Zeiss, please, bring back the "Z" logo, the SF is diminished without it!
Alex
I could also add that Zeiss's Senior Director of Marketing, Simone Zaha, used to work for KTM Motorcycles, another KISKA customer, so will be very familiar with the way KISKA works.
Lee
While we are on the topic of styling, I want to bring up something (again; I think it came up before a long time ago) that most will regard as trivial but which I find disappointing about the SF--the lack of the Z logo on its hinge. Some will think me crazy for caring about this, but I'm going to say my peace now and just hope someone at Zeiss takes note.
One of the big messages on the KISKA site was brand recognition through common elements in the styling/design of its products. They write "Dials, buttons and lenses are functional elements of a product, but they must speak for a brand. To achieve this, a distinct design language is defined and applied to each product. The result: a design that speaks only for Zeiss." and "You should not have to have eyes like a hawk to see the essence of a brand reflected in a product. Optical precision, premium quality and innovation; these are the promises all Zeiss products, VICTORY, CONQUEST and TERRA, must clearly promote." Images on the KISKA site highlight common style elements, many of them extremely subtle (despite the assertion that one should not need eyes like a hawk), across each of the three Zeiss binocular lines and Zeiss scopes. One of those elements is the "Z" logo, seen on the binocular hinge end-caps and on the end-caps of the rifle scope adjustment knobs. The SF lacks that Z.
Styling is less important to me than engineering and design for (other than aesthetic) function, but I don't deny the appreciation that can develop around the aesthetics of functionally superb products and the brands that make them. I appreciate the elegantly simple/understated designs of premium binoculars compared to the designs of some lesser brands that are covered in hyperbolic labels and sometimes have colors and styling that make them look like the futuristic weapons and battle armor portrayed in video games. I liked the look of the old Zeiss BGAT/Classic bins, the very different (but unfortunately less functional) styling of the Design Selection era Zeiss bins, and the hybrid (between Classic and Design Selection, and fortunately very functional) styling of the Victory FL series. Despite their radically different appearances, one thing all those lines had in common, and which (as you will see on the KISKA site) continued in the new integrated look of the Victory HT, Conquest, and Terra lines, was the Z logo on the hinge end-cap. For those of us who have long admired Zeiss bins, it is the most recognizable common style element across designs. It is beautiful in its graphical simplicity, more interesting and at least equal aesthetically to Leica's red dot in that respect, and superior in that respect to Swarovski's hawk. The blue Zeiss logo is nice too, but not nearly as sexy as that Z, with its graphical simplicity and intriguingly slightly cryptic meaning to first-time viewers.
But now, the SF departs from long tradition and instead has the word "ZEISS" on the end cap, and even worse, the font is some non-descript sans serif type (yes, I know this or similar font has been used in the past by Zeiss on cameras etc, but it has always been more of a label, like "Made in Germany", not a logo). The font is not the same style as the old "ZEISS" logo or that used within the blue Zeiss logo. I'm not old enough yet to be a cranky old-timer, but I must say that SF lens cap looks cheap and based on my own reaction, I suspect it does nothing to conjure up nostalgic feelings in young and old members of the Zeiss faithful. It has no pedigree, and its substitution for the venerable missing Z is actually jarring.
I can only think this change was meant to improve communication of the Zeiss name to viewers of product images. If so, I think that motivation is misguided. I suspect most folks who are setting out to spend several thousand dollars on a bin spend enough time considering the options that they don't need the brand emblazened on the product in order to consider it in the first place or to remember which product goes with which brand. And I don't think the brand name in that position is of much importance for increasing brand visibility when birders are looking to see what others have around their necks. It's really only seen by owners. I submit that its primary function is to promote recognition by owners while bonding with their beloved binoculars as they turn them over in their hands while carrying them, cleaning them, etc. Now, instead of seeing that elegant venerable Z, which imparts a very subtle touch of brand labeling and doesn't call attention to the cover it is marked upon, we get a hinge end cap that, with the written Zeiss name and contrasting border, calls attention to itself as a graphically-uninspired cheap-looking button that may as well say "Made in China" for all the mystique it evokes. Yuck.
--AP
