The company was founded in Jena in 1856 and called Carl Zeiss Jena, producing microscopes and other optical instruments. After the death of Carl Zeiss in 1888, his partner Abbe founded the Zeiss Foundation and created the photographic optics branch.
The Carl Zeiss company created classic lens formulae as the Tessar, Planar, Biogon, Sonnar and were licensed by lens manufacturers, all the way up to today.
After World War II, Jena being in the Eastern part of Germany, the company split in two. One part was recreated in West Germany and remained within the Zeiss Foundation. The other part remained in Jena while loosing the rights to the traditional names, like the brand name Zeiss and the related famous lens names.
Carl Zeiss continue to make lenses for 3rd parties, such as Rollei and Hasselblad and known for their high quality, precision tolerances, resolution, and color rendition, and have been used by many well-known photographers.
From 1973, Carl Zeiss made a range of Zeiss T* lenses with a bayonet mount for Yashica and Contax 35mm SLR cameras and developed a reputation for superb optical quality. Kyocera, which acquired Yashica, introduce still Zeiss T* lenses
Zeiss lenses were also used on the moon landings.
Very recently the Carl Zeiss foundation has revived the Zeiss Ikon name for a new camera and lenses.
Sony also uses Zeiss lenses for its digital cameras.
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