Kyocera kills off Contax
posted April 12th 2005 11:05AM
Kyocera is pulling the plug on Contax, the camera brand they picked up when they purchased Yashica in the mid-Nineties. There were some rumors about this going around about a month ago, but it wasn't clear whether they were going to try and sell the brand to someone else or simply shut things down entirely. Apparently they've decided to go with the latter, announcing today their intention to "terminate" their "CONTAX-branded camera business", bringing to an end what was once a great line of cameras that originated with Zeiss back in the 1930s (they haven't announced their plans for the Yashica brand yet). They're going to stop shipping all Contax-branded cameras, lenses, and accessories by September (except for the Contax 645, which will survive another three months), but they will continue to provide technical support and after-market services for another ten years.
Wow, I'm stunned. Aren't there any other camera companies that would want to keep the brand alive?
imagine a father handing off a camera to their son/daughter these days. "here you go son, i know your cellphone is 7 megapixel, but this brick Kodak 1.2 mp was with me during a very special time in my life"..
I owned a couple of Contax cameras, including the Tix APS camera which literally took the best shots ever for a point-and-shoot. It is really too bad that they chose to shut down a premium brand because they couldn't handle the changeover to digital.
Proudly I can say that I have enjoyed my t3,g2,645 since they first came out. Todays news of it's death brings me to utter anger at this multi-millon dollar company's choice in ending a long tradition of fine cameras. So what are we to do with our g2,t3 etc.? We can't help if their marketing end of things could not keep up. But we going to end up paying for it. Thanks Koycera for supporting us for the next 10 years. Very kind of you!