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Contax Zeiss Survival Guide

Uli Plank said:
These days you can't go wrong buying any good vintage glass. I did a bit more photography with the Sony A7R and some of my favorite C/Y and Rokkor lenses, and I can imagine people will jump on these.
It's impressive how some of these lenses can still live comfortably on 36 mpx.

Just for the fun of it I even got me a M39 (Leica Screw mount) adapter for my old Russian lenses, like 37mm Mir or 85mm Jupiter-9, and I love them too.
Sure, the don't resolve the sensor outside of the center, but the look…

OTOH, with todays prices for the Zeiss C/Y in 18, 21, fast 28 and 35, the Sigma is tempting. I doubt I would have gone as far buying into C/Y if it would have been around at the time.
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Uli, I have a Mir 37mm waiting to be picked up tomorrow. How do you find it? I'm toying with the idea of having an alternative Helios/Mir/Jupiter shooting set. Might even play with the coatings and funkify them.
 
Nick Morrison said:
Awesome pic Oron!
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Thanks Nick! I remember first time I got the lens and tried it, I was amazed by the beauty of it, it got so much character, and the Sharpness was impressive, it blew my Nikon 50mm 1.4 AIS out of the water while wide open, the Nikon is too soft for my taste @1.4.

Here is another one taken on the 50mm 1.4 @1.4, this time using my favourite B&W Kodak Tmax100. Really interesting how this lens renders black and white. during the time it was designed b&w was still going strong in the industry, and I'm sure they where testing the lens intensively with b&w stocks. would be interesting to check the RED Monochrome with the Contax lenses :-)

baby-49770027.jpg
 
nick, i was trying to think of a way, or a combination to get these lenses pl mounted, i know someone in korea does a conversion, but its a whole housing conversion. then i thought if what are my easiest pl mount adapted lenses, its M42. so i googled contax m42 and they did seem to make some! but all i found is AEJ ones, do you think they made MMJ in M42 mount? know anyone that has ever tried this?
 
jordan levy said:
nick, i was trying to think of a way, or a combination to get these lenses pl mounted, i know someone in korea does a conversion, but its a whole housing conversion. then i thought if what are my easiest pl mount adapted lenses, its M42. so i googled contax m42 and they did seem to make some! but all i found is AEJ ones, do you think they made MMJ in M42 mount? know anyone that has ever tried this?
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Hi Jordan, I know this is aimed at Nick but I would be interested to know, why would you want to just convert to PL and not doing a full rehouse? I mean, the leitax canon adapters are really solid. Also, Gl optics conversion is more or less half the price of a CP2 (which in turn is half the price of Cooke S4 etc).
 
Oron Cohen said:
would be interesting to check the RED Monochrome with the Contax lenses :-)
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Funny, I've been thinking the EXACT same thing. Curious what older Jena's look like on Monochrome, too. I like we're you're going with this!!

Oron Cohen said:
Hi Jordan, I know this is aimed at Nick but I would be interested to know, why would you want to just convert to PL and not doing a full rehouse? I mean, the leitax canon adapters are really solid. Also, Gl optics conversion is more or less half the price of a CP2 (which in turn is half the price of Cooke S4 etc).
Click to expand...

Agreed about PL mount and Leitax. For a SECURE mount, the Leitax EOS mounts are SUPERB. So solid.

@Jordan - however, if you really want PL mounts, then NAN at GL optics is probably your best bet, though yes, he does do a COMPLETE rehouse. That said, if what you need is to have your Contax work ALONG SIDE other PL glass, then you could also go All Star mount, which lets you intermix PL with Contax primes that have custom ALLSTAR adapters attached to them.

Hope this helps!

Ben Scott said:
Uli, I have a Mir 37mm waiting to be picked up tomorrow. How do you find it? I'm toying with the idea of having an alternative Helios/Mir/Jupiter shooting set. Might even play with the coatings and funkify them.
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Are we all drinking the same water? What's going on here? So many like minds. I too have built a Russian set. Has a Meyer Gorlitz 29 2.9, Zenit 50 1.7 (with custom square aperture), Industar 50 Macro, Volna 9 Macro, Helios 44-2, Jupiter 9, Helios 40-2 (85 1.4), Tair 11 135mm, Tair 300mm. I'm also slowly working on vintage set of Jena (Zebras). Taken me close to 3 years to slowly accumulate these. Not all my glass has arrived in good shape, so its been more of a challenge to get a working set than originally imagined. None are modded however, though eventually I would like RP lens to PERMANENTLY secure the EOS adapters (most lenses are originally M42, and some adapters sometimes feel loose).
 
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Nick Morrison said:
Funny, I've been thinking the EXACT same thing. Curious what older Jena's look like on Monochrome, too. I like we're you're going with this!!



Agreed about PL mount and Leitax. For a SECURE mount, the Leitax EOS mounts are SUPERB. So solid.

@Jordan - however, if you really want PL mounts, then NAN at GL optics is probably your best bet, though yes, he does do a COMPLETE rehouse. That said, if what you need is to have your Contax work ALONG SIDE other PL glass, then you could also go All Star mount, which lets you intermix PL with Contax primes that have custom ALLSTAR adapters attached to them.

Hope this helps!



Are we all drinking the same water? What's going on here? So many like minds. I too have built a Russian set. Has a Meyer Gorlitz 29 2.9, Zenit 50 1.7 (with custom square aperture), Industar 50 Macro, Volna 9 Macro, Helios 44-2, Jupiter 9, Helios 40-2 (85 1.4), Tair 11 135mm, Tair 300mm. I'm also slowly working on vintage set of Jena (Zebras). Taken me close to 3 years to slowly accumulate these. Not all my glass has arrived in good shape, so its been more of a challenge to get a working set than originally imagined. None are modded however, though eventually I would like RP lens to PERMANENTLY secure the EOS adapters (most lenses are originally M42, and some adapters sometimes feel loose).
Click to expand...

well oron, because i would want to use it on PL mount cameras, not eos mount cameras, but personally i dont like thier rehouse job, makes too much out of the lens and can cause some maintenance issues in the long run.
as well nick, the all star mount is only for red cameras though right? im really curious about these m42 mount caontax lenses because m42 to pl is such an easy adapter, i have like 3 of them for my russian sets!
 
Ben Scott said:
Uli, I have a Mir 37mm waiting to be picked up tomorrow. How do you find it? I'm toying with the idea of having an alternative Helios/Mir/Jupiter shooting set. Might even play with the coatings and funkify them.
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No need to funkify a Mir, it has crazy flares from the start:

Mir_1-B.jpg
 
jordan levy said:
well oron, because i would want to use it on PL mount cameras, not eos mount cameras, but personally i dont like thier rehouse job, makes too much out of the lens and can cause some maintenance issues in the long run.
as well nick, the all star mount is only for red cameras though right? im really curious about these m42 mount caontax lenses because m42 to pl is such an easy adapter, i have like 3 of them for my russian sets!
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Jordan, I feel you, the GL is a bit of over kill, but really helps with FF and Matebox, and at the moment there are not too many options around for PL. I'm actually curious if the GL conversion will work on a 35mm Camera, as I work with the Atton 35III from time to time and for example the PL RED lenses don't work on 35mm film cameras or Cameras with mechanical shatter from what I understand. Maybe try to drop an email Les Bosher, he might could do this kind of work, he work is superb. http://www.lesbosher.co.uk
 
Nick Morrison said:
Funny, I've been thinking the EXACT same thing. Curious what older Jena's look like on Monochrome, too. I like we're you're going with this!!


Are we all drinking the same water? What's going on here? So many like minds. I too have built a Russian set. Has a Meyer Gorlitz 29 2.9, Zenit 50 1.7 (with custom square aperture), Industar 50 Macro, Volna 9 Macro, Helios 44-2, Jupiter 9, Helios 40-2 (85 1.4), Tair 11 135mm, Tair 300mm. I'm also slowly working on vintage set of Jena (Zebras). Taken me close to 3 years to slowly accumulate these. Not all my glass has arrived in good shape, so its been more of a challenge to get a working set than originally imagined. None are modded however, though eventually I would like RP lens to PERMANENTLY secure the EOS adapters (most lenses are originally M42, and some adapters sometimes feel loose).
Click to expand...

Nick, don't even get me started on those Zeiss Jena Zebras...!! :-) Do you know if Nan's conversion works on cameras with mechanical shatters? If it does, would be interesting to do a test: Aaton 35III with Kodak 5222 vs Red monochrome vs Red Epic/Scaelt all with Zeiss Contax PL. If made in London, I could provide the Aaton 35III and the Epic and maybe throw to the mix a Cooke SII panchro rehoused and Zeiss CP2 for comparison. but would need someone to provide the monochrome and Contax PL.
 
Another one for the Contax Zeiss brain trust.

I have the 35mm f1.4, but the focus barrel is really quite stiff and i think i read that it was quite stiff on all of them. Is this the case? Does anyone have any ways to lighten it at all? The others appears fine, just for some reason the 35mm as well as having an unusually short focus throw is difficult to use with FF

thanks!
Paul
 
Well, mine is too, just a bit smother than my 28mm 2.0, which is the stiffest. I'd suppose it has something to do with the area of contact and maybe some aging of lubrication – might happen even to Zeiss after that much time. I never found it so stiff I went for a cleaning and re-lubrication, I hope someone who did will chime in to report how much it can improve.
 
My 28 f2 is very smooth by comparison, so as a rule i don't think these lenses ought to be some stiff and some smooth.

Did the cleaning and relube work for your 28? I've had the lenses CLA'd and declicked, so optically they're fine. Because of that i question how much can be done with a stiff lens.

thanks
Paul
 
My 28mm was so stiff the barrel was slipping.

My next stiffest one is the 85mm f1.4 but compared to the 28f2 it's peachy.

Just got my Mir 37mm and it's so cute and tiny. And the adapter hasn't bloody arrived for it yet so no testing today boooo. :(

Currently really tempted by the Mir 20mm f3.5

Close focusing seems to be pretty good with it if FLickr is anything to go by...

 
In terms of "tight" or "loose"...I have noticed some MM's seem to focus tighter than their AE variants. For whatever reason, during the change to MM some of the tolerances appear to have been tweaked, so the focusing can be stiffer in MM versions. For example:

My 85 1.4 AEG is smooth as silk to focus, whereas my 85 1.4 MM is noticeably stiffer.

My 35 1.4 AEG is likewise quite silky, whereas my 35 1.4 MM is also...noticeably stffer.

However, some MM's ARE silky smooth. My 18 F4 is a dream to focus with. So is my 28 2.8 MM (whereas my 28 f2 Hollywood AEG is a bit stiffer on the other hand, agreed).

However all my 50 1.4's (I have an AE and two MM's) all focus the same.

All my MM zooms focus great.

But the two "big boys" - the 35 1.4 and 85 1.4 - are def stiffer in their MM incarnations (at least ones I own), for whatever it's worth.

Hope this helps!
 
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But can anybody please report if a re-lube significantly improved one of these stiffies?
 
Great, TIA Ben.
 
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