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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

Willing to sell it as a set :

135mm 2.8 MM 175$
35-70mm 3.4MM 275$ ( SOLD )
50mm 1.7 AE 100 $

Shipping 25$ worlwide. PayPal fees on me. Please fell free to ask for photos.
 
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Cristian Mihai said:
Willing to sell it as a set :

135mm 2.8 MM 175$
35-70mm 3.4MM 275$
50mm 1.7 AE 100 $

Shipping 25$ worlwide. PayPal fees on me. Please fell free to ask for photos.
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Hey Cristian,
I just picked up the two lenses I was talking about so for now I will pause my purchases :)
 
Hey gang, FYI...I've been writing a new, more comprehensive guide to most of the popular Contax primes and zooms. It's taken me longer to write than expected (couple of months now), and also includes interesting information like ORIGINAL price for each lens (adjusted for inflation) vs CURRENT price on today's market, etc, etc...I hope to get this wrapped and posted in thread by end of month. Just wanted to reach out and let you know it's in the works! Wish it wasn't taking so long!

best
 
Looking forward to it!

But all forum members get your lenses before it's out, prices will explode ;-)
 
Nick Morrison said:
includes interesting information like ORIGINAL price for each lens (adjusted for inflation) vs CURRENT price on today's market
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Hmm, yeah - better not include that for reasons stated by Uli. Let people just buy these on their own according to whatever information already present in this thread and online. People might start jacking up prices - and wasn't Contax supposed to be that 'budget' glass anyway. That is assuming whatever price information you've got in there doesn't exceed what people are already listing these lenses for online.
 
liam howlett said:
Hmm, yeah - better not include that for reasons stated by Uli. Let people just buy these on their own according to whatever information already present in this thread and online. People might start jacking up prices - and wasn't Contax supposed to be that 'budget' glass anyway. That is assuming whatever price information you've got in there doesn't exceed what people are already listing these lenses for online.
Click to expand...

There's a historical and narrative reason for including the original and current prices. I think many will be surprised how EXPENSIVE some of the primes once were (the 180 comes to mind). And also comforted by how affordable others have always been (50 1.7 for example).

There is a STORY behind so many of these lenses - the 15 3.5 used to be worth $11,000 for example, adjusted for inflation!

If anything, once people see how EXPENSIVE many of these primes and zooms once were, they may appreciate even more what a resource and value these lenses are.

And yes prices had gone up...but that's as much the trend of premium vintage glass across the board.

That said I haven't seen too huge a jump in Contax glass this past year, which is comforting. There is much more competition now for high end full frame glass (Xenons, CNE's, etc). So the market seems to be taking care of itself!

best
 
Nick Morrison said:
Hey gang, FYI...I've been writing a new, more comprehensive guide to most of the popular Contax primes and zooms. It's taken me longer to write than expected (couple of months now), and also includes interesting information like ORIGINAL price for each lens (adjusted for inflation) vs CURRENT price on today's market, etc, etc...I hope to get this wrapped and posted in thread by end of month. Just wanted to reach out and let you know it's in the works! Wish it wasn't taking so long!

best
Click to expand...

That's awesome Nick! Looking forward to the read.
 
Hi all,

Hope everyone is well. Not posted much. Been shooting a lot and should have some fun stuff to show in the next few weeks. Quick question about my 28mm f2 Hollywood.

Using it without any issues on a freebie short film for a friend over the last few days. I've left the camera alone for about 10mins and when I go back suddenly the lens won't focus to infinity anymore. Like, not even anywhere close to it. Won't focus more than about 20ft away. First off, any suggestions as to what the issue is and secondly would it be likely that the cause is blunt force trauma from runner to camera which they didn't mention? Or is it something that can just suddenly happen from nowhere?

Just trying to work out who I need to be angry at :)
 
Hey guys! I'm going to post some work I've done with my Contaxes pretty soon, just got to get all the stuff organized.

But before, I have one quick question I want your opinion on... from a Contax user pov, and by Contax I'm talking about 25-35+ yo lenses (my oldest is 1977), what's all this BS about 4K-8K "Ready" lenses? I'm having a hard time trying to find a technical reason for it to be true, instead of just marketing BS...

Cheers!
 
DAVID BARKAN said:
Hey guys! I'm going to post some work I've done with my Contaxes pretty soon, just got to get all the stuff organized.

But before, I have one quick question I want your opinion on... from a Contax user pov, and by Contax I'm talking about 25-35+ yo lenses (my oldest is 1977), what's all this BS about 4K-8K "Ready" lenses? I'm having a hard time trying to find a technical reason for it to be true, instead of just marketing BS...


Cheers!
Click to expand...

It's ridiculous marketing
 
Ben Scott said:
Hi all,

Hope everyone is well. Not posted much. Been shooting a lot and should have some fun stuff to show in the next few weeks. Quick question about my 28mm f2 Hollywood.

Using it without any issues on a freebie short film for a friend over the last few days. I've left the camera alone for about 10mins and when I go back suddenly the lens won't focus to infinity anymore. Like, not even anywhere close to it. Won't focus more than about 20ft away. First off, any suggestions as to what the issue is and secondly would it be likely that the cause is blunt force trauma from runner to camera which they didn't mention? Or is it something that can just suddenly happen from nowhere?

Just trying to work out who I need to be angry at :)
Click to expand...

Considering these are relatively robust, all metal lenses...I can't imagine what would throw off the focus except perhaps a strong physical strike that could dislodge an element or realign internal mechanics...

Hopefully somethig a tech could easily fix!

Best
 
DAVID BARKAN said:
But before, I have one quick question I want your opinion on... from a Contax user pov, and by Contax I'm talking about 25-35+ yo lenses (my oldest is 1977), what's all this BS about 4K-8K "Ready" lenses? I'm having a hard time trying to find a technical reason for it to be true, instead of just marketing BS...

Cheers!
Click to expand...

As Jake mentioned, this appears to be marketing jargon

As far as I know, there is no direct correlation btw a lens and "resolution."

"Resolution" is primarily SENSOR dependent - ie Super35 sensor can be 3.2K (Alexa), 4K (Black Magic), 1080 (7D), etc.

So long as a lens can "cover" that sensor, it should cover that "resolution".

So IMAGE CIRCLE is the most relevant factor in the future proofness of a lens - not seemingly arbitrary "4k/8k" designations.

That's why FULL FRAME lenses (that cover ALL Super35 sensors, and wider ones like Dragon) are becoming so popular...and also why CLASSIC full frame glass such as CONTAX and LEICA-R are becoming so sought after.

Hope this helps!!

best
 
There is one more parameter to be considered, and I think that Contax lenses should do quite well in this respect too. When you try to relate lens and sensor resolution, there is the "diffraction limit" for a given lens. If a lens is not getting sharper after a certain aperture, it becomes diffraction limited. As we all know, most Contax primes are already very good at f2.8 and most don't improve beyond f4. So, they have a low diffraction limit and that means very good visible resolution. MTF values (Modulation Transfer Function) don't help too much if you only ask for the limiting value (normally set to 5%), since humans perceive sharpness rather by the integral below the MTF curve. We tend to call this micro-contrast.

IMHO, you'd be quite safe with Contax lenses for large sensors. Think about the switch from SD to HD television: lenses for those small sensors (zooms in particular) became quite expensive, since the optical resolution for such a small sensor needs to be bigger. RED did the right thing when making Dragon's surface larger instead of cramming more photocells on a small area. If anybody tries to cram 8K on a sensor like S-35, good luck! The lenses outresolving this should become quite expensive. For my part, I get very nice resolution on a 36mpx sensor (Sony A7R) with my Contax lenses, and that's a tad more than 8K (wide-screen).
 
Hi guys,

Proud to share that I've jumped into the Contax camp - after much research and ebaying I've achieved a nice 4 lens set
35mm 1.4
50mm 1.4
85mm 1.4
135mm 2.8

All I need know is for ordered mounts to arrive to start shooting!

Thanks to everyone sharing in the thread in particular the passionate Nick

cheers
wes

DSC_0444.jpg
 
As numerous shooters have stated before, the Contax line is some of the best money well spent. You really can't go wrong with any focal length. Here's a recent one-man-band commercial I put together. Letting the Epic and Contax do all the work for me here!


Vimeo Link: https://vimeo.com/120108640

For me...it's never a question of which lenses I will shoot on, because why would I want to change something that works so well and produces some amazing and organic imagery!
 
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Chris McKechnie said:
As numerous shooters have stated before, the Contax line is some of the best money well spent. You really can't go wrong with any focal length. Here's a recent one-man-band commercial I put together. Letting the Epic and Contax do all the work for me here!


Password: CR90Sec

Vimeo Link: https://vimeo.com/119997254

For me...it's never a question of which lenses I will shoot on, because why would I want to change something that works so well and produces some amazing and organic imagery!
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Hey Chris,

Lovely little piece !
Love the color work, very organic but sort of modern and slick..really nice.
What contax lenses did you use for this ?


and yeah, please upload higher res so I can enjoy it even more :)
thanks
 
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