After various rumors and several planned or involuntary leaks from Zeiss, the German company has confirmed: Carl Zeiss will manufacture interchangeable lenses for the digital and film F-mount Nikon cameras.

The new lineup is called ZF, and the first lenses will be Planar T* 1.4/50 ZF and Planar T* 1.4/85 ZF.

So far, the only 35 mm SLR cameras which benefited from the Carl Zeiss optics have been the Contax cameras. In the point and shoot and prosumer field, the company has a partnership with Sony.

According to the press release, the new Carl Zeiss incorporate new technical advances from the ZEISS Ultra Prime, Master Prime and DigiPrime lenses for motion picture cameras.

ZEISS lenses are renowned for the image's fidelity, the high mechanical quality and the exceptional durability.

It's worth mentioning that the Planar T* 1.4/50 ZF version for Contax RTS was rated the world's best fast standard lens by "Popular Photography" in 1999.

The ZF lenses will also be compatible with Sinar m professional digital camera and a multitude of industrial video cameras; the availability was announced for the spring of 2006, Zeiss mentioning that the prices will be comparable to those for similar F system lenses.

New ZF lenses will be launched during 2006.