ZEISS is a heavyweight in the optics industry.
I’m sure some of you have come across the name ZEISS before. Maybe you've seen it on something you carry in your pocket or spotted it in a mall. It’s a name that pops up here and there. We often assume ZEISS is a big deal because of how it is marketed, and it is. But just how big of a deal it is was something I didn’t fully realize myself.
Until recently.
vivo and ZEISS have given a tour of their headquarters at Oberkochen, Germany. It’s about two hours from Munich, going through a highway and seeing nothing but big, gorgeous vistas, an enormous number of solar panels, and gigantic windmills–and I mean, dang! Those windmills are huge!
For the past 178 years, ZEISS has been at the forefront of lens technology. Since 1857, their lenses have been used for microscopes and they've been part of NASA's space missions. Neil Armstrong used a Hasselblad camera with ZEISS lens during the moon landing. ZEISS lenses have also captured some of Hollywood's biggest blockbusters including The Lord of the Rings, the Daniel Craig-era James Bond films, Iron Man, and Avengers: Age of Ultron. You might have heard of “Everywhere, Everything, All At Once,” - yes that too was filmed with ZEISS lenses. Stanley Kubrick, a renowned filmmaker, won multiple Academy Awards with his film, 2001 Space Odyssey, which was, yes, captured with cameras using ZEISS.
Big wins for these industries also mean big wins for ZEISS.
For the longest time, I had assumed such partnerships between vivo and ZEISS were about supplies and brand recognition. vivo gets their lenses from ZEISS and ZEISS gets more brand awareness. I had assumed that was all to it.
Turns out, it’s much deeper and more complex than that. During the tour, we were shown ZEISS' rigorous tests on each vivo smartphone. ZEISS is a name that holds itself in such high regard, and backed with the prestige of their history, they would want to ensure that any partner they have holds the same amount of standards, if not higher.
ZEISS and vivo hold frequent meetings to provide feedback with each other. The collaborative process has changed the pace in ZEISS, citing the fast-paced development in mobile technology.
Oliver Shindelbeck has about 20 years of experience in developing ZEISS products for mobile phones. He spoke at length about how they test the camera’s speed, color accuracy, and clarity, and collect all this information to send back for vivo. He also talked about how ZEISS has been spending years in developing lenses to reduce as much flares and bokeh effects in images. Bokeh, ironically, was seen as unpleasant and ugly, a byproduct of photography. Oliver then remarked how the trend was able to turn bokeh effects into something positive, allowing consumers to freely explore different photography styles. It’s a testament on how fields such as photography is not static, and is something that continues to evolve.
ZEISS’ prime concern is that the hardware should be able to capture as much data as possible for the sensors to process into images.
One of the things ZEISS has considered, is the “ZEISS Look,” a term they claim they themselves did not coin. They just heard it from consumers and it made them think about the ZEISS Look and it is.
To their own studies, Dr. Ramoa Ittig, Head of R&D Mobile Imaging, ZEISS consumer products, explained that the ZEISS Look boils down to three things: First, color, ensuring colors digitally processed appear as we saw it, true, natural colors. Second, sharpness is conveyed when you can see the fine details of an image, such as lines, edges, and grains of sand. Third, “3D Pop,” which is, as the name suggests, an image where it seems to “pop” off the screen. Not necessarily 3D as in 3D, just that, the image itself would reveal its dimensions and provide a sense of depth.
These three combined, is what ZEISS believes is the “ZEISS Look.”
If it were as simple as producing lenses for another camera, or another eyewear, perhaps the challenge would be somewhat less. But the challenge ZEISS is facing is making all those big lenses into something smaller, small enough to fit in a smartphone.
Thankfully, ZEISS is not new to this venture. They have been placing lenses in mobile devices for decades. So they have a clear understanding of technology. The second challenge is keeping up with the technology as it is something that continues to change. Part of ZEISS and vivo’s strategy is joint R&D, where each company will continue to share innovations to further enhance insight and develop products.
When asked who sought who between the two companies, both vivo and ZEISS made it neutral by saying they sought each other out. Though, it doesn’t change ZEISS’ philosophy to develop outstanding optics and having an influence in delivering photography on the hands of consumers with their partner vivo. As ZEISS has said, they wouldn’t partner with just anyone, and any partnership they get into, is something they want to last for a very long time.
