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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

CONTAX ZEISS: HUGE DEMAND?! SELLING OUT?!

Looking for these lenses if anyone has them for sale....

21mm 2.8
100 2.0
135 2.0
180 2.8
 
Domenic Barbero said:
Looking for these lenses if anyone has them for sale....

21mm 2.8
100 2.0
135 2.0
180 2.8
Click to expand...

I can easily find them in good condition. Do you want me to work on it?
 
Kaku Ito said:
I can easily find them in good condition. Do you want me to work on it?
Click to expand...

That would be great. Like to buy kinda local. usually the overseas can be a bit expensive. but for the right price that would be great.
 
I have a 28 to 85 in good condition, probably going to sell it again. I'm located in Europe, so PM if interested.
 
Nick Morrison said:
Just checked KEH.com. Everything is SOLD OUT. No Contax primes or zooms left.

WOW.

Speechless.

The word is out....
Click to expand...
I just did the same thing, Nick...checked KEH this morning to see if anything new was added...I was shocked to find ZERO...not even a 50mm...crazy...
 
Tom Greenberg said:
I just did the same thing, Nick...checked KEH this morning to see if anything new was added...I was shocked to find ZERO...not even a 50mm...crazy...
Click to expand...

It's been like that all week. There were 2 50's on the Fixed Focal Length section, and no zooms in the Zoom section. That's it. Entire week.

I'll finally have a chance today to test out the EX+ 35-70 and the BGN 80-200 that I snagged the week before that.
 
ebay.de

No problem finding them and generally the German market keeps their lenses in good condition.
 
Finally got around to testing the zooms I got. Aside form some cosmetic scuffs on the outside of the 80-200 (that I got for $94), I can't tell why it was a BGN. I can't see anything wrong with the image. I took a few shots of just the blue sky at wide-open and all the way stopped down, and couldn't see any odd coloration or aberrations.

The 35-70 is in the 72***** serial range, and the 80-200 is in the 78***** serial range.

For any of these images, if you right-click and copy the image URL, replace the .jpg with .tif to see high res TIFF files of each. The TIFFs are almost 50mb each, so I figured the jpgs, while having some quality loss, would be friendlier to everyone's web browser. All images are stills taken from Scarlet footage shot at 4K, 800ISO; shutter speed varied to widely in order to be able to test both at wide open and closed all the way down. No contrast curves or additional tweaks were applied in RedCine-X; these are straight still grabs from the raw footage directly out of camera:

The 35-75 at 75mm, close focus, wide open aperture:
3575_at75_closewide.jpg


The 35-75 at 75mm, far focus (not infinity), wide open aperture:
3575_at75_farwide.jpg


The 35-70 at 35 Macro, wide open aperture:
35macro1.jpg


The 35-70 at 35 Macro, wide open aperture, different leaf (the hair on the right side is a string on the leaf; it is not a hair or scratch on the lens):
35macro2.jpg


The 80-200 at 200, bricks/wood were about 3 feet from the lens, wide open aperture:
80200_at200_closewide.jpg



In short: I am BLOWN AWAY by these lenses. Blown away. They have some purple edging when wide-open, but . . . I like it. I'm so used to seeing blue/red chromatic aberration on lenses (and despising it when I see it) that the purple aberration all around (on the edges of objects if you look closely, as well as the edge of bokeh and the edge of flares. Way more noticeable wide open than stopped down) looks friendlier, somehow cleaner. More of a choice than a technical imperfection.

I see why these are called variable primes. The push-pull functionality is weird, but damn do they get a good image. For a ridiculously cheap price. I now feel like I have a 35 Macro, primes all the way from 35-70, all the way from 80-200, and then my other 35, and two 50 primes. All I need to cover is wider angles (and I may just go for a Tokina 11-16 for that) and I have a capable, versatile, baseline package for a super low price and relatively few lenses.
 
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Congrats on the zoom Nick. I think it's clear the word is getting out there and slowly the 35-70 will get it's place amongst filmmakers... it's a joy to use on the Scarlet. I think moreover the resolution it pumps out is it's fantastic look and lack of distortion. I may be alone in wishing for this... but I hope someone throws this zoom into a proper housing to give it a two-touch ability and a fixed front end. It's almost as if this lens was made by Zeiss for cinema, but then hacked away at it's good bits to make it a tool for photographers.

I wouldn't consider the 80-200 in the same realm as the 35-70 though, primarily because it's not as versatile nor as sharp as the 35-70, but hey, if you got it for cheap then all the power to you!
 
Nick Pasquariello said:
... In short: I am BLOWN AWAY by these lenses. Blown away. ... I see why these are called variable primes. ... All I need to cover is wider angles (and I may just go for a Tokina 11-16 for that) ...
Click to expand...

Yes indeed. The 35-70 is one of the best lens investments that you could ever hope to make. Now ... go out and find yourself a 21/2.8. It is a wonderful lens as well. Look at it this way ... it only hurts once when you write the check or charge the card. You'll probably have both lenses for the rest of your life ... and if not ... chances are you won't lose money on either one. (And while the Tokina 11-16 is a great lens for the money as well ... especially for the times when things are tight and you need to go that wide ... the 21/2.8 Distagon is another league entirely.)

__________________________________
Scarlet X # 1859 “Bettie Page”
“… preparing to ‘whip’ the competition …”

Zeiss Lenses:

CY 21/2.8
ZF 28/2.0
CY 35-70/3.4
CY 50/1.4
ZF100/2.0

Nikon Lenses:
G 14-24/2.8
G 24-70/2.8
D 80-200/2.8

Tokina Lenses:

11-16/2.8
 
The 35-70 and 80-200 are both great zooms, even though yes...the 35-70 is the champ. I love the 28-85 though, super useful focal range. Uli is selling one I believe!
 
Bill Sepaniak said:
Yes indeed. The 35-70 is one of the best lens investments that you could ever hope to make. Now ... go out and find yourself a 21/2.8. It is a wonderful lens as well. Look at it this way ... it only hurts once when you write the check or charge the card. You'll probably have both lenses for the rest of your life ... and if not ... chances are you won't lose money on either one. (And while the Tokina 11-16 is a great lens for the money as well ... especially for the times when things are tight and you need to go that wide ... the 21/2.8 Distagon is another league entirely.)
Click to expand...

I just, just quit my day-job, and despite having quite a few promising leads on work, nothing solid yet, which means no income for the next few weeks. So every purchase is on hold for the moment. I shouldn't have even jumped on the 80-200 and the 35-70, but the former was listed under $100, and the latter is almost never listed. I know they'll ROI pretty quickly, but it's hard to invest when your pockets are actually empty.

Long term, I fully intend to get a full set of the primes. Probably not as extensive as Nick Morrison's set. But that 21 is certainly on the list. Hopefully within 6 months.
 
Just got an immaculate 28-85 zoom for run-n-gun use. I really like how solid it feels, the long focus rotation and how sharp it is. I am still getting used to the "one-touch" zoom, but since I am basically treating it as a variable prime, I don't think it will be an issue. This is my first Contax zoom (won't be the last), and I am really impressed with this lens. It has a much better physical "feel" than the Canon L-series 24-70 I'm used to, and of course the extra range at the long end is nice to have too.
 
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Here's the lens test of our rehoused PL mount Zeiss Contax primes that some of you had asked to see.

https://vimeo.com/58489933

Sorry about the nasty noise, but in our haste, we output in 444 and then compressed to 422.


(The green noise is NOT on the original files.)


The clamp-on mattebox seemed to be causing a great deal of our problems with the lenses yesterday...lesson learned..thanks for the advice!

Can you see the bumpiness as the follow focus is turned?

Trying to figure out how to stop that from happening.

Any advice is so helpful!!

Cheers,

Brandon
 
brandon, would love to see pics of the lenses since being cinevised :)
 
Tom Greenberg said:
Just got an immaculate 28-85 zoom for run-n-gun use. I really like how solid it feels, the long focus rotation and how sharp it is. I am still getting used to the "one-touch" zoom, but since I am basically treating it as a variable prime, I don't think it will be an issue. This is my first Contax zoom (won't be the last), and I am really impressed with this lens. It has a much better physical "feel" than the Canon L-series 24-70 I'm used to, and of course the extra range at the long end is nice to have too.
Click to expand...

Yes you are right BUT is it f2.8.....
 
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