Contax Zeiss Survival Guide

[liam howlett]

Love the 60 Macro. We use it quite a bit.

I am now most likely going to get the 100 as well. Loving the 60 thus far and I haven't even fully tested it yet.

 

[Nick Morrison]

I am now most likely going to get the 100 as well. Loving the 60 thus far and I haven't even fully tested it yet.

We have the 100 also; they are quite similar. Except the 100 has longer macro reach, obv. But the focus is also more sensitive as a result. The 60 is cool because it works well as a "medium" and a "macro" all in one lens. Comes out of the case more often generally.

 

[liam howlett]

We have the 100 also; they are quite similar. Except the 100 has longer macro reach, obv. But the focus is also more sensitive as a result. The 60 is cool because it works well as a "medium" and a "macro" all in one lens. Comes out of the case more often generally.

Exactly why I absolutely loved using it on both shoots this week for some shots. Because I only have 3 ZCs so far, it was perfect for those exact reasons. However I ended up using the 180 more often due to the nature of the shoot anyway, but it was great having the 60 on and just get a couple of nice mid-range shots along with some sweet closeups all without taking off the lens!

P.S. I really love the Macro mainly due to how Tarantino and PTA use it for those brief 2-3 back-to-back shots. That's a big reason why this 60 was my first ZC investment. Always wanted to own one that was also amazing quality and build.

Examples of how I love its use as illustrated by Tony Scott in "The Fan"

 

[Uli Plank]

@ Sander
Don't expect too much from the Zeiss Jena 20mm. It's a Zeiss, yes, but based on pre-war calculations and the Eastern production didn't have the same level of QC and they were far behind in coating.

I tested quite a few. The quality was all over the place – some of them decent – but they'd all need a lot of grading to somehow match the Contax lenses. Micro-contrast in particular is hard to get close.

These days the second-hand market is pretty much dried up with only the lemons circulating, since most of them were M42 and so they are quite popular among photographers too.

If you keep this in mind, the Russian Mir 20mm f3.5 might be an option too, it was based on the same formula and there are still more in circulation. Of course, the same precautions apply.

 

[David B.]

Speaking of lenses that compliment the contax set and are hard to come by:

has anyone actually ever seen an angenieux 70-210/f3.5 in contax mount? Apparently it existed (see https://books.google.de/books?id=mg...epage&q=contaxangenieux 70 210 contax&f=false), but apart from that link and very few sources that say it might have been produced there are no signs of it on the internet whatsoever. If so, how does it hold up against the contax zooms (pretty good I presume, judging from Leica R sample pictures that can be found) and how easily can they be matched colorwise?
Am asking as I'm still looking for a decent manual iris two-touch alternative that's not in the cine-zoom price range yet comes close in color rendition and contrast.
Uli already suggested the 35-70 minolta as far as I remember, thanks for that! What about the long end though?

Best,

David

 

[Chad Stockfleth]

I got a nikon mount Tokina 28-70 2.6 v1 which is the decendent of the angie of the same specs. Supposedly Tokina bought the design from them as they got out of the slr lens market. Cuts well with the Contax IMO and is a useful range when doing interviews on super35 frame. It also doesn't expand as you zoom which is nice. Obviously, mine is a bit dusty

 

[liam howlett]

Sorry for the brief hijack of the conversation and veering of topic about glass slightly but I just saw this and wanted to share. https://vimeo.com/109705271 Obviously RED wins but the footage is almost identical albeit slight color difference.

 

[Uli Plank]

@ David:
Do you look for a longer zoom for the Red or some mirrorless camera?
If you can adapt Canon FD lenses, the 35-105mm f3.5 is not a bad option. I don't know any longer two touch zooms for full frame with decent quality. Even the Minolta 35-135 is nothing special, the 28-85mm is better, but can't touch the Contax.

 

[Nick Morrison]

Sorry for the brief hijack of the conversation and veering of topic about glass slightly but I just saw this and wanted to share. https://vimeo.com/109705271 Obviously RED wins but the footage is almost identical albeit slight color difference.

Liam, tests like this only show you one thing - that when properly exposed, the GH4 can match an Epic MX well, yes. I don't believe he was testing a Dragon however. But that's not really the point. For me, shooting on Dragon is not about making well exposed shots look great - it can do that easily yes, it's about making HARD shots look great. By shooting RAW, we can fix color temp issues in post for example, they are not baked in. It's VERY easy to grade. We can shoot 80/96/120fps at 6K/5K/4K for high end slow-mo. We can jam timecode easily. Aliasing and Moire are well controlled. We can shoot 300fps if needed. The list goes on...

I'm not saying the GH4 isn't great - of course it is!!! But there's A LOT under the hood of a Dragon that isn't readily obvious in a short clip like this...

@ David:
Do you look for a longer zoom for the Red or some mirrorless camera?
If you can adapt Canon FD lenses, the 35-105mm f3.5 is not a bad option. I don't know any longer two touch zooms for full frame with decent quality. Even the Minolta 35-135 is nothing special, the 28-85mm is better, but can't touch the Contax.

We have 2 Canon FD 35-105 zooms, from Eddie the Lens Doctor, and modded by RP Lens. When we need a two-touch zoom, they intercut with our Contax and Arri primes VERY well. The focus throw is nowhere near as long as the 28-85, but certainly usable! I highly recommend. Their vintage coatings look great. Not as impressive as the Contax 35-70, or as useful as the 28-85, but when you need an ALL MANUAL two-touch zoom, the FD 35-105's are certainly handy to have. They were once considered one of Canon's BEST zooms ever (during the FD days), so they have a pedigree if their own.

 

[David B.]

@ Uli, @ Nick, thanks again for your replies. The canon it is then. As to Ulis question: I'm mainly going to use it on speedboostered mirrorless (gh2 & gh4) that I own myself and the likes of a rented fs7 or ursa 4.6k the day it might finally be available. Most of the time my budgets don't allow renting RED unfortunately.

Regards,

David

PS: @ Chad, thanks for your input on the Tokina, didn't know about its angenieux formula. Defintely a lens to check out then!

 

[sander van de kerkhof]

Thanks for all your responses!
I wil have a look at the 25mm as you said nick i shoot mainly on the sony f55 so with a s35 sensor and most of the time the 28 just lacks a tiny bit so it might be a very good alternative.
Found one for sale near by for 325 euro, the also had a 18mm for 525 but i think i will rather put the 200 euro's towards the f1.4 fund but still both pretty good value i think.

@david i owned a tokina 28-70 and it looked great! nice skin tones and good looking flares, however i just could not adapt to focusing and zooming the nikon way.

 

[Chad Stockfleth]

Just received a bunch of those Adorama 80mm push caps that Nick mentioned earlier. They are thin and plasticky, but fit way more snuggly than the Cordvision caps (on Cordvision fronts). I'm curious how they will hold up, but at $5 a pop, it's not a huge investment.

 

[Nick Morrison]

Just received a bunch of those Adorama 80mm push caps that Nick mentioned earlier. They are thin and plasticky, but fit way more snuggly than the Cordvision caps (on Cordvision fronts). I'm curious how they will hold up, but at $5 a pop, it's not a huge investment.

Been using them for 2 years so far, they seem pretty robust. And yes...fit much more snug than the Cordvision caps, which we like!!

 

[Nick Morrison]

Hey team, here's History's ALONE cinema piece - in theatre's NOW across the country!!! Many of you may have seen this in front of LOST WORLD over past two weekends!!

This was our first Dragon shoot!! All Contax glass!!

We shot the Interviews with LLO at 6KHD @ 640 with a Contax 50 1.4 and 100 F2 (both MM) - both at an F2. We used some Classic Soft (1/4 and 1/2). This was our FIRST Dragon shoot, and it sort of blew me away. The dynamic range, the skin tone - it all just looked AMAZING. A big leap from MX. Jake Blackstone graded our dailies (as always).

History's On Air team cut this in-house and did an AMAZING job. They are a blast to work with!

We saw this at a Loews IMAX theatre this weekend, and WOW - the interviews looked even cleaner than on Youtube. On the big screen, I was very impressed with how the Dragon + Contax combo looked/held up!

Not sure what the SHOW shoots on, presumably some GoPros and possibly C300 for extra nature-broll.

Hope you enjoy. Alone premiered last week to GREAT ratings, so has been fun to be a part of it's success!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=48&v=SrowegT_sOc

 

[Sammi Kim]

Nick I wanna see the video!
Not available in my country in seems. Dang. I was on a corporate video shoot yesterday with Contax glass. Amazing as always.

Oh by the way I found a method of buying glass that you can't find on Ebay.

I was sort of getting desperate to get the 100-300 and I'm not a really patient guy when it comes to buying gear. I don't look for the best deal or anything, I just wanna have the thing in my hands asap. I emailed some camera shops in Japan and Korea who sells vintage stuff, I was constantly checking Ebay, Adorama, KEH, B&H for a copy and I even contacted a guy in Japan who goes out hunting old camera or lens gear which are hard to find. All of this to no avail.

So I searched on flickr to look for all the owners of this lens and messaged all of them. About 20 out of the forty something people responded. I was sceptical at first because I haven't heard of anyone buy stuff this way and the first few responses were negative anyway. Either they already sold the lens a long time ago or didn't want to part with it .... like forever.

But in a matter of a few more hours, replies came flooding in and there were actually some people were willing to sell their copy because they didn't have much use for it or left it in their cupboard for too long. I was lucky to find a relevantly clean copy from a guy in Taiwan who was willing to part with it at a reasonable price. I have yet to receive the lens and find out how good a transaction that was but I was just happy to know that there is a viable way to find gear that is not listed to sell online.

 

[Nick Morrison]

Nick I wanna see the video!
Not available in my country in seems. Dang. I was on a corporate video shoot yesterday with Contax glass. Amazing as always.

Oh by the way I found a method of buying glass that you can't find on Ebay.

I was sort of getting desperate to get the 100-300 and I'm not a really patient guy when it comes to buying gear. I don't look for the best deal or anything, I just wanna have the thing in my hands asap. I emailed some camera shops in Japan and Korea who sells vintage stuff, I was constantly checking Ebay, Adorama, KEH, B&H for a copy and I even contacted a guy in Japan who goes out hunting old camera or lens gear which are hard to find. All of this to no avail.

So I searched on flickr to look for all the owners of this lens and messaged all of them. About 20 out of the forty something people responded. I was sceptical at first because I haven't heard of anyone buy stuff this way and the first few responses were negative anyway. Either they already sold the lens a long time ago or didn't want to part with it .... like forever.

But in a matter of a few more hours, replies came flooding in and there were actually some people were willing to sell their copy because they didn't have much use for it or left it in their cupboard for too long. I was lucky to find a relevantly clean copy from a guy in Taiwan who was willing to part with it at a reasonable price. I have yet to receive the lens and find out how good a transaction that was but I was just happy to know that there is a viable way to find gear that is not listed to sell online.

Sammi, I admire your pluck!! Wow!! Yeah, the 100-300 crushes the 300 F4.

Here's a link to the piece, btw:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=48&v=SrowegT_sOc

And I just had lunch with my DP Ted today, and he said the following about the Canon FD 35-105 zooms.
"They are good, but they don't have the snap or feel of the Contax primes. But the Contax zooms do. They totally match. And that's a big difference".

 

[Sammi Kim]

Sammi, I admire your pluck!! Wow!! Yeah, the 100-300 crushes the 300 F4.

Here's a link to the piece, btw:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=48&v=SrowegT_sOc

And I just had lunch with my DP Ted today, and he said the following about the Canon FD 35-105 zooms.
"They are good, but they don't have the snap or feel of the Contax primes. But the Contax zooms do. They totally match. And that's a big difference".

Yeah I tried going to the youtube page too. Got the below message. [h=1]The uploader has not made this video available in your country.[/h]I think it has to do with license with cable TV here maybe. Anyways yeah I agree with your DP.
I've tried a fair share of vintage lenses for the last few years but nothing has come even close with Contax. Only other lens I was truely impressed with is the Takumar 50 1.4 but still in a different world from the Contax line. And it is a matter of personal taste but I much prefer the contax over the ZF.2s purely in terms of IQ. More so when thinking about the price point etc. Only downside is you can't really rent out Contax Glass whereas the modern stuff you can do easily.
But who wouldn't want to own these gems.

 

[Nick Morrison]

Yeah I tried going to the youtube page too. Got the below message. The uploader has not made this video available in your country.

I think it has to do with license with cable TV here maybe. Anyways yeah I agree with your DP.
I've tried a fair share of vintage lenses for the last few years but nothing has come even close with Contax. Only other lens I was truely impressed with is the Takumar 50 1.4 but still in a different world from the Contax line. And it is a matter of personal taste but I much prefer the contax over the ZF.2s purely in terms of IQ. More so when thinking about the price point etc. Only downside is you can't really rent out Contax Glass whereas the modern stuff you can do easily.
But who wouldn't want to own these gems.

Sammi, here's the video link:
https://vimeo.com/128414691

Yeah, Contax glass is great. They've elevated so much of our work over the years. And the mechanics are great too, esp when modded.

 

[Niklas Jonsson]

Hello fellow contax users.
This might be a bit off topic, but seeing the collected knowledge about lenses in this thread gives me hope.
I've been looking through the world of middleformat camera/lenses and was curious about the mamiya sekor c lenses if anyone
have had any experience with them. Using them with digital format cameras and such.

I also happened upon a Angenieux 45-90mm / 2.8 for Leica R and was wondering if anyone can tell me something about it.
I own two 16mm film lenses of angenieux which I find a delight to use but have no clue about their SLR lenses.

 

[Nick Morrison]

Hello fellow contax users.
This might be a bit off topic, but seeing the collected knowledge about lenses in this thread gives me hope.
I've been looking through the world of middleformat camera/lenses and was curious about the mamiya sekor c lenses if anyone
have had any experience with them. Using them with digital format cameras and such.

Patrick O'Sullivan threw some Mamiya's on a Dragon recently. You can see his tests here.

We shoot with Hasselblad glass regularly. They look great!!

I also happened upon a Angenieux 45-90mm / 2.8 for Leica R and was wondering if anyone can tell me something about it.
I own two 16mm film lenses of angenieux which I find a delight to use but have no clue about their SLR lenses.

Not sure about the 45-90, but it's pretty expensive...so I can't imagine it's terrible! Angeniuex also made a 28-70 2.6 that they licensed to Tokina, which is supposed to be half descent. And they also made a 70-210 that many like.