I’ve never been much of a camera enthusiast outside of Sony. Part of it is likely due to my familiarity with the company and the other is due to the fact that Sony is one of the few companies that’s pushing the boundaries of cameras. Sales data tends to back this up as Sony has been the number one mirrorless camera maker for the past four years. So for me, it’s hard to imagine a time where Sony wasn’t making camera, (even my first digital cameras was a Cyber-shot with my absolute favorite being the ultra-slim for its time, T1) but unlike Canon and Nikon, they’ve only been going at it for about 20 years.

In the mid-1990s Sony was at a turning point. While Sony was a powerful name in consumer electronics, it was less well-known among professionals for optics and photography, and wanted to rectify this situation. The company therefore sought a strong and reputable partner in the high-end market and an expert in optics that could help them improve quality in the booming camcorder segment. For ZEISS – which can look back on more than 165 years of experience in optics and lens manufacturing – the situation was the exact opposite. Although its lenses enjoyed an excellent reputation among professional photographers, ZEISS was virtually unknown in the wider consumer market.

More after the jump.

In 1995, Sony and Zeiss would form an official partnership that continues today.

By bringing optics’ experts on board who already had an excellent reputation in the market, Sony strengthened its own reputation among professional photographers. And thanks to Sony’s expertise and know-how in consumer electronics, ZEISS gained access to the much broader market of ambitious amateur photographers and cinematographers.

A year later, the two companies would release their first product (pictured right).

The first joint product, in 1996, was the Handycam® CCD-TR555. Norio Ohga, Sony’s President at the time, was convinced that better optical features were the key to increasing the Handycam’s appeal. Dr. Winfried Scherle – then head of the Camera Lenses division and today head of the Consumer Optics business group at ZEISS – praises the benefits of the partnership for both partners.

Since that time, the two companies have collaborated on a plethora of products like

the Distagon for the DSC-F55K Cyber-Shot® (1999), the first interchangeable lenses with A-mount for the α DSLR cameras (2006) and the first interchangeable lenses with E-mount for α mirrorless cameras (2011) are just a few of the milestones.

During their 19 years together, more than 185 million products have been sold with the Sony/Zeiss Branding. While Zeiss was able to find a partner that was will trying to try new things and had a larger consumer presence, Sony was able to enter the camera market with a degree of weight that it would not have been able to do by itself. Think of Samsung’s efforts in the past few years. The company has recently announced an end to their camera initiative.

Shigeki Ishizuka, Executive Vice President and Head of Imaging Products and Solution Sector at Sony:

We’ve learned a lot during 19 years of joint development with ZEISS. The knowledge we’ve gained has contributed significantly to developing Sony’s know-how in optical design and lens manufacturing. Together with ZEISS, we want to give our customers the ultimate photography experience, both now and in the future.

Just last week, Sony announced their own series of G Master lenses.

Discuss:

Do you think Zeiss has been one of the key drivers of the success Sony has had in cameras?

[Via Sony]