April 15, 2009 2:14 PM PDT
Sony, Zeiss renew lens partnership
Carl Zeiss' camera lens division renewed a partnership with Sony for another five years, the companies announced Wednesday.
The partnership began in 1996 with a Sony camcorder using a Zeiss lens, then extended to compact cameras. More recently, with Sony's entry into the SLR market, Zeiss-branded lenses are available on those high-end cameras, too.
Another electronics giant making its way into the camera market, Panasonic, has adopted a similar strategy with another German camera company renowned for its engineering, Leica.
Stephen Shankland writes about a wide range of technology and products, but has a particular focus on browsers and digital photography. He joined CNET News in 1998 and since then also has covered Google, Yahoo, servers, supercomputing, Linux and open-source software, and science. E-mail Stephen, or follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/stshank. 
Last year I bought the Sony digital DSC-W90 which has a Zeiss lens.
As from the very first photo I noticed the difference between the results of two cameras, meaning that after shooting about 1000 pictures with the W90, I went straight back to the P43, which delivers far superior photos in terms of sharpness. The only time I now use the W90 is under very dark circumstances when I must use flash, or for video recording. It also seems that the W90 lens produces some pinkish colour bias. I will stick to my P43 until the wheels come off.