Video: How Carl Zeiss’ New Touit Lenses Are Manufactured

There’s something to be said about lens manufacturing. You could even go so far as to say it, in itself, is an art form, with the hands of skilled and methodical workers ever-so-delicately assembling the glass we use to take photos.

Speaking of lens manufacturing, Carl Zeiss Lenses has just posted an short, yet interesting, video behind the manufacturing process of their Touit lens line (for what it’s worth, the video is also available in 3D, if you need an added dimension to your viewing experience). These lenses come as 12mm f/2.8 or 32mm f/1.8, and are available for both E-mount and X-mount cameras starting in June.

The manufacturing process behind the Touit line, like any lens line, is complex. Sixteen different types of glass make up each lens, and if that’s not enough to impress you, each lens is composed of about one hundred parts each. Once assembled, the lenses are subject to excruciating individual testing, which includes sixty steps of quality control. This, of course, is Carl Zeiss we’re talking about here, so you know you’re going to get a great, long-lasting product.

That Zeiss quality is proved with a test certificate before it’s all packaged up and ready to be shipped off to a customer. Having watched this, you may just have your answer the next time you ask: “Why are Zeiss lenses so expensive?”