From SFO to Aaelen / Oberkochen
Get Zeiss Milvus at B&H Photo.
I’m over in Oberkochen Germany having an enjoyable time with the Zeiss crew, learning and seeing a lot things (some of which will be reported in due time!). The group there loves what they do, from what I can tell.
Oberkochen is a sort of “company town” near the pleasant and walking-friendly town of Aaelen, a venue I will have little time to explore—another trip perhaps, or maybe some hours prior to hopping the train back to Frankfurt on Saturday.
The main Zeiss still-lens facility is a study in modern interior design and very pleasant inside, but without T* coatings on the window and partition glass, which also have some veiling flare issues, and do not seem to be apochromatic. Tsk task.
It was a 17 hour journey to Aalen from San Francisco (SFO to FRA direct) + train. I ended up having a 31 hour “day” from home to dinner in Aaelen, without getting any sleep (though I did get some rest on the plane and train). But it was so interesting at Zeiss, my inner nerd just fed the energy loop continuously.
The high speed train from Frankfurt to Stuttgart is impressive—it does not run particularly fast for the first 1/4 or so of the journey (maybe ~80 mph), but when it picks up speed to ~150 mph it’ too fast to study the landscape without fatiguing quickly. About 90 minutes from Frankfurt to Stuttgart. Then a ~14 minute wait before a hop onto a conventional train in Stuttgart for the leg to Aalen—a much more pedestrian journey of a bit over an hour.
Sony A7R II + Zeiss Batis 25mm f/2
[low-res image for bot]
