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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

Ben Scott said:
F**k me that's a lot of pics... :)

Nick, in case you missed from a couple of pages back wondered if you had any clue about this?




Thanks.
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Hey Ben, not sure about vignetting full frame, but I doubt it. He lines the delrin with the lip of lens - but it never projects out so as to be in frame (and vignette). Its tucked out of view. Not sure if a clamp on hood would vignette though.

Peter could probably send it to you - you should ask! Hes very friendly and accomodating. You may need to send measurements though!
 
Well since Sammi already owns one - I might be interested in the copy...given it's in good condition without major flaws.
 
Hey guys, Craig Marshall sent me this great Contax story to share!

from CRAIG MARSHALL:

"I have been a fan of the Contax series of Zeiss lenses for several years now. After purchasing a Sony NEX S35 'movie' camera a couple of years ago I was somewhat disappointed with the ergonomics of the 11:1 'kit' zoom which came bundled with it so I looked around for an alternative. I used to own and operate some of the world's best ENG B4 zooms from Fujinon and Canon so my feeling these days are, if you cannot afford a Fujinon Cabrio, use primes!

I had read about the Russian Zennit lenses made from Zeiss plans said to have been 'stolen' during WWII so I bought a couple cheaply on ebay, plus a 'dumb' adapter and was very impressed with the improved picture quality and overall feel of a fully manual lens. I felt right at home with a manual lens so I sold the 11:1 kit zoom for nearly half as much as I paid for the entire camera and quietly set about acquiring something more exciting.

I then saw an old Zeiss 'Contax' 50mm f/1.7 listed on line for a hundred dollars or so and I bought it along with another dumb adapter but when Metabones released their C/Y to E-Mount Speed Booster and I read their white paper about how it would restore the FF lens' original field of view to the S35 senor, improve MTF and compensate for the OLPF, I was hooked!

Suffice to say I now have virtually all the Contax primes. Next came rails, a matte box, follow focus plus a couple of Schneider optics glass 4x4" filters then I gradually acquired some more Contax glass: a 135mm f2.8, Mutar II 2x, 180mm f/2.8, the 300mm f/4, a 28mm f/2.8, an 85 f2.8 and finally, the lovely little 25mm f/2.8, all bought well below the current prices I'm pleased to report.

I had of course been looking out for the 21mm f/2.8 but I was not prepared to fork out the several thousand that they can command until just last month, I found one for sale only a few miles away from where I live here in Australia and at half the going international price! It certainly has become my new best friend...

Now, I populate several camera and post production Forums and I have to admit that my enthusiasm for the Contax series has fallen on deaf ears, especially among the young, new breed of 'pretend' film makers who all seem to think Auto Iris, Auto Focus, Internal Stabilisation, Facebook and Youtube are absolutely essential to the art and craft of digital cinematography!

Consequently, it was especially exciting to trip over Nick's excellent 'Contax Survival Guide' on the Reduser forum. What a great resource it is!

My photography and film making work takes me from Australia to Taiwan and Japan a couple of time a year, where I shoot promotional and music videos so I must admit, I've recently come to appreciate the Contax zooms as well as the primes. I now have the 28-70mm, 28-85mm and the 80-200 but during my shoot in Kyoto last month, I came across a camera store in Downtown with a large collection of second hand Contax lenses as well as (wait for it) at least half a dozen absolutely 'new in box MMJs on the shelf! From memory, the new glass included a 35-70mm, a 300 f4, a 500 f8 and there was a 100-300mm there as well.

Now, if anybody is interested, they can contact me via HDvideo4K.com and I'll pass on the Store details so you can contact them directly. I have no idea what their prices are like but maybe they're still going off the original dealer listings?"
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 Looking forward to hearing more from Craig on this thread (he's just waiting for his RU account to get activated)!!
 
I've been looking and looking to no avail. Does anyone here have experience declicking Contax? I'd preferably do it here in Sweden if it's not too difficult as it would be quite a hassle to send it off the the lens doctor. I've heard rumors that AE's are more difficult to de-click than MM's, anyone know if this is true?
 
To mirror what Craig has said there, now I have an FS7 I find myself discussing things a hell of a lot with people coming into the job from a completely different angle, and their insistence on AF and IS is really worrying, especially when you see how poor the focus is in the end results a lot of the time.

People going on about adapting Canons and using the native E-Mount AF glass and it's like a tumbleweed every time I mention them. Which is good because it stops the prices getting more silly :)
 
Oscar Stegland said:
I've been looking and looking to no avail. Does anyone here have experience declicking Contax? I'd preferably do it here in Sweden if it's not too difficult as it would be quite a hassle to send it off the the lens doctor. I've heard rumors that AE's are more difficult to de-click than MM's, anyone know if this is true?
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I've been using Peter at RPLens, but that probably wouldn't help you in Sweden! Maybe Bjorn knows of a local solution? I know he has a sizeable FD kit and other glass, so he may better ideas!

Ben Scott said:
To mirror what Craig has said there, now I have an FS7 I find myself discussing things a hell of a lot with people coming into the job from a completely different angle, and their insistence on AF and IS is really worrying, especially when you see how poor the focus is in the end results a lot of the time.

People going on about adapting Canons and using the native E-Mount AF glass and it's like a tumbleweed every time I mention them. Which is good because it stops the prices getting more silly :)
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I'm not disagreeing with AF and IS, but there's something great about being fully in control, and not relying on too many electronics. I love knowing that as long as our RED is "on", we can roll. I've seen too many things go wrong when workflow gets too automated - AF goes out, IS stops working, etc. The more comlicated the signal chain, the more likely it can get knocked out. Notice that big productions are still completely MANUAL.
 
5-axis IS built into the new A7rII should be interesting, but I find myself noticing overuse of IS in a ton of stuff. Likewise the idea of trusting a camera to know what you want in focus has always scared me.

I don't think I have ever had a stills camera in anything other than manual mode and ditto for video cameras. Maybe I'm missing out.
 
Hi all, just wanted to say a big thanks to Nick and everyone for this thread. I'm inspired by all of your technical abilities and may even be more impressed by the warm welcoming nature of this thread! I'm building up an MM zoom and AE prime set and you all are an invaluable resource. I hope to contribute in some meager way as well in the future.

I did just notice a white whale, an MMJ 28mm f2 Hollywood show up on fredmiranda: http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1373676/0 I don't know the seller but they have great feedback and the lens is a beauty.

-Bob
 
AH so they do exist. I thought I was going crazy when I couldn't find a picture of an MM 28/2
Thanks Bob
 
Bob Schulein said:
Hi all, just wanted to say a big thanks to Nick and everyone for this thread. I'm inspired by all of your technical abilities and may even be more impressed by the warm welcoming nature of this thread! I'm building up an MM zoom and AE prime set and you all are an invaluable resource. I hope to contribute in some meager way as well in the future.

I did just notice a white whale, an MMJ 28mm f2 Hollywood show up on fredmiranda: http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1373676/0 I don't know the seller but they have great feedback and the lens is a beauty.

-Bob
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WOW - she exists! Thanks Bob!!
 
Richard Luke said:
AH so they do exist. I thought I was going crazy when I couldn't find a picture of an MM 28/2
Thanks Bob
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Next we'll find an AE 21mm, and after that hell will freeze over :) That 28 is a doozy. Love mine. It's one of those lenses where the character just overcomes all else. I bought the 21mm, the 28mm, and the 35mm 1.4 all in very short time in that order and while I love all three, the one I find myself grabbing when I wanna shoot for fun, is the 28 even though both the 35 and 21 are in a slightly different league.

Ben Scott said:
21mm on its way from a fellow Reduser :)
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You're going to have a lot of fun with it. It has pretty peculiar distorsion which will probably be more pronounced on Dragon and especially Weapon 8K than on S35 or MX. Other than that distorsion it's one for the ages. The performance of that lens is just ridiculous in every way. Probably the best wide-open performance you can get unless looking at Ultra/Master Primes, S5i's, or Summilux-C's. And it flares beautifully as well. Perfect for road-footage :)
 
Thanks for sharing Craig's post, Nick. A "Back to basics" post from a talented person is always a great read.

Here are some patriotic firework ninja stars from July 4. Canon 5DII with AEJ 50mm 1.4 at f/2 focused close.

_MG_7761-Edit-XL.jpg
 
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