Contax Zeiss Survival Guide

[Samir Patel]

You will never regret getting the 21. Just saying.

Well if I come across a pristine copy I would jump on it. Unfortunately the last one I purchased had fungus in it and considering these lenses are old after all I may just be better off giving up the search. I find myself shooting long and not wide anyway.

 

[Jeff W]

Some dailies from a recent shoot with a dance crew on a BMPCC w/speedbooster'd Contax Zeiss:

80-200mm f4

85mm f1.4

50mm f1.4

28mm f2

Super 16 Zeiss 12mm T1.3

 

[Jeffrey T. Morgan]

Some dailies from a recent shoot with a dance crew on a BMPCC w/speedbooster'd Contax Zeiss:

Awesome, Jeff! This looks very intriguing for serious dance? Show us the final!

 

[Nick Morrison]

Jeff those frames look superb!!

 

[Chris McKechnie]

Nice grabs Jeff!

 

[Craig J Marshall]

Just returned to Australia after shooting a doco at 10,000' in the highlands of Central Taiwan. Here's a couple of stills shot with the Contax 21mm and 28-85 zoom: First three are with the 21 whilst 'Taipei 101' and the city skyline was taken with the Zoom. The thing I love about the 21 is the 'set and forget' nature of this lens: set the iris at f/5.6, focus at infinity with virtually full focus from the glass to forever and its rock steady on the shoulder too with that 93 degree FoV - simply the perfect doco lens.

Challenged for weight, I took only the 21, the 28-85 and the 80-200mm plus a Mutar 2x. This was my first commercial project on those three lenses as previous international commissions were all on Contax primes. Favourite lens? Probably the 80-200 because I took a really good lightweight fluid head tripod with me and it was worth it's weight in Gold up there because I found myself at the long end more than usual. I'll add some long shots later but I found the 21mm extremely 'artistic' when shooting in mountain mists at high altitude among the giant Arctic Beech trees!

 

[Ben Scott]

Wow can't wait to see more... Just done a week for a construction form 8 towns and 40 interview setups in 4 days. The 28-85 was a lifesaver.

 

[Nick Morrison]

The 28-85 and 80-200 are awesome.

We used the 80-200 last week, on a corporate medical job....used it for macro work on beautiful lab setups...and it was a jaw-dropping gorgeous. The 100 macro was also a crowd pleaser!!

 

[Ben Scott]

Jeff those shots are great by the way

 

[Ben Westaway]

Hey guys - selling a couple of contax zeiss in the 3rd party marketplace:

http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?138104-Contax-Zeiss-21mm-and-28mm

Thanks!

 

[David B.]

@jeff looking good!
was it the regular c/y -> mft speedbooster or the special bmpcc one?

 

[Paul Russell]

Guys, can I have your opinions, please?

I have a full set of mostly AE Contax Primes, from 21mm to 135mm, which I love dearly.
But I have nothing wider than 21mm and occasionally i have to pull out my Tokina 11-16. But the Tokina is, compared to the Contax Zeiss primes, utterly horrible. The focus isn't as sharp. The colours are nowhere near as vibrant or true.

So I need something around 15-18mm, capable of shooting comparable quality to the Contax set, that can function at f2.8. EF mount, or convertible.

Any recommendations?

 

[jordan levy]

Guys, can I have your opinions, please?

I have a full set of mostly AE Contax Primes, from 21mm to 135mm, which I love dearly.
But I have nothing wider than 21mm and occasionally i have to pull out my Tokina 11-16. But the Tokina is, compared to the Contax Zeiss primes, utterly horrible. The focus isn't as sharp. The colours are nowhere near as vibrant or true.

So I need something around 15-18mm, capable of shooting comparable quality to the Contax set, that can function at f2.8. EF mount, or convertible.

Any recommendations?

im hoping the sigma 18-35mm f1.8 might be sharp and colorful enough, not sure if it matches or covers your size sensor though, but thats what im hoping for the raven.

 

[Craig J Marshall]

Why not a Contax 15mm? (f/3.5 from memory) If it's not fast enough, you could put in on a Speed Booster and gain an extra stop. One of the advantages of the Metabones focal reducer is that it will restore your FF glass original FoV to a Super 35 sensor. The 21mm FoV is 93 degrees (diag) which I find plenty wide enough on S-35 without getting that silly 'GoPro' look.

Of course, if you're using Contax glass on anything other than full frame without a focal reducer, you'll lose your hard won wide angle FoV...

 

[Nick Morrison]

Paul I'd go with the Sigma 18-35. It's very sharp, and color matches Contax pretty well. Its def more contrasty and "modern" looking than our Contax primes (we usually pair it with some diffusion), and doesn't spread highlights as well, but it's VERY convenient and hard to beat for speed/convenience (18-35 1.8 is basically a wide-angle Super Speed). Also the filter thread is 72mm, so easily adaptable to 77mm.

 

[Paul Russell]

ok, thanks. It's what I was expecting

 

[jordan levy]

Paul I'd go with the Sigma 18-35. It's very sharp, and color matches Contax pretty well. Its def more contrasty and "modern" looking than our Contax primes (we usually pair it with some diffusion), and doesn't spread highlights as well, but it's VERY convenient and hard to beat for speed/convenience (18-35 1.8 is basically a wide-angle Super Speed). Also the filter thread is 72mm, so easily adaptable to 77mm.

im glad to hear you say that, i dont even have the lens yet but bought a 72-7mm adapter and a 1/8 hollywood blackmagic 77mm
but i intend to mix it with contax primes and hasselblad primes, esepcially on the long end, but i do hope they come out with a sigma art 50-135mm, or something like that...

 

[Uli Plank]

I second the Sigma 18-35mm, you won't have such a hard time to get it close to a Contax look.

It's remarkable how Sigma managed to redefine their game from a so-so third party bargain lens company to being on the heels of Zeiss!

 

[Richard Luke]

The 18-35 is a winner. Easy to match. Nice and fast.

 

[soren k jensen]

85mm

85mm

85mm 1.4, for one of our brochures: