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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

Absolutely love these Nick. On the Turtle Soup one, is that a 8-point star filter you're using? It's quite a gentle star effect, whatever it is.

Mud Snowman looks amazing.

Also, did you receive and have you tried the DSO lens?
 
Ben Scott said:
Absolutely love these Nick. On the Turtle Soup one, is that a 8-point star filter you're using? It's quite a gentle star effect, whatever it is.

Mud Snowman looks amazing.

Also, did you receive and have you tried the DSO lens?
Click to expand...

Thanks BEN, really means a lot!!! The stars are the Tiffen "Hyper Star" filter - its very organic and analog looking, not as mathematically perfeft as an 8 or 4 star filter. Haven't played with the DSO yet! Can't wait!!!
 
Lee Saxon said:
Anyone know if the CZ35/1.4 is the same lens as the Z* 35/1.4? I'm assuming not since the Z* 35/1.4 came out later than the other Z*'s...
Click to expand...

zeiss35mmcyvsZ.jpg


Contax in Red, Z* in Blue.

(btw, I pick up my kit tomorrow... is it possible to be more anxious and excited? :drool:)
 
Phil Dickinson said:
that's a neat overlay!

can you do it for the 1,4/50 and 1,4/85?

:-)
Click to expand...

Agreed. You can tell the designs are cousins! But there are clear changes...some elements have shifted forwards, others back. I'd looked at these designs many times before and surmised quickly there was more similarity, but this overlay really highlights the varied adjustments Zeiss made. Nicely done!
 
Hey all.
I just got all my lenses. I'll post some lens porn later on! =)
 
Selling my 25mm in the market place for a real bargain and thanks Nick for this amazing guide on these lenses.
 
gonna be doing a test with contax supers, superspeed mark i, rpp, CNE, and cooke panchros. Im gonna see how well they stack up optically :)
 
Domenic Barbero said:
gonna be doing a test with contax supers, superspeed mark i, rpp, CNE, and cooke panchros. Im gonna see how well they stack up optically :)
Click to expand...

Awesome! Let us know how it goes! =)

----

So here are my babies.

Photo%2017-12-13%2015%2035%2000.jpg


So far I haven't been able to put them to work, but I'm really happy already... they all came in amazing condition they look and feel like brand new. In the end they all came MMJ except for the 25mm which I bought it AEG on purpose. I thought the 135mm was a AEJ but it's an MMJ the photos on ebay were wrong.

A couple of observations; the 50mm has a very high serial number as you can see on the pic (9554***) and it's the only lens that has a coating that reflects green, purple and orange (probably the last coating formula for contaxes). All others reflect green, purple and blue, even the 25mm which is AE (odd as well).
The 25mm is probably a late AE, or I even suspect that some batch of the AEs were made in parallel to some MMs... is it possible?

One last observation on the lenses, it's something I haven't read before: the 28-85mm has an actual hard stop at f/4 but it isn't marked. So you can just "lock" it there, and change zoom level (during an interview for example), and not worry about exposure change... I have to test it out, but it should work.

Now I have to say that the Cordvision rings and caps are absolutely stunning, very high quality, very well made... I'm completely sold! Great great investment.

Oh, and Nick the Cavision Hood is pretty sleek too. Can't wait to use it.

Thanks for everythiing Nick and everyone else who's been helping out with samples, opinions and experiences. I hope to post some test frames soon.
 
DAVID BARKAN said:
Awesome! Let us know how it goes! =)

----

So here are my babies.

Photo%2017-12-13%2015%2035%2000.jpg


So far I haven't been able to put them to work, but I'm really happy already... they all came in amazing condition they look and feel like brand new. In the end they all came MMJ except for the 25mm which I bought it AEG on purpose. I thought the 135mm was a AEJ but it's an MMJ the photos on ebay were wrong.

A couple of observations; the 50mm has a very high serial number as you can see on the pic (9554***) and it's the only lens that has a coating that reflects green, purple and orange (probably the last coating formula for contaxes). All others reflect green, purple and blue, even the 25mm which is AE (odd as well).
The 25mm is probably a late AE, or I even suspect that some batch of the AEs were made in parallel to some MMs... is it possible?

One last observation on the lenses, it's something I haven't read before: the 28-85mm has an actual hard stop at f/4 but it isn't marked. So you can just "lock" it there, and change zoom level (during an interview for example), and not worry about exposure change... I have to test it out, but it should work.

Now I have to say that the Cordvision rings and caps are absolutely stunning, very high quality, very well made... I'm completely sold! Great great investment.

Oh, and Nick the Cavision Hood is pretty sleek too. Can't wait to use it.

Thanks for everythiing Nick and everyone else who's been helping out with samples, opinions and experiences. I hope to post some test frames soon.
Click to expand...

Facking great set, David!! Well done. I have a 25 2.8 AEG that's a bit newer than yours, a 65xx so there was at least one more batch after.

I didn't know about the F4 hard stop on the 28-85! I gotta check that.

I saw your high serial on the 50 1.4. HAHA! I have a 50 that's most likely from the same batch, mine is 955xxx as well!

And yes...the Cordvision rings are SUPERB. And yes...that Cavision hood is pretty slick. It's one of the keys to my "system".

Nicely done again. That set looks MINT.
 
Nick Morrison said:
Facking great set, David!! Well done. I have a 25 2.8 AEG that's a bit newer than yours, a 65xx so there was at least one more batch after.

I didn't know about the F4 hard stop on the 28-85! I gotta check that.

I saw your high serial on the 50 1.4. HAHA! I have a 50 that's most likely from the same batch, mine is 955xxx as well!

And yes...the Cordvision rings are SUPERB. And yes...that Cavision hood is pretty slick. It's one of the keys to my "system".

Nicely done again. That set looks MINT.
Click to expand...

Thanks man! =) Can't wait to use them.
This week I'm going to borrow my friend's GH3, it's not a RED but at least I'll be able to test them out with the Speedbooster, should be interesting.

I wish there was more documented about the making of these lenses, at least half of whats out there about the Leicas would be good enough.. haha.
Gotta dig up some old magazines some day... see if there's something.
 
Yean Loon said:
Did I miss something on this thread? What's the cavision hood thingy? :)
Click to expand...

It's a 80mm rubber hood to use with the Cordvision 80mm fronts, or any 80mm fronts really.

310726.jpg


BH LINK

(you don't have to get it from B&H really, it's available in a bunch of places)
 
Domenic Barbero said:
gonna be doing a test with contax supers, superspeed mark i, rpp, CNE, and cooke panchros. Im gonna see how well they stack up optically :)
Click to expand...

Interesting. Let us know how it goes. My guess is the Supers and Contax are pretty similarly mushy (but pleasing) wide open. The Contax maybe a bit more so because of their larger image circle. The RPP will be sharp, even wide open. But big and heavy. CNE should be good. Panchros too. To me the test is if you can tell them apart by 2.8. My guess is probably not. Which of course is where the Contax show their stripes: considering how small, "good looking" and affordable they are, Contax is the blue collar choice for great glass. Also there are so many primes/zooms to choose from - from 18mm to 500mm.

But if $$$ was no object, it would be hard to turn down some Panchros. If I had to rank these sets, they would be:

1) Mark I Super Speeds (small size, 80mm fronts, super fast, brilliant look. The 1.4 wonders)
2) Panchros (best mechanics, but 2.8 creates some creative limitations)
3) Contax (small, affordable, great look, tons of primes to pick from, worst mechanics by far)
4) CNE (not enough primes in the set to make them interesting to me yet)
5) RPP (amazing glass, but too big, and they look too exacting for my taste. But if we were only judging sharpness could go to top of list easily).
 
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