Finally: Contax Zeiss on the R1

[Lliam Worthington]

Hi Martin,

Reviving this quality thread as it's the only one I have found scouring for breathing on the Zeiss Contax.
Can I ask how they have performed for you in the years since?

Best Wishes

Lliam

[Ryan De Franco]

Lliam,

My personal set of lenses is also Contax Zeiss. Breathing is more pronounced on some than others, for any slow rack it's quite beautiful actually--some lenses breathe in a miserable, world-sliding-around way; the Contax are more "calm exhale" than earthquake.

On some of the lenses, fast racks are miserable; on others, not bad at all. I want to these lenses against Compact Primes, Leica R and Canon; breathing is one of the characteristics we'll cover.

Here's how a short film I shot ends: photographer brutally rapes his younger lover, strangling him to death in their basement. Throughout the movie, his slides and strange bulbs are everywhere--lying in piles and boxes all around the basement room. In order to hide the actual strangulation, we slowly racked away from the action (false sex in focus, two straight actors did an incredible job), across a sea of 35mm slides, finally settling on a macro shot of slides as the blurred bodies cease moving.

Someone said that shot slowly "pulls back" in a way they haven't seen before. It lets the audience breathe and realize that this is the end. That slow pull back is breathing, an effect that couldn't be done with a dolly. So creatively the Contax lenses breathe beautifully, for fast racks e.g. dialog etc they're not the best choice. Split diopters, another set of lenses, or punch in in post.

[Martin Weiss]

I'm still using (mostly) the Contax Zeiss lenses. As Ryan has stated, some lenses breathe more than others. I tend to only do motivated focus racks, thus pulling the attention away from possible breathing effects.

I love the Bokeh that Contax' exhibit.

On a more general note for newcomers to either R1 or Contax who might stumble upon this thread, there are 3 mounting options for the R1 that I am aware of:

IMS makes/made a flexible adapter system. I've never tried it as it voided the warranty of the camera, but those who did, were apparently happy with it.
A-mount also makes a flexible adapter system, one that puts an "adapter" onto every lens. I used to have one, and was very happy at how solidly it locked in each lens. No movement whatsoever. The only system ratified by RED.
Birger Canon mount with eBay adapter rings for the Contax lenses. This is the system I am currently using, as I am starting to build up a collection of Canon L-lenses, which have the added benefit of electronic controls.

[Michael Lindsay]

I have quite a few contact/ziess lenses but would like to add the 21mm and 35mm (1.4 version) ...

Anyone got a good sample of either?

Michael

[Lliam Worthington]

Lliam,

My personal set of lenses is also Contax Zeiss. Breathing is more pronounced on some than others, for any slow rack it's quite beautiful actually--some lenses breathe in a miserable, world-sliding-around way; the Contax are more "calm exhale" than earthquake.

On some of the lenses, fast racks are miserable; on others, not bad at all. I want to these lenses against Compact Primes, Leica R and Canon; breathing is one of the characteristics we'll cover.

Here's how a short film I shot ends: photographer brutally rapes his younger lover, strangling him to death in their basement. Throughout the movie, his slides and strange bulbs are everywhere--lying in piles and boxes all around the basement room. In order to hide the actual strangulation, we slowly racked away from the action (false sex in focus, two straight actors did an incredible job), across a sea of 35mm slides, finally settling on a macro shot of slides as the blurred bodies cease moving.

Someone said that shot slowly "pulls back" in a way they haven't seen before. It lets the audience breathe and realize that this is the end. That slow pull back is breathing, an effect that couldn't be done with a dolly. So creatively the Contax lenses breathe beautifully, for fast racks e.g. dialog etc they're not the best choice. Split diopters, another set of lenses, or punch in in post.

Thanks Ryan for your post. Very helpful. I really appreciate cinematographers who understand the character and behaviour of their lenses and will creatively use the aberrations or behaviours that some condemn as strengths. Great stuff.

In regards to this line...
"On some of the lenses, fast racks are miserable; on others, not bad at all. I want to these lenses against Compact Primes, Leica R and Canon; breathing is one of the characteristics we'll cover."

I'm thinking there was typo with the word "test" left out? If so, love to see this test mate when you do it.

[Lliam Worthington]

I'm still using (mostly) the Contax Zeiss lenses. As Ryan has stated, some lenses breathe more than others. I tend to only do motivated focus racks, thus pulling the attention away from possible breathing effects.

I love the Bokeh that Contax' exhibit.

On a more general note for newcomers to either R1 or Contax who might stumble upon this thread, there are 3 mounting options for the R1 that I am aware of:

IMS makes/made a flexible adapter system. I've never tried it as it voided the warranty of the camera, but those who did, were apparently happy with it.
A-mount also makes a flexible adapter system, one that puts an "adapter" onto every lens. I used to have one, and was very happy at how solidly it locked in each lens. No movement whatsoever. The only system ratified by RED.
Birger Canon mount with eBay adapter rings for the Contax lenses. This is the system I am currently using, as I am starting to build up a collection of Canon L-lenses, which have the added benefit of electronic controls.

Hi Martin thanks, you make a good point re focus racks. Re the Bokeh, I love it too. Watching your reels on Vimeo. Beautiful work.
Read your comments, says you used RED 18-50. can you specify which shots they were out of interest? I really loved the skin tones in general throughout too.

Best Wishes
Lliam

[Kyle Broom]

I have a set of Contax Zeiss lenses rehoused in BNCR mounts originally for use with Mitchell 35mm cameras. I love them and rent them out pretty regularly and others seem to like them a lot as well. Here's a short I shot on R1 (MX) using them. We don't do a lot of focus racks in this, but it gives you a pretty good idea of the look that you can get out of them. I mount them with the Allstar mount, which has been mentioned above and which I highly recommend.

http://vimeo.com/27124177

[Nick Morrison]

I have quite a few contact/ziess lenses but would like to add the 21mm and 35mm (1.4 version) ...

Anyone got a good sample of either?

Michael

Yes I have the 35 1.4, and it's my favorite lens. Looks AMAZING.

We shot a whole pilot this weekend mostly on this lens, as well as two CZ 50 1.4's, an 85 1.4, and the 135 2.8 (on 5D/7D/60D, still waiting for Scarlets to arrive).

[Edmond Yung]

I have a quite complete set of Contax Zeiss which it matches the color perfectly with Zeiss Pro Prime and Super Speed. Especially, good as B cam and on my Canon 5D & 7D (I trimmed the mirror to fit in the 18mm). I fitted them all with gear rings from my friend Jerry Kosan in Hollywood. Jerry do an excellent job for me. Standardized them to 82mm front (using contax step up adapters so that it can keep the classy Contax look, well a bit hard and expensive to find those adpaters nowadays and I almost use about 3 months to do the job). "Collecting the whole set and make them into cine-friendly mode made me almost 4 months.

I currently want to sell the whole set to cash in for EPIC. Well, part of the cash. I would love to have any comment if you guys don't agree to sell the set. A lot of DPs in my area love their Zeiss glass and find this Contax set cheap and light weight enough to keep it when travel around. However, I have recently adore to my fast LOMO glass which I perfer the ability when wide open and the stunning contrasty color that best for my TV commercial and MTV work.

I wonder if anyone here in the RED forum will be interested? Any comment?

18mm F4
25mm F2.8
28mm F2
35mm F1.4
50mm F1.4
85mm F1.4
100mm F2.8 Macro
135mm F2
180mm F2.8

[Nick Morrison]

Edmond. I have a similar set. That 135 F2 sounds awesome. Is it? I have the 135 2.8 which we used last weekend on a closeup, and it killed. I'm sure the F2 is even better. This is HARD glass to collect, but it's a nice alternative to other systems if you are willing to work hard at it.