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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

Thanks Nick.
 
Hey guys, here's ANOTHER recent spot, this time for History. A Fall Football stunt with some of the cast of Top Gear (Rutledge), Swamp People, and American Restoration. Shot on Scarlets mostly with Contax 28-85 and 35-135. The fisheye shots are on an RP modded Canon FD 7.5mm. There's so much GFX layered on this spot, some of the footage/sharpness gets lost, but you'll get the idea!

This was just one of MANY spots we needed to shoot/cover over course of several days, and the Contax Zooms really proved invaluable. Small, and covered such wide ranges (29-85, 35-135? how awesome is that?). We had both Scarlets on Monopods and were able to run around this Nascar event very easily. The Contax 80-200 came out at times too.

The Motion Mount was HUGE on this shoot, also. Jake Blackstone, who graded the dailies, loved how CLEAR all the Motion Mount footage was. Even in bright sunlight, we never needed to add more than .9 ND on the A cam w/ Motion Mount. But the B-Cam (which did NOT have the Motion Mount) was often on an IRND 1.8 or 2.1, and later in post suffered a bit of IR contamination. Easy to grade out, but a pain...

Anyway. Enjoy!!

 
PS Im in France for 10 days (in Paris as we speak!). Back on the thread the 20th!

Next stop - Provence!

PS will have few to any pics to show, as wife frowns on real cameras/lenses while were on vacation! ("leave work behind!!" she says).

However were meeting up with my Dad in Arles, and his army of Rokkor glass, so may still get some shots off!!

best
 
Nice one Nick. have fun!

I'm back from my Vietnam/Cambodia trip and have an outrageous amount of contax glass/Sony A7s shots. Far too many to post here and I've only edited 4 days out of 2 so far! A few selects so far

The front lawn of the Ho Chi Minh Museum - Saigon by Soma Pics, on Flickr

Saigon Zoo by Soma Pics, on Flickr

Grumpy Suckhoe - Saigon by Soma Pics, on Flickr

Saigon by Soma Pics, on Flickr

Saigon by Soma Pics, on Flickr

Post Office - Saigon by Soma Pics, on Flickr

Ceramics and crafts workshop for disabled artisans by Soma Pics, on Flickr

Cao Dai Temple - Tay Ninh by Soma Pics, on Flickr

Stormy night in Saigon by Soma Pics, on Flickr

Dinner and Storms at the Rex Hotel Rooftop - Saigon by Soma Pics, on Flickr

A walk through Saigon by Soma Pics, on Flickr

Gotham City - Rex Hotel rooftop - Saigon by Soma Pics, on Flickr

Abandoned party - Rex Hotel rooftop bar by Soma Pics, on Flickr

Scene from Batman at the Rex Hotel Rooftop - Saigon by Soma Pics, on Flickr
 
Thanks Paul. I've never shot Dragon so can't say but certainly I'd have no qualms about using it as b cam or in crop mode with speedbooster as a 4k gimbal/drone camera against an MX camera. colour and dynamic range is great. low light is phenomenal, although naturally nowhere near as good as people are making out (see also Red Dragon in this regard). I don't think twice about shooting upto 5000 iso and for stills 25,600 and even 51000 iso can be usable.
 
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Justin that's terrible about the theft! I hope they are recovered down the line..

About 95% of my shots were 28-85 or 80-200f4. So far there's about 8000 stills so I am trying to cut that down before posting too much
 
Sorry to hear about what happened to you Justen. I went through this last December and lost my set of Speed Panchros I was about to send to the UK to be rehoused.. Insurance money while helpful, doesn't take into account the time and effort it took to put together the kit we had.

All the best!

Dave
 
Trying to spread them out but here's another few Contax Zeiss shots from the trip. This time from travelling along the mekong delta. Wides on the 28-85. Everything else on the 80-200.

Mekong Delta life - Vietnam by Soma Pics, on Flickr

Mekong Delta life - Vietnam by Soma Pics, on Flickr

Mekong Delta life - Vietnam by Soma Pics, on Flickr

Mekong Village by Soma Pics, on Flickr

Pineapple seller -Floating market by Soma Pics, on Flickr

Pineapple seller -Floating market by Soma Pics, on Flickr

Pineapple seller -Floating market by Soma Pics, on Flickr
 
Again lovely images Ben.

For the mermaid shot below, I had a meeting with the Sun, and told it where I wanted to be at that exact time, and had the mermaid swim right through the rays. :thumbsup: A few 1.2k HMI pars were also used to increase the effect, but it's mostly the Sun.

 
I am soon to receive two M mounts for my Dragons to use with a special m mount lens. Has anybody here used Contax C/Y to leica m adapter and tried a contax on Red with M mount?
 
I'm looking for a wide alternative to the my Contax set other than the 18 F4 and the 21 f2.8. Is the sigma 18-35 a good option?
 
Yea I'm not really quite over the loss haha. With some dedicated detective work from my own team, we were able to help the authorities catch one of the culprits. We recovered a few items for our kessler crane and other smaller items, but alas my lenses are still missing.

David I'm sorry to hear that happened to you as well. I'm sure most of you gents all know the effort and time it takes to put together a good matched set! It seems the prices have gone up just a little a bit. But I'm certain Nick and present company is partly to blame for this haha.

Ben! 8000?! You've definitely got a lot of great shots. I wish you luck with sorting through all of them though haha.

Chris, if you could possibly give me the contact of the SUN that'd be amazing. For an old friend? haha

Regis have you considered the modern ZF/ZE zeiss equivalents?
The sigma 18-35 is a great lens, you might run into issues on the wide end if you shoot on the Epic or full frame.
I know there's a thread on here somewhere about it.

Here's another promo shot on my old lenses. Apart from one film burn overlay, the rest of the flares and colors are all in camera.
 
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