Surprises in 2020 have proven less than ideal more often than not, but a new bit of information might make one surprise in the photography world an anomaly from the rest. B&H has sent out an email notifying consumers the long-awaited Zeiss ZX1 camera is now available for pre-order for $6,000 and is ‘Coming Soon.’
The fabled ZX1 was announced all the way back in September 2018. At the time, Zeiss detailed the specifications of the Android-powered full-frame camera that features a 37.4MP sensor behind a fixed 35mm Distagon F2 lens. And while it isn’t the first Android-powered camera to come to fruition, it did set itself apart from the onset due to Zeiss partnering with Adobe to ensure Lightroom CC would run directly on the camera’s 4.3” 1280x720 pixel display. In Zeiss’ own words, the camera was designed to enable you to shoot, edit and share on the fly.
Zeiss said in its announcement the camera would be available in ‘early 2019.’ As we all know by now though, that wasn’t the case. In February 2019 we had our first hands-on with the ZX1 and in March 2019 we had an interview with Elliot Shih, Senior Product Manager of Zeiss, talking about the camera, but since then it’s been radio silence, despite multiple attempts to contact Zeiss for more information.
We have contacted B&H for more information regarding the listing and potential availability dates of the ZX1, but the shop is closed and its employees are on break through October 11, so it's unlikely we'll receive a response any earlier than October 12. We will update this article with more information as it becomes available.
Welcome to the world of mirrorless. Where the price just goes up and up and up. Cameras these days are following the release/price cycle of smartphones.
Gee, no one else in these specific comments about the B+H availability listing has said anything like that. /s
In late 2020, I'm not aware of another full framed camera that comes with a very high quality lens and also runs Android + Adobe LR.
The closest camera to this Zeiss is the smaller Leica Q2, and that does NOT run Adobe Lightroom on an Android platform. It retails for $5000 in the USA before state sales taxes.
As a direct competitor to the Leica Q2, and ignoring the fact that it runs Android for a moment, the price is reasonable given a similar design, quality, and feature set.
The Zeiss has a more modern and minimalist design, and an easier to use interface given the addition of the ISO dial.
The camera is fine, it was just a huge mistake trying to make it run Android.
It depends only on whether the Q2 is viable at its $5k list price. Given that Leica updated the model and continues to sell it (vs. the T which was quietly discontinued), this is a reasonable assumption.
I for one am happy to see this camera come to market. The price is high but still well below a Leica M + Summicron combination. This may be the luxury camera for the millennial consumer that has just made a fortune on Tesla and Apple stock. Look at what this crowd has done to Rolex and AP prices in the past eight months; they have serious cash and are making markets.
Why be in a Hurry ? Who cares ? The fact that this camera will be soon available will it change your life that much ? As said in the article, they have no answer from Zeiss.
$5k out of those 6k is just for the Adobe lifetime license, so I would say a very fair deal for that camera. We are all aware of how expensive that is! 😊☺️
Well, neither of those D850s have lenses of course. So will basically be useless as cameras.
Now, with a decent lens, or decent lenses, the Nikon D850 is an excellent DSLR. But of course it does NOT run Lightroom or Android.
Then the lens in this Zeiss is likely to be on the Zeiss Otus optical level. There are basically no Nikon lenses that compete for optical quality with Zeiss Otus lenses (there's one exception that I know of and it costs something like $6000, no it's not the Z 58mm f/0.95) so you will need two 28mm Oti lenses for those two D850s. That's very costly, somewhere around $17,000 in late 2020.
My calculation says $8000, $3000 for the body and $5000 for the Zeiss Otus 28mm.
Pricing based on what B+H is charging on Oct 10th 2020 before sales tax, extra batteries, cards, or high grade UV filters. So call it $9000 per, so $18000 total.
Right, the 28mm Zeiss Otus is faster.
The Zeiss Milvus 35mm f/1.4 is $2000 before sales tax and an expensive UV filter. So $10,000 for the 2, before taxes or filters.
B+H doesn't list a SigmaART 35mm for the F mount. Anyhow the Zeiss lenses I mention best all SigmaARTs for optical quality as of Oct 2020.
Would you buy this cemera for the asking price ? I would prefer the Leica Q2 anytime and pair it with a Samsung Tab if I want to send out images on the fly.
Internal storage can fail, and it gives various authorities something to look through at "security" checks.
Then Android is highly compromised since it is a Google user tracking system.
Yes, Zeiss has made it possible for an approved repair shop to remove a failing/failed SSD and replace it. Or at least that's what a Zeiss rep told me in 2018.
How many of these does Zeiss expect to sell? They must have reasons for bringing this all the way to market, but I'd be surprised if they were able to sell 100 of these worldwide.
Seriously, I am all in for innovation and stylish new products. But this seriously looks like complete bull*hit. - ergonomics: the grip on the front looks just slippery and unhandy - controls: only touch on the back? That looks like the worst interface ever on any camera. - performance: 3fps? - 35mm F2 but a tiny diameter? This lens can hardly be a good choice. It cant be changed as well.. - 6000 USD? Seriously?
Who the hell buys this camera? People that have more money than they need and are into "nice" photography can buy a Leica (which at least got some buttons and at least a good performance). And the Android aspect is a funny idea but certainly not the big deal...
If one just want to settle for a 35mm f/2.0 field of view, he will be much better off with a Canon M6 Mk2 with its 22mm f/2.0 lens. Yes, its just an APS-C camera but he would have so much money left to buy a Samsung Tab to edit and send out images on the fly. The M6 Mk2 would easily out perform it in many ways eventhough it has a smaller sensor.
@pahnson What are you complaining . You don't like it and you find it too expensive. Maybe Zeiss know how much they are going to sell. Maybe you are not their audience. Have you ever used Zeiss? Probably not. You should look at it as a piece of art maybe. The solid smooth block, minimalistic design, bent LCD,
Look at the Sony Rx1r that retails for 4200 bucks. So I think the 6000 are not too much.
But we know too little about it. Maybe is the CMOS has 16 stops dynamic range? Maybe the lens has a very pleasant character. I suggest: lean back and wait! Once it is out, the judge.
You should not’forget That Sony rx1 was not a good selling product , probably reason why they don’t make them anymore : no rx2 for some years....so I doubt this one will sell more than Sony did.
Good sale or bad sale. Sometimes companies have to take risks to show what they are capable of.
Look at the Otus lenses or Milvus lenses. I like them from the point of industrial design and optical performance. Am I able to own a Otus? No, that is out of reach. How much did they sell? Not that many. I have a few Milvus lenses and they are to be used with great care because manual focus. It works if you can get the hang of it.
I sometimes wonder how Zeiss can survive. I think the photography business is just something that they won't be forgotten and that their names appears from time to time in public. Remember Zeiss is involved in many more profitable businesses. Like Lithography togethers with ASML who hold a 90% market share of all new sold wafer machines.
How many letters are there in the acronym alphabet?
Android is designed for stuff which is thrown away after 2 or 3 years so good luck to people able to shell out $6,000 for this level of ephemera if they are ever actually able to do so. I wonder if they are getting a final design then a new android comes out so back to the drawing board which process could continue forever.
I am still very happy with my Nikon D800 released in 2012, but good luck with running modern apps on any 2012 Android device. IMHO this is a huge problem: The added benefit will vanish quickly because the Android part will be outdated and unsupported very soon (in relation to the usual service life and price of a high end camera).
That said, many phone brands are slow to update and max out at 2 or 3 cycles on flagships. Apple seems better in this regard where you can expect 5+ years. Just what sort of updates a camera OS will need is unknown - security patching & app store / app compatibility I expect.
Although I dislike whole Android built in camera, today many devices already embedded with old OS. E.g. many ATM machine embedded with Windows XP / Windows CE (which already expired & not update), but consumer still can withdraw money from it. It means device OS not need always keep latest update since hasn't play store.
IMO better software architecture: camera body embedded WearOS (lightweight Android OS). WearOS can has Snapseed interface post-processing RAW, interface post to social media..... But, camera body just a interface which background seamless auto sync to smartphone (similar cloud processing in phone), which smartphone doing the actual task.
Smartphone Android will fix security every year, so it also solve security issue.
Since it is seamless cloud processing, consumer will not notice task done by smartphone or camera. In addition, the RAW / JPEG already sync to phone, consumer easy manual edit/post (via other app) at phone gallery.
Smartphone's processor speed increase very fast every year. Smartphone's app also update frequently. So, the camera features will auto better/faster every year.
Will look forward to more on this. For a long time the gap between the primitive hardware with brilliant software on smartphones and converse on dedicated cameras has been unsustainable, at least for the cameras. One eventually hopes / expects to see an Android open source API for algorithmic HDR and stacking, apps accompanying specific lenses and filters, and even third-party apps replacing the stock (often crude 1980s desktop PC) camera button and menu navigation systems.
At 6K, this camera is dead in the water. If I was looking to spend that kind of money on a rangefinder type camera, I’d forego the evf, buy a used M10 at 4K, and still put 2K in my pocket, or buy a decent M mount lens and be happy as hell. They won’t sell one unit at 6K and I highly anticipate that Zeiss is well aware of that. It would be foolish. Tough, tough sell!
If you put aside price and fix-lens, this camera might be really revolutionary in camera technology meeting and combining 21 century requirements with traditional high image quality photography, if and only if it were properly designed and implemented. But, I think this is not the case here with the ZX1, they should have included a dataonly LTE card as in Apple Watch. IBIS is missing too.
@havanna60 well said. I think that a direct upload to cloud image storage is what is missing to nowadays camera. Or in this case, even directly pushing to social medias.
I like it. (Not the price though.) This would be a dream camera for geeks out there that have been lusting for a camera with a real mobile OS to develop custom apps. Automation, Ai, sophisticated file browser, ... sky’s the limit. Just make it into an interchangeable lens camera with an E-mount (or L-mount) on it. Frankly, I expected Sony to bring something like that onto the market.
I fear that android is not going to be very responsive when compared to a specialized operating system. Android will be resource hungry which means it will eat up the battery faster. It will come with all sorts of possible problems of a high level operating system. It may freeze, crash, may need update, etc... We can already edit and share on the fly. We have smartphones and wireless transfer is possible. Although we can edit and share on the fly, we still spend time in front of big screens when it comes to serious photography. if there is a slight possibility of ending up with a better version of the capture, I don't want to ditch that and go with the path of quickly editing it on the fly. An android camera, an android refrigerator... these are not for me. From an engineering point of view, android is not the right operating system for a camera. Maybe, they have other plans. Maybe, they want to sell subscription.
I have a 55mm Zeiss Otus and Zeiss binoculars. I'm also a long-term Leica owner. The optics are as good as it can get. Don't write off Zeiss just because this camera doesn't suit your taste. Zeiss glass is optically superior and is on par with Leica. Upgrade your kit by adding a Zeiss lens and savor the results. @coasttocoasphototatl
No dedicated exp. comp. dial. Instead a somewhat hidden function, just like a cellphone would have. I hope this camera is not an amalgamate of the worst of both worlds (camera/smartphone).
IMO old concept which similar to put whole Android into smartwatch. Nowadays more prefer lightweight OS (e.g. Android WearOS which only has limited features & run fast in slow processor) in small device.
These kind lightweight OS has better connectivity to smartphone but has less processor power than wole Android.
The post processing JPEG / Raw can doing in camera interface but background is "seamless sync RAW into smartphone and post-processing & post to social media actually done in phone". Something like use smartphone as cloud processing. These kind of approach may better since smartphone speed fast improve every year.
Fantastic concept, from a respectable brand, taking a big swing and going for the risky move. What’s not to like? Oh, yeah, the price. Very unfortunate that Zeiss went for such an unrealistic price point.
My younger brother had two cameras from Samsung that operated on the Android operating system and had big, oversized back screens - many years ago. However, they were APC-s and had interchangeable lenses. No reason you could not run PS express or LR for Android on those too...
Looks like a "futuristic" design from the 70's. Obviously I'm not keen on the industrial design. Then there's the price. Maybe the LR licensing accounts for 50% of the cost? I don't know. But I also wonder how long the built-in LR would be supported. Sometimes (IMO most of the time) purpose-built, independent products and software are better because they don't have to compete with each other on design compromises. My wallet tells me that this is a design that is destined for the dustbin of history. If I was forced to spend that much money on a camera, I'd buy a Leica. No matter what you think of the brand, it's iconic design holds value way better than so many other brands.
This type of camera mixed with a phone, is something a lot of people are asking for, as they say it is the only way camera manufacturers can survive the onslaught from dedicated phones. I look forward to actually see how it turn out in the reviews. Is the idea workable or is it dead on arrival?
I'd classify the Android OS as a "nice to have" feature that adds a bit of value to a camera. It's not enough to make me consider spending $6000 for a camera.
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