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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

Nick,

Thanks very much for the heads-up on these lenses, got really excited about the 100-300, found one in Japan, as soon as it arrived just had to slap it on the Dragon, go out and shoot the hummingbird (no animals were harmed in the making of this pic :-)

Cheers,

Tom
 

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Tom Hamilton said:
Nick,

Thanks very much for the heads-up on these lenses, got really excited about the 100-300, found one in Japan, as soon as it arrived just had to slap it on the Dragon, go out and shoot the hummingbird (no animals were harmed in the making of this pic :-)

Cheers,

Tom
Click to expand...

Tom that's awesome!! Yeah the 100-300 is amazing. So small too.....
 
Looks like they all come from Japan these days. May I ask how much you paid?
 
Hey guys, we did a shoot recently for History Channel...for a Special about Hitler's "inner sanctum". His main "henchmen" are well known, but countless others are overlooked: this special attempted to dig deeper into the dark lives of these lower tiered master minds.

The creative idea was to create an FBI "suspect board", and treat this like a CSI investigation. We shot everything on Scarlet MXs. The wide below was shot on our RP Modded Contax 25mm. I love the texture of this lens (it's one of the most classic designs in the Contax lineup). The warehouse location and smoke prove invaluable as well...




We also shot a large amount of b-roll to help cover many of the more obscure/dark story lines. The main lens for these images was the incredibly versatile Contax 28-85:





This last one was tilt shifted on a Hassy 50 2.8, which also has a great render.

This was our first "tv show" we ever shot for (we normally do promos), so it was quite an experience...and an honor...to be asked by History to help on a longform project (as opposed to shortform). Looking forward (we hope) to more of these types of collaborations!

It's important to tell History in both an accurate and evocative way, and I certainly hope we met History's high expectations.
 
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I have a few contax mmj w/canon mount. For a special project I am ordering a Leica M mount for my Dragon to be used withe some legacy non zeiss lenses.

My question- has anybody on this thread used any of the ZM lenses? Any opinions, etc? Do they match up well to Contax?

The new 35 1.4 is getting rave reviews and is much smaller than a contax or ZE, and has manual iris.
 
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scott devitte said:
I have a few contax mmj w/canon mount. For a special project I am ordering a Leica M mount for my Dragon to be used withe some legacy non zeiss lenses.

My question- has anybody on this thread used any of the ZM lenses? Any opinions, etc? Do they match up well to Contax?

The new 35 1.4 is getting rave reviews and is much smaller than a contax or ZE, and has manual iris.
Click to expand...

Scott I've personally never used a ZM, but have always been curious. Also curious about Contax G (for their older coatings...).

It's my understanding that rangefinder lenses can often be WICKED sharp as they sit closer to the negative/sensor (as cameras were designed with no SLR mirror, which also kept the cams small). If you couldn't shoot Medium Format, many would shoot rangefinder...so I can see your curiousity for the ZMs, and also understand RED's enthusiasm for the Leica M mount...

Love to know more about that new ZM 35 1.4!
 
Brice Ansel said:
Fun shot Tom. Love my 100/300
Are those guys (Bird and wasp) drinking water?
B.
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Thanks Brice, it's a table-sugar/water mix, very close to what they get from flowers, that's what attracts them, these little guys need lots of energy.

Those wings beat fast, wish my Dragon could go 1000 fps ;-)
 
Hey guys, here's a Mary Kay/Project Runway spot. Shot on an Epic and 2 Scarlets with Contax 28-85, 80-200, and some Canon FD 35-105 (it's first "try out"). Most of the closeups are the fab 80-200, at the long end!

We used Glimmerglass 1 diffussion on all cameras (looking back, would probably have gone Classic Soft; the "mist" in Glimmerglass didn't add as much "glow" and "sheen" to model's skins as we're used to).

Actually, this spot always made me wonder what would happen if you COMBINED Glimmerglass + Classic Soft! It could sort of be a variant of "Hollywood Black Magic"...aka "Hollywood Glimmer Magic!". Gotta try that sometime...

This spot is just one of numerous pieces of content we covered that day - in both English and Spanish (:30's and :90's). But this spot I think came out the best.

The shoot was quite a challenge. The "makeup room" on set of Project Runway this season is actually quite small (10 x 10 maybe), w/ mixed lighting. Luckily, Jake's grade helped smooth it all out!

I don't think this spot is perfect by any means. But considering how much we had to cover, and how "simple" this spot could have been, I think we survived the day!

This was also the spot where I RE-FELL in love with the 80-200, and decided to seriously consider buying a SECOND! We could have used another easily (instead of the FD 35-105, which just couldn't get in close enough at times - otherwise it's quite a nice and useful lens).

Graded by Jake Blackstone!
DP: Ryan De Franco (always a blast to work with, and who did a superb job on a challenging assignment)


Ipad link: https://vimeo.com/108196884
 
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Tom Hamilton said:
Doh! Keep forgetting about that one, thanks.

Nicely done, think I will put the 80-200 on my must-get list.
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For the price, it's pretty amazing. $300? Wide Open it's quite sharp till about 150mm, where it looses some mojo, but still OK. At 5.6 it's very nice across the range!

I did end up getting a second one, fyi...haha. Still waiting to get it modded...

best
 
Nick, where do you get your contax modded?
 
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