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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

Have a bunch of Helicopter Sean's gears on my Contax Zeiss and Leica R's. They work very well. Great guy also.
 
Steve Sherrick said:
All three lenses have arrived. 35mm F2.8, 50mm F1.4, 85mm F1.4. My good friend and DP Ken Willinger had 2 Allstar Contax adapters he is selling me (pick those up tomorrow) and I have ordered another from Allstar. And just for fun, I ordered the MFT mount from him as well to try these out on the Blackmagic Pocket Cam. Of course, on that camera a 35 is closer to a 105 FOV but that could still be interesting for certain things.

Wasting no time getting the lenses into action. I shoot a company promotional video on Thursday and I'm planning on using the Contax.
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Good luck on shoot tomorrow!!!
Best
 
Nick Morrison said:
Good luck on shoot tomorrow!!!
Best
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Thanks Nick! Did have a problem getting the Allstar C/Y adapters on the 50mm and 85mm. The 35 was fine. Contacted Allstar about it. Just barely got one attached to 50mm but the Nikon adapters are usually fairly easy to get on, so not sure what's up with these. Hopefully I can make it work tomorrow.
 
A few people wondered about the pricing of the lens caps and why they cost what they cost. I can give you some insight (for those who don't know, I'm the owner of cordvision.com):

The cost of the material the cap is made of is almost negligible. Even if you buy only small quantities of it, it still only amounts to 3-20 cents per cap. What drives the costs is getting that raw material shaped into a cap. In order to do so you need an injection mold which is going to cost you about 8-12K. You also need access to an injection molder to eventually mold your cap. Once you are ready to mold your cap, chances are that the fit isn't perfect because of factors like material shrink during the molding process. You could now either just
sell those caps (like some do) or take the more expensive route and tweak the mold (involves machining) until it is perfect. As you can guess, by the time you have your first sellable cap in your hands, you spent quite a bit of money upfront.
So if you could now sell hundreds of thousands of caps, the initial costs would be almost negligible. For example, when they are making bottle caps, they might spend 250k on a really elaborate mold. However, this mold will produce many millions of caps. So the initial mold costs are only a fraction of a cent per cap.

The game changes entirely if your market is a tiny niche like the 80mm lens caps. I'm selling hundreds and not thousands of caps. Therefore, my initial mold costs, and running small batches on an injection molder add a lot to the final price.

You can actually find some pictures of the molding process on my instagram (the big yellow machine): https://www.instagram.com/cordvision/
 
I'm in love. The Contax lenses looked incredible today and I'm not even doing them justice because I was a one man band. With full lighting package and more crew I know these will shine even more. The difference between these and my Nikkors was noticeable right away with much better color and rendering. I knew there would be a difference but surprised how much. I just really love how these look on the RED. Thanks to everyone who suggested I try these, especially Nick who was fielding emails during my mad dash to acquire a set. Now, I'm worried I'll want them all, even the "bad" ones. Let the addiction begin
 
Steve, I tried a 12 step program called Contax Anonymous. Didn't work. Now I am stuck with all of this wonderful glass that does so well with the Dragon.
 
Vance Colvig said:
Steve, I tried a 12 step program called Contax Anonymous. Didn't work. Now I am stuck with all of this wonderful glass that does so well with the Dragon.
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I can easily see myself ending up there. Best intervention would be cutting me off from the internet.
 
Michael Althaus said:
A few people wondered about the pricing of the lens caps and why they cost what they cost. I can give you some insight (for those who don't know, I'm the owner of cordvision.com):

The cost of the material the cap is made of is almost negligible. Even if you buy only small quantities of it, it still only amounts to 3-20 cents per cap. What drives the costs is getting that raw material shaped into a cap. In order to do so you need an injection mold which is going to cost you about 8-12K. You also need access to an injection molder to eventually mold your cap. Once you are ready to mold your cap, chances are that the fit isn't perfect because of factors like material shrink during the molding process. You could now either just
sell those caps (like some do) or take the more expensive route and tweak the mold (involves machining) until it is perfect. As you can guess, by the time you have your first sellable cap in your hands, you spent quite a bit of money upfront.
So if you could now sell hundreds of thousands of caps, the initial costs would be almost negligible. For example, when they are making bottle caps, they might spend 250k on a really elaborate mold. However, this mold will produce many millions of caps. So the initial mold costs are only a fraction of a cent per cap.

The game changes entirely if your market is a tiny niche like the 80mm lens caps. I'm selling hundreds and not thousands of caps. Therefore, my initial mold costs, and running small batches on an injection molder add a lot to the final price.

You can actually find some pictures of the molding process on my instagram (the big yellow machine): https://www.instagram.com/cordvision/
Click to expand...
Totally makes sense. It's easy to forget the process that leads up to selling the product. I've always been happy with the 80mm rings and I'm sure I'll be happy when the cap arrives.
 
Steve Sherrick said:
I'm in love. The Contax lenses looked incredible today and I'm not even doing them justice because I was a one man band. With full lighting package and more crew I know these will shine even more. The difference between these and my Nikkors was noticeable right away with much better color and rendering. I knew there would be a difference but surprised how much. I just really love how these look on the RED. Thanks to everyone who suggested I try these, especially Nick who was fielding emails during my mad dash to acquire a set. Now, I'm worried I'll want them all, even the "bad" ones. Let the addiction begin
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Haha - glad you like them!!!!

Yeah Contax glass rocks...especially on digital...and in particular on RED.

Feel free to ask more questions!!

Vance Colvig said:
Steve, I tried a 12 step program called Contax Anonymous. Didn't work. Now I am stuck with all of this wonderful glass that does so well with the Dragon.
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HAHA, love this. OMG...I've tried to abstain as well....so....hard....

I keep eying that 15mm 3.5 AE....
 
Ben Scott said:
I'm starting to think the 21mm is my fave of all my lenses at the moment.
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I've just completed 13 short promotional films and three of them were entirely shot on the 21. I get the full 90 degree FoV with the Metabones on and it's the first really wide lens I've used that doesn't 'look' like a wide angle lens. I'm getting a bit fed up seeing TV presenters on the major Networks looking all 'nose and face', with their legs and feet drifting off into the underworld. Those ENG camera guys must all be GoPro fans!
 
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Ben Scott said:
Thanks Nick. Nope, shooting full frame. Although not used it for much work as this is my annual dead period!
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Have you seen the specs of Sony's new A6300? 14 stops DR, S-35 BSI, true 6K > 4K internal LOG without line skipping, Clean 4:2:2 out, monitoring LUTs and all for $995! Toy cameras are becoming serious...

Oh, and it shoots stills too. :001_smile:
 
Well, log in 8 bit? Not much grading leeway…

I own an A7S myself, but i rarely shoot it log, normally one of the Cine profiles.

But without any doubt it'll be quite impressive with a well-planned color profile and good lighting. Just don't expect too much tweaking in post.
 
I still believe transcoding all 8bit material to 10bit ProRes/DnxHd etc offers a bit more leeway in the grade but yes, 8bit cameras have limitations. Something I read recently seems to confirm that 10bit on cheap cameras is little more a 'marketing' ploy.
 
This thread has caused me to buy the 28 2.8, 35 1.4 and 135 2.8 in a matter of weeks.......all MMJ by choice. My 135 2.8 is unusually sharp, its soo sharp that I don't like using it on faces, i guess this is a bit of a luxury problem. I've got this small little Minolta MD 28 2.8 that is sharper than the CY 28 2.8 but the colour rendition are nowhere as nice.

The 35, 1.4, well what could I say, I think I got a hell of a deal on it. 1100 USD, purchased in Shanghai. When I bought it, I didn't notice the 2 very very very very tiny hairline scratches on the rear element until I got home. The next morning I gave the guy a call about the issue and he says to me that he's got another 35 1.4 MMJ with a very beat up barrel and grungy focus ring that he doesn't think anyone will end up buying, however the rear element was perfect and told me if I was up for it, he would swap the rear element for me free of charge. Scratched all plans and went directly to the shop.... what a stand up fella, decided to buy the 28 2.8 from him as well. He had about 20-30 other AEJ lenses and about 10 more MMJ's on display. Was super tempted to pick up the 60 macro MMJ.... but I truly want the 100, which he didn't have.
 
Well, regarding color rendition, the Minoltas are just different, they can be very nice too ( I got a full line of both Contax and Minolta SR and very few others ). Plus, the Minoltas are more consistent in color than even Contax. In the analog times that meant a lot to professionals, and Minolta was in the color measuring business too (I think they still are, right?).
 
Maybe my wording was strong, its not a critique on your personal set of lenses.

To me, I prefer the colour rendition out of camera on the CY 28 2.8 over the Minolta 28 2.8 MD on my A7Rii.

I don't really use these lenses on my commercial jobs, most fly in DOP's are always requesting UP's and MP's as they are the go to's here in China for TVC's, MV's and features. The CY lenses are more for my personal filming purposes.
 
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