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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

Paul Russell said:
I'm still in the entry lounge waiting for the Leitax mounts to arrive, but very much looking forward to playing with these babies. I bought a 50mm 1.4 and 25 F2.8 from KEH and combed the Singapore shops to find a 60mm macro and 85 f1.4, both in perfect condition. Managed to haggle the price of the 85 from USD1200 to USD550 so was feeling very pleased with myself yesterday. All of them are German AEs, and I'm sure they'll work well with my full set of Mamiya 645 primes from the same era.
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WOW. Nice!!
 
Be careful with leitax on the metabones adapter though, shorts the pins!
 
Paul Russell said:
I don't have any metabones kit. Hoping to go up to 2000 ISO soon :-)

Anyone know if it's worth having the Dandelion chip on the Leitax adapters for use on the Red? I don't really need the EXIF data.
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I don't have the dandelion chips, no. Keep everything totally manual!
 
Dandelion chip works with the 5D otherwise avoid them with the RED. De-clicking the aperture ring is pretty simple too.

" USD1200 to USD550.00......" You're pretty good at haggling.
 
Well US$ 1.200 would have been quite unreasonable even in perfect condition. The 85 1.4 doesn't fetch that much, the 21mm does (even more).
 
The prices in the shops vary wildly here. One shop was over three times the price of anything in KEH! Looking on Ebay I see that the 21/f2.8 is fetching anything from $1880 to $2500. I'll keep hunting around because I travel a lot in the region and you never know what you might find.
 
I am selling my 85mm f/1.4 AEG on ebay. Call me silly, but I decided to have an all Japanese set. :-)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/300977374175?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

I am also selling my 35mm f/2.8 because I only reach for the 28mm f/2.8. I know, I know.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/300977364197?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

Sorry for shilling them on here, but it is a thread I value and I appreciate the pricing info found here. :-)

On a side note, I am curious to see if the Sigma 18-35 1.8 can cut well with a Contax set? I think I am going to give it a try.
 
Jeffrey T. Morgan said:
I am selling my 85mm f/1.4 AEG on ebay. Call me silly, but I decided to have an all Japanese set. :-)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/300977374175?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

I am also selling my 35mm f/2.8 because I only reach for the 28mm f/2.8. I know, I know.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/300977364197?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

Sorry for shilling them on here, but it is a thread I value and I appreciate the pricing info found here. :-)

On a side note, I am curious to see if the Sigma 18-35 1.8 can cut well with a Contax set? I think I am going to give it a try.
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Nothing silly about all Japanese set. All the 21's are from Japan! Curious how the Sigma cuts through a well.
 
Jeffrey T. Morgan said:
I am selling my 85mm f/1.4 AEG on ebay. Call me silly, but I decided to have an all Japanese set. :-)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/300977374175?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

I am also selling my 35mm f/2.8 because I only reach for the 28mm f/2.8. I know, I know.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/300977364197?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

Sorry for shilling them on here, but it is a thread I value and I appreciate the pricing info found here. :-)

On a side note, I am curious to see if the Sigma 18-35 1.8 can cut well with a Contax set? I think I am going to give it a try.
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It absolutely can... I did a comparison with the sigma 18-35mm when I had it in my hands with with Contax 28mm f2, and when I shot it at 28mm, I literally couldn't really tell which one was which on a couple shots, it was that close. Color wise they are quite close, contax renders slightly more delicate and the sigma more punchy (as would be expected), but really thats pretty much it.
 
Matthew Robertson said:
It absolutely can... I did a comparison with the sigma 18-35mm when I had it in my hands with with Contax 28mm f2, and when I shot it at 28mm, I literally couldn't really tell which one was which on a couple shots, it was that close. Color wise they are quite close, contax renders slightly more delicate and the sigma more punchy (as would be expected), but really thats pretty much it.
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Sweet. Thanks for heads up.
 
Paul Russell said:
The prices in the shops vary wildly here. One shop was over three times the price of anything in KEH! Looking on Ebay I see that the 21/f2.8 is fetching anything from $1880 to $2500. I'll keep hunting around because I travel a lot in the region and you never know what you might find.
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That's more than the new price of the current Z* version! Why would anyone do that?
 
Lee Saxon said:
That's more than the new price of the current Z* version! Why would anyone do that?
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For the coating. Optically there probably isn't a huge difference, but the coatings on the Contax lenses matches other Zeiss lenses from that period. Since I already have a set of Contax primes I would rather have the Contax version than the ZE/ZF/ZS.
 
Lee Saxon said:
That's more than the new price of the current Z* version! Why would anyone do that?
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1. The contax focus in the standard (non-nikon) direction which most AC's prefer.
2. They all have a manual aperture and the Zeiss ZE's (the canon one's) do not.
3. The coatings on the contax are arguably more neutral and less contrasty than the new glass.

That said, the new glass is very nice, but there are very tangible benefits that warrant Contax holding their high prices.
 
Hey guys, just directed a huge shoot in LA today. Three REDs. Two cams were rocking the Standard Prime 180 and 135 primes. We also had a set of Super Speeds on hand for a couple of shots. And then...as the THIRD CAM...we used my Contax 60 2.8 MACRO...and it was one of the HITS of the day!

I brought a bunch of my modded/leitaxed MM's to set, with serial numbers very close to the Supers and Standards, and people were going nuts.

And best thing of all? The 60 2.8 Macro intercut PERFECTLY today! Matched the Supers and Standard to a Tee!! The DIT and DP were loving it!

In fact the 60 Macro got some of the best looking shots of the day! Racking off very close macro work "through" set pieces over to talent. Very cool.

BOOM!

PS - extra note: the versatility of the RED system, where you can easily swap and rock PL or EOS or Nikon mounts, is just awesome (and I think goes under appreciated!). Allowed us today to rock PL and EOS at the same time, how awesome is that?
 
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Yeah, this goes still under appreciated !

For Canons, you need to decide when you buy. For Sony, you have more options but by far not (yet?) the range RED allows and Arri is strictly PL.

The only thing more versatile is µFT…
 
Sorry, server acting up…
 
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