSC-QX100 Sep 4, 2013
	Sony Alpha A3000 Aug 27, 2013
	Sony Alpha NEX-5T Aug 27, 2013

Here is the K3	131
Okay Fuji, so now that the experiment is over....	107
D610 to be announced within 48 hours (as of 10/5)	101
How many shots do you take to get a shot?	86
More leaks about K3 specifications	84
While everyone ooohs and aaaahs over the ...	79
After 3 weeks & thousands of shots: NEX-6 + ...	75
Anyone for Sunday Scapes (2013-10-06) ?	60
E-M1 Trouble focusing on moving objects	56
The Sunday BIRD Volume 9, Issue 15 October 6, 2013	53
Counterfeit lens caps from Amazon	49
E-M1 as E-5 successor - first week experience	49
GX7: Extended ISO125 Image Degradation?	48
X-pro1 vs x-a1 (or is it X-A1 vs X-pro1) using ...	44
Worth selling my Canon DSLR to move to Olympus ...	43
Shutter shock verdict is not present here. ...	38
Camera For Landscape Photography....NEED ...	34
I'm going broke buying E-M5 Eyecups!	32
Sensor Technology (The Software Engineer Way)	31
Five Worst Clichés About Photography	29

Your email address:
Your name: