"Florian Pesth" <fpe### [at] gmxde> wrote in message 
news:4a662a83$1@news.povray.org...
> IIRC Darren asked, why a DSLR is called *single* lens reflex camera. Just
> today I stumbled across this
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twin_lens_reflex
>
> Apparently the german company inventing this type of camera (or so says
> german wikipedia), Rollei, just closed down. In the end they seemed to
> make modern middle format cameras. It seems there are not many german
> companies around anymore in this business. Ok, there is Leica, but they
> are ridiculous expensive. Zeiss is mostly producing for industrial
> applications. A lot of companies around Dresden closed down. It seems all
> this industry was excelled by japanese companies. I wonder why - I mean I
> can name several excellent japanese companies (and I'm very satisfied
> with my Nikon D80) but if I would want to buy an excellent german DSLR I
> simply couldn't because no one here makes it anymore. The thing is, that
> there was a lot of optical industry and know how in germany. Did they
> simply slumber it? Anyone know why they lost?

The Japanese woke up after WWII and their camera industry flourished. Cheap 
labor, international support for industrial build-up, a prosperous world 
market in the 50's and 60s along with a burgeoning electronics industry, 
positioned them well to compete in the camera market place. Just as they 
took over the consumer electronics industry for nearly 40 years they also 
exploded on the scene in the camera market with completive high quality 
products that incorporated electronics in their design. The Americans and 
the Germans simply failed to react quickly enough to keep up with them.

Ziess is still highly revered in the lens industry with optics design and 
licensing to Sony dSLRs and Leica still markets their own brand of lenses 
and cameras plus optics design and licensing with Panasonic. Not totally 
market leaders but still big players in the optics industry.

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