Contax Zeiss Survival Guide

[Nick Morrison]

Nice Nick. Liked the POV look...were you just handheld, monopod? The more hats you can wear successfully gets you more work.

Hey Chris, the POV look was on my Sachtler Video 18. Kept the fluid head quite loose, and tried to intuitively move the camera like it was actually someone's head. My coordinator Andrew wore the gloves, and crouched under the tripod beneath me. Seemed to work well!

Yes, wearing multiple hats is a must. I have to admit, I quite like DPing, but on larger jobs it's not feesible (I often need to interact with crew, client and talent too much, esp when I'm directing). But it's a lot of fun on smaller jobs, when I get a chance. But...as you say...being able to wear multiple hats in a pinch is a huge advantage, yes. It also allows you to better appreciate the job of everyone else on set, which ultimately may end up being the most valuable thing of all..

best.

 

[Nick Morrison]

Thank you, Jeffrey! I suppose that was the first youtube clip published for me personally ;-)

I'm afraid I need to hunt one down – it looks quite natural even in motion. I've seen so much strange distortion on older extreme wides in motion (even in high-level productions) recently, but the Zeiss C/Y 18mm seems to handle it very well.

Uli, it's a great lens, yes. Especially for the remarkably low distortion. I hear you, I have a pet peeve about this too. I love my Sigma 18-35, but it has quite a lot of distortion at edges at 18mm. The CY 18mm on the other hand is superb. The full frame coverage is also a major plus on Dragon.

Jefferey - thanks for posting the clip! Awesome!

 

[Jeffrey T. Morgan]

Uli and Nick - No worries! Sometimes it's easier to stand up and pop off a couple shots then type out pesky words.

I am very happy with my 18mm. I got a pretty good deal, though. It would be impossible to justify it vs the 18-35 sigma or whatnot. But I really like it. I am academically interested in seeing the Yashica 15mm 2.8, but that is an itch I will likely never scratch.

Everything about the 18mm has me pretty stoked, though. Its got great color and flare and fairly shot minimum focus! ( 12 inches )

 

[Nick Morrison]

Uli and Nick - No worries! Sometimes it's easier to stand up and pop off a couple shots then type out pesky words.

I am very happy with my 18mm. I got a pretty good deal, though. It would be impossible to justify it vs the 18-35 sigma or whatnot. But I really like it. I am academically interested in seeing the Yashica 15mm 2.8, but that is an itch I will likely never scratch.

Everything about the 18mm has me pretty stoked, though. Its got great color and flare and fairly shot minimum focus! ( 12 inches )

I think the Yashica 15 2.8 is a fisheye. I have the Contax 16 2.8 fisheye (cinemodded by RP), and it's a beast. Very curious on the COntax 15mm, but not sure it's worth the pricetag....

 

[Brice Ansel]

I posted this in the shot on red forum, but I figured it served a place here as well, since it's all shot on Contax.

I had another opportunity to be a part of another Make-A-Wish wish granting ceremony.

9-year old Gabriel had a wish to be a park ranger. When Yosemite got word of his dream, they stepped up to the plate, in a VERY big way. Watch it first, then look at the shoot details below.

Password: GABRIELYOSEMITE

Vimeo Link: https://vimeo.com/99676584

Shoot Details:
My AC and I went up to Yosemite 1 day before Gabriel's wish to get establishing B-roll and to try and capture the magnificence that is Yosemite. That same day we also shot an interview with the Mom and Gabriel. The wish day was a long one, starting early in the morning and ending early evening. Gabriel was a trooper.

I had a second camera operator (Will Rodgers - is an amazing second camera op, thanks Will) and sound guy on the wish day, to help with alternate angles since it was run-n-gun the entire day. Plus, I HATE doing audio! My sound guy had a new bluetooth wireless receiver thing that he wanted to try out on the MoVI since it weighs like nothing. It worked, like 10% of the time, so since I had NO other audio reference on my Epic, I had to manually sync everything in post! AHHHHH!!!

Unfortunately there was a news crew from CBS who got priority access, got to ride in the vehicles with Gabriel, was always on scene first, etc. So we had to stay farther back and get what we could in terms of coverage.

I was operating on the MoVI the entire day and stuck with a focal length of 50mm Zeiss Contax 2.8, since there wasn't really any time to do any lens swapping. Will operated with the 80-200 f4 Contax. He had RPP's, but I wanted the look to be consistent, plus, the Contax are amazing!!! I had him on a monopod the entire day so the longer shots would be more stable, as opposed to hand-holding or shoulder-mounting.

We all rode in my truck, so as soon as we would role up on a scene, Will would bail out of the car as quickly as he could to get some establishing shots/sometimes they had already started the next mini event. I would immediately follow with the MoVI. My AC was pulling focus, while I was operating in Majestic Mode. Used my Cinemizers for framing, and Jason, my AC had a SmallHD AC7.

I had Will shoot at around f5.6, while I shot between 2.8-4.
We over cranked here and there for effect.
Shot 5K WS at 8:1 compression.
Edited and graded in FCPX.

Let me know what you guys think. We can't officially release this video until CBS has their special on Make-A-Wish which will air in August.

Really filmic look, especially the land scape and trees shots.
Their is some cuts at the end I would have done in a different way, by trying not following the sound track.
Anyway, great work Chris.

 

[Jeffrey T. Morgan]

9-year old Gabriel had a wish to be a park ranger. When Yosemite got word of his dream, they stepped up to the plate, in a VERY big way. Watch it first, then look at the shoot details below.

Password: GABRIELYOSEMITE

Vimeo Link: https://vimeo.com/99676584

Shoot Details:

THIS! What a wonderful subject / shoot / edit. Just so wonderful.

 

[Chris McKechnie]

Really filmic look, especially the land scape and trees shots.
Their is some cuts at the end I would have done in a different way, by trying not following the sound track.
Anyway, great work Chris.

Thanks so much Brice.

THIS! What a wonderful subject / shoot / edit. Just so wonderful.

Thanks Jeff!

 

[Jeffrey T. Morgan]

Does anyone know if there are and bad batches in the 60mm 2.8 Macro line? Specifically the Japanese versions, which I prefer. I learned the hard way that there were bad sections of the 85 1.4 line.

 

[Nick Morrison]

Does anyone know if there are and bad batches in the 60mm 2.8 Macro line? Specifically the Japanese versions, which I prefer. I learned the hard way that there were bad sections of the 85 1.4 line.

Not that I know of...

 

[David W. Jones]

Does anyone know if there are and bad batches in the 60mm 2.8 Macro line? Specifically the Japanese versions, which I prefer. I learned the hard way that there were bad sections of the 85 1.4 line.

What do you mean by "bad sections"?

The Zeiss 85mm in a Contax, or C/Y mount was available in the following configurations...

85mm f1.2 Planar MM Germany
85mm f1.2 Planar AE Germany
85mm f1.4 Planar AE Germany
85mm f1.4 Planar MM Japan
85mm f2.8 Sonnar AE Germany
85mm f2.8 Sonnar MM Japan

Each of the Contax lenses sold had a quality check performed before it went to market, but after 30 years of use I could see how individual lenses could be out of spec.

Dave

 

[Jeffrey T. Morgan]

What do you mean by "bad sections"?

Hey Dave! I went through 3 85mm 1.4 lenses before I found a good one.

Here is a page where I posted samples of my problem:

http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?92044-Contax-Zeiss-Survival-Guide/page94

This is where I started narrowing down the Serial Number problem:

http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?92044-Contax-Zeiss-Survival-Guide&p=1274771#post1274771

Read there for more accurate details, but I found that certain serial numbers were NOT good wide open. This thread saved me from "living with it"

You will see I found the #722xxxx versions to be pretty bad wide open. You will also see that those dominate the offerings on ebay...

 

[Phil Dickinson]

What do you mean by "bad sections"?

The Zeiss 85mm in a Contax, or C/Y mount was available in the following configurations...

85mm f1.2 Planar MM Germany
85mm f1.2 Planar AE Germany
85mm f1.4 Planar AE Germany
85mm f1.4 Planar MM Japan
85mm f2.8 Sonnar AE Germany
85mm f2.8 Sonnar MM Japan

Each of the Contax lenses sold had a quality check performed before it went to market, but after 30 years of use I could see how individual lenses could be out of spec.

Dave

My 1,4/85 is MMG.

 

[Jeffrey T. Morgan]

Alright, snagged a good looking 60mm Macro for $530... I need to take a break for awhile, lol. And probably sell my extra 80-200.

 

[Chris McKechnie]

I was contacted by a 15-year old director about shooting a short film he had scripted. He had already directed, shot and edited a pervious short film which was submitted to a Newport Beach film festival, and he won, so he was looking to up the look of his next film. Watch it until at least the credit scroll (you'll see), then look at the shoot details. All shot on Zeiss Contax!!

Password: JoshOvalleN

Link: https://vimeo.com/100604016


The pre-production process was short. Josh and his dad contacted me and wanted to shoot within about a week and a half. Josh had the script roughed, but no boards, or schedule, etc. His dad wasted to keep it as cheap as possible, so the crew was limited to just my AC and I. I had Josh storyboard out what his vision was, then looking at the boards, I told them it would require a minimum of 1.5 days of shooting, and that's with little to no time for any lighting. There were several locations, setups, etc. which made this a run-n-gun shoot which made this a shoot shot exclusively with the MoVI. I dialed the settings of the gimbal a bit to give it a tad more of a hand-held look, more as if we're looking in as opposed to a produced film.

The only time we really lit was in the interior shots. All exterior shots had NO lighting or grip support since there just wasn't time, and we were shooting without permits (at the carnival). I SO wish we had even just a bit of grip support to rig up some flags, bounce boards etc, but we tried to make the best image with the card and limited budget we were dealt. Josh wanted to re-write the entire script after shooting, so the script was more of just a guide as to what wanted.

Josh REALLY wanted to have underwater shots, since his film was all about drowning. We spoke at length about options and what we could do to maintain the 4K quality on final output. Finally, an idea came to mind about purchasing an aquarium, setting that down on the steps of his pool, weighing it down with sand-bags, having my AC hold the MoVI rig, and I remotely control the pan/tilt of the camera. We gave Josh's dad the dimensions needed for the aquarium so the MoVI would fit in the tank. He purchased the tank, then on the shoot day, we arrived and started putting the sand bags in the tank. hahahaha!! That tank was soooooo buoyant. Originally I was going to place the MoVI on the MoVI stand, but we had to have Jason, my AC, stand in the tank with the bags, and even then, it was just barely enough weight to have the tank barely resting on the pool steps. I think it really worked. There are a couple of smudges on the glass which we couldn't see on the monitors, but I think it worked for the poor-man's underwater housing.



Shot on Epic 5K WS
8:1 Compression
Contax Zeiss Lenses
MoVI

Josh sent me an FCPX XML and I did a quick grade for him on the sequence. Just used FCPX for the grade with various LUTS.

I think Josh did an amazing job on the edit. For being only 15 years old, he's going to have a very long career ahead of him.

 

[Nick Morrison]

And probably sell my extra 80-200.

Noooooooo!!!!!!

 

[Jeffrey T. Morgan]

Noooooooo!!!!!!

 

[Chad Stockfleth]

Pulled the trigger on an AEG 85 1.4. Hopefully, it's a good copy. Also, I want to give a shout out to Helicoptersean on ebay for his custom FF rings. Good price, good quality and a good guy to deal with.

 

[Chad Stockfleth]

One more thing: Does anyone know of a comparable 80mm rubber lens cap like the ones Cordvision makes? I like his, but they have been out of stock for a good while.

 

[Brian Robbins]

Hit up RP lens. They have much better front caps. Very snug.

 

[Uli Plank]

Dear friends and colleagues,

how much should one pay these days for an 18mm in decent condition?

TIA