14 DAY TRIAL // If you follow the photographic industry, you might have heard of Zeiss’ Ikon camera series, a product which has a lot of history behind it.
The Ikon family consists of rangefinder-style cameras, but currently Zeiss is no longer making any of them. Some of these devices were revived and brought to the market back in 2004 thanks to Cosina, but the reality is that Ikons have been discontinued for years.
Is Zeiss Ikon to return on the market in 2014?
2014 is the year when the Zeiss Ikon series is looking to make quite a comeback, even if it will go on to fill a very particular niche market that will not be open to mainstream customers.
According to Sony Alpha Rumors, Sony and Zeiss will partner up for a new Ikon camera to be manufactured by the PlayStation maker.
Before getting your hopes up, consider the fact that this is just a rumor at this point, a pretty wild one to say the least. Even so, we’ve seen even crazier speculation become reality, like lens-style cameras or perfume-bottle-shaped selfie shooters.
So we shouldn't be all that surprised if a new Zeiss Ikon produced by Sony shows its face at some point this year.
The rumor claims the camera could make a debut by the end 2014, but given the fact that we only have two months to go, we can’t really say whether the prediction seems viable or not.
However, we have to point out an important aspect in the story. It appears the camera will arrive devoid of the “Ikon” brand. How will we recognize it then? Well, the shooter will take advantage of the same design characteristic of the legendary Ikon cameras.
The source is also in position to share some of the specs of the device. The Sony-made Zeiss snapper will supposedly arrive with a full-frame image sensor and full manual controls.
The next Ikon won't have an LCD display on the back
Apart from that, we’re being told what the camera will lack, which is an optical viewfinder and an LCD display on the back.
This could mean that the unit will have to employ an electronic viewfinder of some sort, so photographers can frame their shots, but this is not a certainty.
Sony seems to be prepping a lot of goodies for us. Apart from this interesting Ikon revival, the PlayStation maker is also said to be working on a shooter that can capture video in 8K, because 4K is getting so old-fashioned these days.