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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

Had some fun with the 25 AEG the other day.
It's beeing a while I try to capture properly a rainbow, me think I'm getting closer.

5KFF 25AEG @F8 (Ctrl+click for bigger frame)
Rainbow.jpg


Cheers
B.
 
Several days ago I found a deal on a Contax Zeiss Sonnar 100mm 3.5. I look forward to receiving it later this week. It’s a AE version, but I thought the price ($210) was too good to pass up. Nick, earlier in this thread you raved about the image quality of this lens. I’m curious if your copy was an AE or MM? Thanks.
 
Bill Walter said:
Several days ago I found a deal on a Contax Zeiss Sonnar 100mm 3.5. I look forward to receiving it later this week. It’s a AE version, but I thought the price ($210) was too good to pass up. Nick, earlier in this thread you raved about the image quality of this lens. I’m curious if your copy was an AE or MM? Thanks.
Click to expand...
Bill, you got a great deal on a fine lens! I'm sure Nick will chime in with his experiences, but I have an AE 100/3.5 and it is one of the most underrated of all Contax lenses IMO. It is sharper than just about any other lens Contax made, and is tiny and light for a 100mm lens, making it a great choice for run-n-gun. BTW, I prefer the AE's because of their awesome flaring and dimensionality...factors that I believe come from the coating differences between them and the later MM lenses. My entire set of 10 primes are AE...
 
I'm slowly going through the pages on this thread and settling on a kit to aim for, but I'd like to ask a couple of things that I haven't come across yet:

- Is there a test I could see on flares AE vs MM? I'm kind of convinced on going MMJs, especially thinking about shooting commercial and tv stuff, but I love the Flaring on the Contax T and T2 cameras that are kind of like a white halo... which seems to relate to the descriptions of the AEs.

- What about the 15mm ? How is it?

- For "run and gun", do you guys just through on the original lens shade with a screw-on ND? What kind of filter kits you go for? Because, I tend to work light even on bigger productions, it bugs me waiting for camera rig related things, you know?
 
Bill Walter said:
Several days ago I found a deal on a Contax Zeiss Sonnar 100mm 3.5. I look forward to receiving it later this week. It’s a AE version, but I thought the price ($210) was too good to pass up. Nick, earlier in this thread you raved about the image quality of this lens. I’m curious if your copy was an AE or MM? Thanks.
Click to expand...

Honestly can't remember if mine is AE or MM. It may be AE. But truth is almost all of these lenses appear pretty identical...every time I see them they seem to have serials in the 66 to 67 range (thereabouts). Its almost like Zeiss made a batch of AE's and MM's back to back, and called it a day. So I've always wondered if the AE's and MM's don't all look alike? Now...if you have some later MM copy...in the 8's...then that's something else...but for some reason...most 100 Sonnar's seem to have similar serials...Tom what's your serial #?

PS - yes, super super sharp lens. If you look at the MTF charts for it, it rivals the 21 2.8 and 16 2.8 as sharpest Contax's ever made. Wide open it's sharper than the 100 f2 stopped down.

It's also very contrasty.

It's only "weakness" is that it has very mild distortion (totally acceptable), but compared to the 100 f2 and 85 1.4 which have almost NO distortion, it's certainly worth noting. You can't have "everything", so this sonnar trades resolution for a mild smattering of distortion, and a slower f-stop. It also can't go as shallow as the 100 f2 obviously. But pound for pound, this very small lens is the Manny Pacquiao of the Conax Lineup.


ADDENDUM: Check out all these SIX Sonnars currently on sale on ebay

100 3.5 MMJ 6640104
100 3.5 MMJ 6643699
100 3.5 AEJ 6641091
100 3.5 AEJ 6639785
100 3.5 AEJ 6641905
100 3.5 MMJ? 6946558

I mean, how remarkable is this??? They are almost ALL 664's, whether they are MMJ or AEJ!!! One AEJ is a very late 639, and then there is one errant MMJ that is a 694...but it's still in the mid to high 6's!!

I don't even remember seeing a 100 sonnar that wasn't in the 6's, to be honest....love to see one.

Again...looks like Zeiss cranked a lot of these out in one batch...and after that it was a trickle!
 
Last edited:
DAVID BARKAN said:
I'm slowly going through the pages on this thread and settling on a kit to aim for, but I'd like to ask a couple of things that I haven't come across yet:

- Is there a test I could see on flares AE vs MM? I'm kind of convinced on going MMJs, especially thinking about shooting commercial and tv stuff, but I love the Flaring on the Contax T and T2 cameras that are kind of like a white halo... which seems to relate to the descriptions of the AEs.

- What about the 15mm ? How is it?

- For "run and gun", do you guys just through on the original lens shade with a screw-on ND? What kind of filter kits you go for? Because, I tend to work light even on bigger productions, it bugs me waiting for camera rig related things, you know?
Click to expand...

Hey David, I did all my flaring tests at home, but never recorded them. I should one day do a massive test. If you like the flaring, then go AE. Or go MMJ and get certain AE's that are famous for their flares, like the 85 2.8 AE Sonnar (magic!!).

The 15 is expensive, and for the price...you may be better served getting the new Zeiss 15 2.8, which is certianly a huge technical leap forward.

I do a lot of run-n-gun quick setups too, and use this clamp on hood all the time with an 82-77m step down adapter. Use 77mm screw-ins constantly. You can easily clamp this hood on and off as you swap lenses. A breeze.

http://www.cavision.com/lenshoods/LH80.htm
 
Got a 100 3.5 MMJ here (near mint!) with a 694 serial. Killer lens, period.
 
Nick and Tom, thanks for the feedback about the 100mm Sonnor. I've also noticed that narrow range in serial numbers on this lens. This may not have been that popular a lens at the time due to the slow aperture, as it appears they didn't produce that many. I wish there was a website that gave the range of serial #s of all Contax Zeiss lenses. In that group Nick posted of 100mm Sonnors presently on Ebay , I also notice a crazy range of pricing for this lens that goes from $200 to $469. Then again, the higher priced ones may never sell. Thanks again for the information.
 
Nick Morrison said:
Hey David, I did all my flaring tests at home, but never recorded them. I should one day do a massive test. If you like the flaring, then go AE. Or go MMJ and get certain AE's that are famous for their flares, like the 85 2.8 AE Sonnar (magic!!).

The 15 is expensive, and for the price...you may be better served getting the new Zeiss 15 2.8, which is certianly a huge technical leap forward.

I do a lot of run-n-gun quick setups too, and use this clamp on hood all the time with an 82-77m step down adapter. Use 77mm screw-ins constantly. You can easily clamp this hood on and off as you swap lenses. A breeze.

http://www.cavision.com/lenshoods/LH80.htm
Click to expand...


Whenever I get to NYC we should get together and do some serious testing. =)

About the 15mm, I was just plain curious... I guess if I need to go that wide, I'd go for the Tokina 11-16... it should pass unnoticed, no?

The Cavision Hood seems nice enough!

This is the setup I'm looking at, last week they had them all on KEH, but now a few are gone already... =P

18mm Distagon MMJ f/4 ~$700
25mm Distagon AEG f/ 2.8 ~$600
35-70mm Vario-Sonnar MMJ f/3.4 ~500
60mm Makro-Planar AEJ f/2.8 ~$800
85mm Planar f/1.4 MMJ ~$700
total ~ 3300

Plus I'll be getting the Speed Booster for MFT to use with the BMCC, should give out nice results, and the Leitax Mounts for when I need to go EF. It's easy enough to switch mounts the night before shooting, no?
 
Nick Morrison said:
Honestly can't remember if mine is AE or MM. It may be AE. But truth is almost all of these lenses appear pretty identical...every time I see them they seem to have serials in the 66 to 67 range (thereabouts). Its almost like Zeiss made a batch of AE's and MM's back to back, and called it a day. So I've always wondered if the AE's and MM's don't all look alike? Now...if you have some later MM copy...in the 8's...then that's something else...but for some reason...most 100 Sonnar's seem to have similar serials...Tom what's your serial #?

PS - yes, super super sharp lens. If you look at the MTF charts for it, it rivals the 21 2.8 and 16 2.8 as sharpest Contax's ever made. Wide open it's sharper than the 100 f2 stopped down.

It's also very contrasty.

It's only "weakness" is that it has very mild distortion (totally acceptable), but compared to the 100 f2 and 85 1.4 which have almost NO distortion, it's certainly worth noting. You can't have "everything", so this sonnar trades resolution for a mild smattering of distortion, and a slower f-stop. It also can't go as shallow as the 100 f2 obviously. But pound for pound, this very small lens is the Manny Pacquiao of the Conax Lineup.


ADDENDUM: Check out all these SIX Sonnars currently on sale on ebay

100 3.5 MMJ 6640104
100 3.5 MMJ 6643699
100 3.5 AEJ 6641091
100 3.5 AEJ 6639785
100 3.5 AEJ 6641905
100 3.5 MMJ? 6946558

I mean, how remarkable is this??? They are almost ALL 664's, whether they are MMJ or AEJ!!! One AEJ is a very late 639, and then there is one errant MMJ that is a 694...but it's still in the mid to high 6's!!

I don't even remember seeing a 100 sonnar that wasn't in the 6's, to be honest....love to see one.

Again...looks like Zeiss cranked a lot of these out in one batch...and after that it was a trickle!
Click to expand...
Nick, supporting your theory...my 100/3.5 AEJ is SN#6642467
 
DAVID BARKAN said:
This is the setup I'm looking at, last week they had them all on KEH, but now a few are gone already... =P

18mm Distagon MMJ f/4 ~$700
25mm Distagon AEG f/ 2.8 ~$600
35-70mm Vario-Sonnar MMJ f/3.4 ~500
60mm Makro-Planar AEJ f/2.8 ~$800
85mm Planar f/1.4 MMJ ~$700
total ~ 3300

Plus I'll be getting the Speed Booster for MFT to use with the BMCC, should give out nice results, and the Leitax Mounts for when I need to go EF. It's easy enough to switch mounts the night before shooting, no?
Click to expand...
Two things -
Be careful of quality when buying from KEH...I've had lenses they've described as EX or EX+ that I returned because I didn't think they were accurately described. Of course, I am pretty picky when it comes to condition.

And no, I wouldn't say that it's particularly easy to change back and forth to Leitax mount. They aren't really designed for that...and the small screws are really easy to strip the heads...so much better to install once and leave the Leitax in place. If you need to change them frequently, you'd probably be better off buying some relatively cheap C/Y to EF adapters.
 
DAVID BARKAN said:
Whenever I get to NYC we should get together and do some serious testing. =)

About the 15mm, I was just plain curious... I guess if I need to go that wide, I'd go for the Tokina 11-16... it should pass unnoticed, no?

The Cavision Hood seems nice enough!

This is the setup I'm looking at, last week they had them all on KEH, but now a few are gone already... =P

18mm Distagon MMJ f/4 ~$700
25mm Distagon AEG f/ 2.8 ~$600
35-70mm Vario-Sonnar MMJ f/3.4 ~500
60mm Makro-Planar AEJ f/2.8 ~$800
85mm Planar f/1.4 MMJ ~$700
total ~ 3300

Plus I'll be getting the Speed Booster for MFT to use with the BMCC, should give out nice results, and the Leitax Mounts for when I need to go EF. It's easy enough to switch mounts the night before shooting, no?
Click to expand...

Hey David, I'd recommend having a 50mm, and a 135mm (both are relatively affordable, and very useful to have...especially a 50m).

The Leitax adapters are semi-permanent, ie a tech screws them in pretty solidly...and removes some of the oringal Contax backings and screws. Its reversible by a tech, but certainly not something you can just slip off the night before. Keep that in mind.

The "slip on" adapters "work", but their in inherent looseness gives them noticeable play on your mount, and can cause what in effect looks like image shift.

Hope this helps.
 
Nick Morrison said:
The Leitax adapters are semi-permanent, ie a tech screws them in pretty solidly...and removes some of the oringal Contax backings and screws. Its reversible by a tech, but certainly not something you can just slip off the night before. Keep that in mind.
Click to expand...


I'd just add to this that I bought my leitax mount direct and installed it perfectly in 5mins. It would be a pain in the backside to do this every time you wanted to switch lenses but you don't need any specialist knowledge to install them.
 
Ben Scott said:
I'd just add to this that I bought my leitax mount direct and installed it perfectly in 5mins. It would be a pain in the backside to do this every time you wanted to switch lenses but you don't need any specialist knowledge to install them.
Click to expand...
Having done a bunch of these, I'd agree with Ben, to a point...sometimes it goes really smoothly and easily...but then there are those lenses where the screws just won't come out, no matter what you try...that's where specialized tools and experience really come into play.
 
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