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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 Survival Guide

Thanks for that Ben! They truly are. I was telling Nick that these lenses are singly one of the greatest purchases I've ever made, across the board. Every time I shoot with them I get overwhelmed with how beautiful these lenses are. Truly special lenses. Thanks for the help.

Ben Scott said:
Just copy the bbcode from flickr and paste it in here.

p0SyEYX.png


And yes, they're pretty bloody sexy aren't they? :)
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Nick Morrison said:
I love Leica R's (my father is a big Leica/Rokkor guy), but I too am smitten by Contax. Brice your macro footage is still emblazoned in my mind. I've gone back and looked at it several times. Mesmerizing...
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Thank you Nick!
B.
 
John Brennick said:
After much lurking and admiring of the images being shot with these lenses I decided to get them myself. Took a little while to get to use them but it was well worth the wait. I was always more of a longer focal length kinda guy. I thought I would fall in love with the 85, and I do in fact love that lens... However, I've never loved a lens as much as I love my 35 1.4 AE. I put it on the Epic and I ended up swapping it out once and found that I just wanted to put it back on. It's such a perfect lens... Perfect to me that is. The clarity, the softness, the way it removes that digital feel. These lenses truly are something unique and special. I picked up a 35 1.4, 50 1.4 and 85 1.4 all in AE as I fell in love with the way they flair in all of the shots I've seen. The contamination is something I've always felt was a character in every story told with these lenses. Looking forward to doing some magic hour tests soon and I'm positive that the 28 f2 and a makro will be my next 2 lenses. As always, thank you so much to everyone who have contributed to, what I feel, is one of the best threads started on this forum.
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So glad you like them John!

John Brennick said:
Every time I shoot with them I get overwhelmed with how beautiful these lenses are. Truly special lenses.
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Totally relate to this...fell in love with glass when I fell in love with Contax...opened my eyes to a lot of things I hadn't been aware of till then.
 
Roy Rossovich said:
Love my 28mm and my 35mm.. but I definitely use my 28mm more. such a fun lens.
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This x 100! totally agree. the 28mm is my most used lens, all others added together don't reach it. So great.
 
Russell Johnston said:
I think after talking with a few people I will try for a few more shoots to just tough it out and get use to the lens and then build up my kit. Im wondering what kind of lens support could I use since the barrel moves when focusing? Would something like these work?

http://www.amazon.com/Long-Lens-Sup...8&qid=1400628003&sr=8-1&keywords=Lens+Support

http://www.amazon.com/Support-Brack...8&qid=1400628003&sr=8-7&keywords=Lens+Support
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I personally never use any lens support on the 80-200. It's so light weight anyway. Couple of lbs max. Not like a 300 2.8 or 200 f2 which would be much, much heavier.
 
is there a differences in quality between the newer ZE ZF an the Contax lenses?

Are the Contax better in any way or just cheaper if you can find one at the right price?
 
Jeffery Anderson said:
is there a differences in quality between the newer ZE ZF an the Contax lenses?

Are the Contax better in any way or just cheaper if you can find one at the right price?
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Better is a matter of opinion. And unfortunately, the popularity of Contax is no longer making them that much cheaper. Unless you get the standard primes (28 2.8, 35 2.8, 50 1.7, 85 2.8, 135 2.8), which yes...remain quite affordable.

The ZE/ZF's showcase a number of new superb designs: 15 2.8, 25 f2, 35 f2, 50 f2 Macro, 100 f2 Macro, 135 f2). A number of other ZF/ZE primes are very similar to their Contax descendants (21 2.8, 35 1.4, 50 1.4, 85 1.4).

The biggest difference at this point isn't price but look. ZF/ZE have very modern coatings and are designed to resist flare much more. So the look is very clean, and much more saturated and contrasty.

Contax glass flare more, and retain the older Zeiss coatings from a generation back. This, and their slightly more analog designs, is what's made them so popular. They just render in a very organic interesting way on digital. It's much the same reason Super Speeds, Standard Primes, and other high end "vintage" glass is making a comeback. Difference is Contax is still relatively afforable, and covers full frame.

Hope this helps.
 
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Hey Nick,

Thanks for getting back, for using it on the RED it doesnt have the play it does on the GH4 since the camera is much lighter. I just need something to support it better.
 
For the 28 Hollywood enthusiasts, do you ever find that the 'personality' is too much, or gets in the way - eg: an interior wide of a conversation? Or is it just all good all the time? Is the personality only visible wide open, or does the lens present its character when stopped down too?

Do you have, or know of, any examples of the 28 Hollywood with Epic or Scarlet?
 
It depends, maybe for interior corporate shots it would be nice to have the Sigma 18-35 to compliment the set...
you can go wider and faster too...without too much vignetting or "hardcoded" look, if you don't want that...
but in that instance you should cut the sigma with CZ lenses closed down a little to better match 'em
 
Daniel Pearson said:
For the 28 Hollywood enthusiasts, do you ever find that the 'personality' is too much, or gets in the way - eg: an interior wide of a conversation? Or is it just all good all the time? Is the personality only visible wide open, or does the lens present its character when stopped down too?

Do you have, or know of, any examples of the 28 Hollywood with Epic or Scarlet?
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The personality of the Hollywood comes out strongest when you shoot wide open AND close focus...the combo of wide aperture and being close to your subject can create a lot of drama, and its where you see much of "the funk" in the bokeh, etc. But if you have deep focus and stop down it becomes VERY SHARP and cleans up noticeably, acting much more like the polished wide it can also be.

Hope this helps.
 
Nick Morrison said:
The personality of the Hollywood comes out strongest when you shoot wide open AND close focus...the combo of wide aperture and being close to your subject can create a lot of drama, and its where you see much of "the funk" in the bokeh, etc. But if you have deep focus and stop down it becomes VERY SHARP and cleans up noticeably, acting much more like the polished wide it can also be.

Hope this helps.
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Perfect, that's helps a lot thanks Nick...


Regarding the 35 1.4, do people consider this to have its own 'personality'? Or is it more of a super practical lens with a great image?
 
Daniel Pearson said:
Perfect, that's helps a lot thanks Nick...


Regarding the 35 1.4, do people consider this to have its own 'personality'? Or is it more of a super practical lens with a great image?
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The 35 Distagon has quite a strong personality as well, under similar circumstances...Wide Open and close focused can render staggeringly beautiful imagery.
 
Hey guys. Got my 100-300 recently with the mutar 1 2x. I am usually hiking or snowmobiling to where I am shooting and try to keep my kit as small and light as possible. Just wondering what your thoughts were on if I should be using supports for this setup? I currently don't have a base plate with rods etc. But if necessary and will benefit my shooting by being more stable etc at long focal lengths, well then I may be looking into it.

Thanks

14252223002_191cb5460d.jpg
[/URL]photo by B.L.K cinema, on Flickr[/IMG]
 
so do you have the original contax mount, connected to the mutar with a canon adapter on the mutar?

I use leitax, but was thinking of a removable for that reason.


If you have the titanium mount, I wouldn't worry....about supports
 
Yeah, I got a $10 adapter off of ebay, just to check it out because it was so cheap. It is actually very nice, it has a clip that clicks into the original mount and is very sturdy. It isn't to hard to take off to put the mutar on either. So far I am very glad I went that route instead of going with something like the tamron 150-600! I also have leitax with my other contax lenses, which I was going to get with this lens, but figured mine as well try a removable one for this reason. I am quite happy with the images that I got today.

I have the original al mount. So should I worry? The lens isnt all that heavy really, just long, and a support seems a bit trickier with the push pull. Looks like the 100-300 plus mutar weighs in at 1175g. I was using the canon 70-300L before this and it weighs 1050g.
 
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