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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

Ben,

look forward to hearing how the relube went. Hope it works...

Nick,

Yes, my 35 is MM so that's consistent. My 28 f2 is AEG and it focuses fine. The 35 is stiff enough that on an FF it's putting a lot of torque on everything, so i really would like to sort it out. Makes life quite difficult.

I had an 18mm which was very very stiff but sent it back because it was obviously damaged goods optically as well.

Everything else is pretty smooth, nothing to complain about

thanks
Paul
 
I'm sorry if this has been asked before, but what Matte boxes are you all using to work with the Zeiss glass and a follow focus? I'm looking at adding cordvision or shoot 35 fronts, have gears already, and will be using an RT motion follow focus.

Thanks

Alex
 
Alex Veitch said:
I'm sorry if this has been asked before, but what Matte boxes are you all using to work with the Zeiss glass and a follow focus? I'm looking at adding cordvision or shoot 35 fronts, have gears already, and will be using an RT motion follow focus.

Thanks

Alex
Click to expand...
I'm using a Bright Tangerine VIV matte box and ARRI FF-4 follow focus.
 
Weird question. How well do you think the sigma 18-35 would cut with the 50 and 85 mmj speeds?
 
Hi Ben. I won't be using any screw in filters, but you could always use a step up ring and then just have one size of Shoot 35 front on that? Cheers.
 
It works great now that I have things all sorted out, Alex, but that process took quite a bit of experimentation.

My Contax are all cinevised with 80mm fronts and gears. Because some of the lenses are so short, I had to go to a "bridge" style follow focus where the knobs are positioned out a ways from the lens. The other problem was that some of the lenses are such small diameter that I needed a FF with a lever arm (like the FF4, or the O-Connor CFF-1) to reach the gears. Once I got the FF4, both those issues were solved.

The VIV is fantastic, I use it with the swing away bracket. Just had to get the right combination of donuts and adapters to get from 134mm to 80mm. I also found that I needed the Bright Tangerine rubber donut because some of the lenses telescope significantly when focusing. None of this was particularly cheap, but I love the way that everything works now. Here are a couple of pix (the second one is with a Canon FD, but it is roughly the same size as the Contax):

photo%25201-1.JPG


IMG_3412.jpeg
 
Hey nick any comments on the sigma 18-35 cutting with mmj contax speeds?
 
Jake Wilganowski said:
Hey nick any comments on the sigma 18-35 cutting with mmj contax speeds?
Click to expand...

Not yet I'm afraid! Haven't had a chance to do a proper compare (been stuck in edit recently). I think Domenic B is the person to ask, as he's been using the Sigma quite a lot recently!

Soon as I have a shoot where we use the Sigma, I'll def try and share our observations.
 
Nick Morrison said:
Nice setup Tom!!!
Click to expand...
Thanks, Nick! The top pic is of my Scarlet before I traded it in, and the bottom one is of my Epic earlier this year. I'm thinking about adding the GL 18-35 to complement the Contax.
 
If somebody like me was asking himself, Contax with Leitax mount doesn't work with allstar EF adapter.
 
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