Zeiss quitting the sport optic market

They will already have people working in their ‘comeback’ launch. This is business strategy. Instead of having the brand tainted by diminishing market share and competitiveness; better take a break, and in 5 years relaunch into the market. Everyone will be excited, Zeiss are BACK! Big marketing campaigns and fresh sales.

It’s like the lead ban, all planned and signed off before the public is aware
 
Strange because electronic digi/thermal scopes are still under the war weapons ban of Possession in Germany for civilians.
It could be a reason if customers go with other products for night hunting. Also a slow move to higher gear as 1/3 instead of 1/6 which might be difficult to do with a lifetime warranty. 2000€ to be able to hunt 15-20min longer in the evening than with a middle range scope is it worth it? Night vision are only legal for wildboar and protective hunting here.
 
Been trying to get a definitive answer to a component availability request from both East Coast Binocular Repairs (Official Zeiss UK Servicing Agent) and Mr. Kevin Coles since the start of 2025 with no luck. Emailed Gary of ECBC again in early May but zero response.

No point in going direct to Zeiss HQ as I did that and they simply pushed me to the bottom of the corporate tree of customer enquiry. Namely ECBC.

Customer service at its worse and clearly born of a singular disinterest in supporting customers with kit of certain vintage.

Very sad

K
 
I was visited Elmia game fair last week the main players in the hunting optics game had their stands in one of the halls. Zeiss had a small stand outside with the catering and dog food stands. How the mighty have fallen.
 
Their downfall started just there with their budget priced optics like Duralyt and Conquest and then Terra. The logo was there but everybody knew their legendary best quality in the market just wasn't there anymore. Then they went all in a decade ago with their Victory HT series, which were great back then, had the best low light performance but a 4 times zoom. Which quite possibly was a strategic mistake as they were really expensive at the time but quickly became obsolete as other competitors had higher zoom rates and / or night optics became more and more common. Then they launched the V8 series, which were designed too futuristic and too bulky with their 34 mm tubes and they were probably not what a common traditional european hunter at the time was looking for. And probably a step back from what the Zeiss was really known for - best possible quality in a sleek, light, traditional design. Swarovski's Z8i is just sleeker, nicer, traditional European hunting aestetics is there, customer support is way better... And they have much better marketing... The last nail in the coffin was probably the chinese thermal optics...
 
... it will be interesting to see what happen's to the used marked in Norway from today...🤑
The news hasn't arrived her yet, so I will make a notice from today as: 'Day one of Zeiss destruction and total marked failure'...
 
... it will be interesting to see what happen's to the used marked in Norway from today...🤑
The news hasn't arrived her yet, so I will make a notice from today as: 'Day one of Zeiss destruction and total marked failure'...
Buyers will argue price should be reflective of an obsolete product; sellers will stand their ground and argue they’re worth every penny and are now collectors items 😂
 
I met some chaps from Zeiss at a work event two or three years ago and they were talking about how hunting optics were pretty much a negligible part of their business. They mostly make money from medical and industrial lenses and equipment. If you think of how many lenses they sell through Boots Opticians alone and then size that up to cover all of Europe, you can see how rifle scopes may just not be worth it.
 
Their downfall started just there with their budget priced optics like Duralyt and Conquest and then Terra. The logo was there but everybody knew their legendary best quality in the market just wasn't there anymore. Then they went all in a decade ago with their Victory HT series, which were great back then, had the best low light performance but a 4 times zoom. Which quite possibly was a strategic mistake as they were really expensive at the time but quickly became obsolete as other competitors had higher zoom rates and / or night optics became more and more common. Then they launched the V8 series, which were designed too futuristic and too bulky with their 34 mm tubes and they were probably not what a common traditional european hunter at the time was looking for. And probably a step back from what the Zeiss was really known for - best possible quality in a sleek, light, traditional design. Swarovski's Z8i is just sleeker, nicer, traditional European hunting aestetics is there, customer support is way better... And they have much better marketing... The last nail in the coffin was probably the chinese thermal optics...
id be very inclined to disagree in the case of the duarlyt range but i agree the conquest v range and terra arent very good at all
 
Says all you need to know: "Our industry is undergoing a permanent shift towards digital optics."

I blame Dama dama!

K
All this talk about deer management its mostly making big throphys to people with much money. If the hunting were easy to access they could be hunted daytime now UK older hunters talk about new hunters have to work to make the hunting ground better for deer and maybee the new hunter can beguinn as stalkers after 5-10 years if they prove theirself worthy.
 
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