Contax Zeiss Survival Guide

[Adam E]

Yeah one of the DP's I've been working with is pushing me to get the 100 because he says it's easier to do macro work since you don't need to be as close as the 60. But he loves isolation and completely obliterating backgrounds into a blur and I find myself consistently leaning away from that.

My gut is saying I'd liked that 60 more. It's a fantastic focal length for a medium close up when you want to maintain a good sense of the background but want something tighter than a 50, a place I often find myself when an 85 just feels too long.

Plus that 60 is basically half the price of the 100.

 

[Uli Plank]

The 60mm is a great portrait lens too. I'd also suggest the 100mm f2.0 or the often overlooked, tiny 100 f3.5.

 

[Ted Parkes]

I have the 60mm S-Planar and love it. A very usable focal length and absolutely tack sharp. keep in mind the S-Planar will focus at 1:1 while the C-Planar will only focuses at 2:1.

 

[Nick Morrison]

I have the 60mm S-Planar and love it. A very usable focal length and absolutely tack sharp. keep in mind the S-Planar will focus at 1:1 while the C-Planar will only focuses at 2:1.

Awesome to know the C-Planar is tack sharp!!!

 

[Adam E]

Went ahead and picked up the 60 macro and a mutar for my 135 and 180 and future 100-300.

If you guys could only have one of the three 100mm lenses, which one would you get?

 

[scott devitte]

Went ahead and picked up the 60 macro and a mutar for my 135 and 180 and future 100-300.

If you guys could only have one of the three 100mm lenses, which one would you get?

85 2.8, 100 2, and 100-300 are the Trifecta of best Contax portrait to tele combo.

 

[Chad Stockfleth]

I just noticed I'm having trouble getting infinity focus on my AE 85 1.4 with a Leitax adapter. Anyone else have this issue?

 

[Craig J Marshall]

...My 21mm got delivered while I was away for the holidays. Finally got to break it out last night, holy moly, could tell instantly how fantastic it was! It paired really well with an A7RII in both stills full frame and S35 crop for 4K video.

I use my 21mm (and all the other C/Ys) on Sony S-35 and APS-C cameras with Metabones excellent C/Y to E-Mount Focal Reducer. Not only does it completely restore the 21's original 90 degree field of view to the smaller sensor, you get an extra stop too. (Metabones recently released a new model with improved optics but I have the original.)

Here's a very short clip I shot in the rain and mist at 2000m up in Tawan late last year. All on the 21mm!

BTW there are currently three 100-300mm Contax zooms listed BIN on ebay (Japan) plus one 35-135mm zoom. These are really rare on ebay.

 

[Daniel Reed]

Ah hah! I was scratching my head trying to understand the results of my round of hyperfocal tests


Shots were out of focus using hyperfocal lens scale w/ the critical distance from camera to subject point based on pcam;
however, I also did manual focus and infinities from the same setups

Luckily I was using Pcam to set distance w/ each aperture.
And if i understand this now correctly, that is/near where I should be focusing at

Its clear the DOF is way bigger in the shots manually focused at hyperfocal distance measurements based on pcam.
those same shots manually focused based on hyperfocal distance are definately sharper too


man, this hyperfocal business is tricky!

I never use it because the hyperfocal scale on the Contax lenses is meant for a full frame 35mm picture, it doesn't bear much relevance to the Dragon sensor.
For accurate DOF calculations I use the pCAM application. It also helps to show producers this app when they say they want a shot with deep DOF at 100fps but want to cheap out on the lighting required.

 

[Paul Russell]

be careful with the focus marks on the Contax lenses. They are not very accurate. The 21mm MM for example is way out at the 1m mark.

 

[Uli Plank]

Photographic lenses are rarely very accurate in their marks. Plus, the smallest error in the flange distance by adapters will throw wides off quite a bit.
Don't expect anything like witness marks on cine lenses.

 

[Craig J Marshall]

be careful with the focus marks on the Contax lenses. They are not very accurate. The 21mm MM for example is way out at the 1m mark.

I found the 21mm back focus to be way different to all my other Contax lenses - both primes and zooms - and it would not reach infinity focus wide open. Fortunately, the Metabones focal reducer has a back focus adjustment so I set it up for the 21 so that 'infinity' is actually infinity. Now, all my other lenses focus past infinity but I'll live with that especially that I can now be quite confident that if I open the iris wide for f/2.0 at the sensor on the 21mm and whack the focus ring around, I can shoot at night on the street with pin sharp accuracy from about a metre out.

 

[Peter Arnold]

e-mail sent

 

[David W. Jones]

I found the 21mm back focus to be way different to all my other Contax lenses - both primes and zooms - and it would not reach infinity focus wide open. .

Here is a link which may be helpful..... http://www.pebbleplace.com/Personal/Contax_db_Specific_Lenses.html


Forth lens down talks about adapter thickness issues with the 21mm


All the best!

Dave

 

[Craig J Marshall]

Thanks for that link.

Reading it, I found this even more interesting reference on how to set up the Contax primes for 'correct' back focus. It seems there's potential for a very wide variation from lens to lens and if like me you have more than a few, then setting every one up to be perfectly aligned is possible and with the right tools, it's relatively simple:

http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/593894

In my case, the Metabones device is an integral part of my camera as it adapts C/Y to E-Mount with optical focal reduction from FF to S-35. The adapter includes a back focus adjustment so I've set it up precisely for the 21mm which is the critical element in my kit. The other lenses now focus slightly 'past' infinity but it's good to know they can all be 'matched' using this technique.

 

[liam howlett]

Hey guys, I apologize if this has been answered before. Recently my boss acquired an FS7 and I'd like to use my Contax lenses on it but Metabones has no adapter yet. I think I remember people recommending adapting the ZC's to Leitax and use them on an EF speedbooster (as I have E-mount to EF). However, someone on facebook also said that Leitax only would work on MM's and not AE's - is this correct? I love my AEs for obvious reasons but I'd like to use all the ZC's I have, MM's and AE's on the FS7... what's the best approach to go about it? Also is there a good place that would adapt Contax to whatever mount on the East Coast?

Thanks

 

[Nick Morrison]

Hey guys, I apologize if this has been answered before. Recently my boss acquired an FS7 and I'd like to use my Contax lenses on it but Metabones has no adapter yet. I think I remember people recommending adapting the ZC's to Leitax and use them on an EF speedbooster (as I have E-mount to EF). However, someone on facebook also said that Leitax only would work on MM's and not AE's - is this correct? I love my AEs for obvious reasons but I'd like to use all the ZC's I have, MM's and AE's on the FS7... what's the best approach to go about it? Also is there a good place that would adapt Contax to whatever mount on the East Coast?

Thanks

Leitax work for AE and MM equally.

Both our sets (AE & MM) are Leitaxed.

Best

 

[Nick Morrison]

Hey guys, I apologize if this has been answered before. Recently my boss acquired an FS7 and I'd like to use my Contax lenses on it but Metabones has no adapter yet. I think I remember people recommending adapting the ZC's to Leitax and use them on an EF speedbooster (as I have E-mount to EF). However, someone on facebook also said that Leitax only would work on MM's and not AE's - is this correct? I love my AEs for obvious reasons but I'd like to use all the ZC's I have, MM's and AE's on the FS7... what's the best approach to go about it? Also is there a good place that would adapt Contax to whatever mount on the East Coast?

Thanks

Leitax work for AE and MM equally.

Both our sets (AE & MM) are Leitaxed.

No fear!

Best

 

[Ben Scott]

Also, if you want to save some money I use a Camdiox 'dumb' focal reducer from EF to E mount with my Contax set which cost about 15% the rice of the metabones and looks great.

 

[Craig J Marshall]

...Recently my boss acquired an FS7 and I'd like to use my Contax lenses on it but Metabones has no adapter yet....

Metabones have always had a C/Y to E-Mount 'Speed Booster' available so you could use that. It would restore your Contax original FF field of view to the Fs7, improve your MTF and gain you an additional stop of light in the process.