Evanjoe
You are talking about some informations here which I doubt you have any real facts. I would kindly ask you, to open your anonymous status and declare which Zeiss source in USA and which "former" Hartblei Person you are speaking about.
(BTW we have NDA contracts with Zeiss if someone has told you any nonsense like this, we could as well take charges..........)
For the other readers: The "Former Hartblei company" still use the Hartblei.com (they are selling old or fake stuff and are no longer in connection with Hartblei) and state they are selling Hartblei products which is not true.
Infact they are selling cheapo Copies which do by no means meet our new standards (Tilt adapter!), Arax or Arsenal lenses and old stock of Hartblei Products. They cannot deliver any "old russian version" Superrotators anymore because we (Hartblei - Kiev and Munich) don´t build them anymore. We have asked them to release the hartblei.com but they refuse this, as they think this is giving them any advantage to fool people about their real status.
Kievcamera- Mike Fourman is also no businesspartner of Hartblei anymore. We had various difficulties with him, but I will keep silence about these details, and thus should he and stop these guerilla attacks to our business.
Now you "may understand" why these people are infiltrating these Fora like LL and tell half true or even wrong facts about our products.
We are building our35mm product line, the name Protoype will be dropped soon and we even have new and improved versions of our lenses.( see here
http://www.hartblei.de/photos/Hartblei_Pre..._Oktober08s.jpg )
The Phase One Medium Format Lens (BTW it is the ONLY TS lens in its class, maybe this makes some people so nervous) uses NO Zeiss glass, nobody ever stated this, you see this will happen with silent post and rumours building up in these Fora, so everybody who is not in the real knowledge of details (of these really complex history and business relations) should really ask directly at the source- not here.
I´m always answering Questions as long as I do not injure NDA´s or other policies regarding our partners, this is what a normal and fair information politics is all about.
I would ask any potentially interested Users of our lenses to build themselves their own judgement and try the lenses, we (and Phase One) have Dealers who supply the lenses for testing.
These are facts, leave the rumours to the wannabees.
greetings from Munich
Stefan Steib CEO Hartblei- Kiev Munich
www.hartblei.des.steib@hartblei.deIxpressraf,
Yes, you are correct in stating that the Zeiss prototype were made for the 35mm Digital/Film system. Again another Yes, to the use of the optical glass that Zeiss had sitting around. But this information I believe was stated on the Hartblei.de website. Unfortunately the final product was not up to Zeiss standard. Thus the limited prototype sets being offered by Hartblei.de. The newer Hartblei 45mm T/S has been designed with the new improvement as stated, and plus more. The metal optical housing has been redesigned, if one compares it against the the older Hartblei 45 T/S. Otherwise the design is New, but the optical glass is the same unused ones as in the older version. Only thing is that the MC coating is done by Hartblei. I guess the Zavod Arsenal factory has been closed for at least 2 years or so? Best test wouyld be if one has on available for testing and to compare it against the older version to see what the new improvements are.
Evan