Carl Zeiss (11 September 1816 – 3 December 1888) was a German maker of
optical instruments best known for the company he founded,
Carl Zeiss Jena (now:
Carl Zeiss AG). Zeiss made contributions to
lens manufacturing that have aided the modern production of lenses. Raised in
Weimar,
Germany, he opened a lens-making workshop in the 1840s in the city of
Jena. At first his lenses were only used in the production of
microscopes, but when
cameras were invented, his company began manufacturing high-quality lenses for cameras.