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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

Huge thanks to Nick and all the other contributors for all the great knowledge and information. I have been looking to get into vintage/more cinema lenses for a while. Luckily I found this thread before I spent my money on something else. I feel im a bit in the same boat as some of you guys and find most modern glass a bit boring. Made it about 120 pages so far into the thread and got really lucky the last days on the local craigslist equivalent. So I picked up the following lenses for 600 euro shipped. All MM and in like new condition.

28/2.8
50/1.7
35-70/3.4
80-200/4

Ill show you some test footage as soon as they arrive! Cant wait to go out and shoot! :)
 
Contax 28-85

Contax 28-85

First, just want to say thanks to everyone here and for the good information. Nick, thanks for making this thread that seems to have lasted for years. I'm a long time lurker. I recently bought a 28 - 85. I was excited about getting it in as the ebay seller was from Japan and said it was in excellent condition. It is except it has severe lens creep. I'm wondering if any of you can help me with any recommendations on how to fix that. Also, Nick, do you still love that lens or have you started to favor others? Lastly, I want to use a Leitax adapter, but for Nikon for my metabones speedbooster on my BMCC. Do any of you have any experience with Nikon adapters on these lenses? Should I just stick to EF and get a different booster? Thanks guys. Hopefully some of you still come back to this thread.
 
William Long said:
Just like to say thank you to Nick and you others! What a thread!
I'm a complete Contax convert!
Click to expand...

Welcome!! Thanks so much for the kind words.

Florian Schuetz said:
Huge thanks to Nick and all the other contributors for all the great knowledge and information. I have been looking to get into vintage/more cinema lenses for a while. Luckily I found this thread before I spent my money on something else. I feel im a bit in the same boat as some of you guys and find most modern glass a bit boring. Made it about 120 pages so far into the thread and got really lucky the last days on the local craigslist equivalent. So I picked up the following lenses for 600 euro shipped. All MM and in like new condition.

28/2.8
50/1.7
35-70/3.4
80-200/4

Ill show you some test footage as soon as they arrive! Cant wait to go out and shoot! :)
Click to expand...

That is a GREAT set. Nicely done!!

Sonny Brown said:
First, just want to say thanks to everyone here and for the good information. Nick, thanks for making this thread that seems to have lasted for years. I'm a long time lurker. I recently bought a 28 - 85. I was excited about getting it in as the ebay seller was from Japan and said it was in excellent condition. It is except it has severe lens creep. I'm wondering if any of you can help me with any recommendations on how to fix that. Also, Nick, do you still love that lens or have you started to favor others? Lastly, I want to use a Leitax adapter, but for Nikon for my metabones speedbooster on my BMCC. Do any of you have any experience with Nikon adapters on these lenses? Should I just stick to EF and get a different booster? Thanks guys. Hopefully some of you still come back to this thread.
Click to expand...

Hey Sonny, yes the 28-85 does have lens creep. It's just so big and heavy, it does that. When we use it for film, we don't notice it, as we're on a balanced tripod a lot of the time, but for photograpy, yeah...it's not ideal.

We like the 28-85 quite a bit (we have a matching set), but we have moved on to the 35-70 at this point (we have three). For filmmaking, its definitely superior. Parfocal, doesn't have any light loss as it zooms, and is sharp as a tack. It's also just a more impeccable lens.

That said, the 28-85 is VERY good. That extra range is VERY USEFUL.
 
Thanks, Nick. I'll have to think about moving to that lens soon. This lens creep doesn't work for me as I like to a lot of extreme angles. I think I would really like it otherwise. Any other lenses you've been favoring lately?
 
Sonny Brown said:
Thanks, Nick. I'll have to think about moving to that lens soon. This lens creep doesn't work for me as I like to a lot of extreme angles. I think I would really like it otherwise. Any other lenses you've been favoring lately?
Click to expand...

In the Contax lineup? 21mm is coming back recently. We used the 16mm fisheye this month, and it's GREAT. The 180 never ceases to amaze. But the 35-70 and 80-200 are consistently awesome.

28mm f2 Hollywood gets a lot of play these days too.
 
Andy Kolb said:
I just stumbled across this lens: http://allphotolenses.com/lenses/item/c_3580.html

Has anyone ever heard if this lens? I can't find any info about it.
Click to expand...

Maybe it was one of the experimental lenses?

There was an experimental 25mm 1.4 that Contax played with too, and there were several prototypes around...I wonder if the 18mm 2.8 was another experiment that never made it to market?

Very curious.
 
Hello friends,
a long time out of RU and coudn't not stop here to contribute to some more pics with CZ Contax, Red Dragon, ipp2 and my love affaire with Pico island in Azores.

35-70
18193071_10212441652422733_8588283858780929944_o.jpg


100-300
18193414_10212464854522771_2239699931057887910_o.jpg


35-70
18238593_10212457953830258_3739327867665354675_o.jpg


35-70
18278545_10212476743379985_4155122373274105891_o.jpg


35-70
18238170_10212486578585859_6821179352815140848_o.jpg


35-70
18320520_10212509501838926_7070007579497179393_o.jpg


Peace love and bio-diversity
B.
 
Brice, so great to hear from you!

These pics are amazing!

Brice Ansel said:
Hello friends,
a long time out of RU and coudn't not stop here to contribute to some more pics with CZ Contax, Red Dragon, ipp2 and my love affaire with Pico island in Azores.

35-70
18193071_10212441652422733_8588283858780929944_o.jpg


100-300
18193414_10212464854522771_2239699931057887910_o.jpg


35-70
18238593_10212457953830258_3739327867665354675_o.jpg


35-70
18278545_10212476743379985_4155122373274105891_o.jpg


35-70
18238170_10212486578585859_6821179352815140848_o.jpg


35-70
18320520_10212509501838926_7070007579497179393_o.jpg


Peace love and bio-diversity
B.
Click to expand...
 
Nick, thanks for all of the great information in this thread. Over the last few months I've aquired a 21mm f2.8, 35mm f1.4, 50mm f1.4, 85mm f1.4, 100mm f2 & the 180mm f2.8. In that time I haven't seen a single 28mm f2 MMJ come up! Aside from KEH or eBay do you know of anywhere else I could search for one?
 
Richard Twomey said:
Nick, thanks for all of the great information in this thread. Over the last few months I've aquired a 21mm f2.8, 35mm f1.4, 50mm f1.4, 85mm f1.4, 100mm f2 & the 180mm f2.8. In that time I haven't seen a single 28mm f2 MMJ come up! Aside from KEH or eBay do you know of anywhere else I could search for one?
Click to expand...

KEH or Ebay are usually your bests. You can also try Adorama and B&H used.
 
Hi, thank you Nick for all the valuable info!

I'm searching for zooms, so I find used:
28-85/3.3-4 MMJ
24-85/3.5-4.5 (no working AF)
28-80/3.5-5.6 (no working AF)
35-70/3.5-5.6

70-200/3.5-4.5
70-210/3.5
80-200/4 MM


Nick listed in the first post:
35-70 3.3 (but in 2015 he says 3.4)
70-210 3.3

In this article:
https://www.apotelyt.com/photo-lens/zeiss-contax-catalog
I found:
28-70mm f/3.5-4.5
35-70mm f/3.4
70-210mm f/3.5

So my questions:

1) the 70-210 is 3.5 or 3.3?

2) 35-70 is 3.5-5.6, 3.3, or 3.4 ??

3) how many 20-80 range are there?
28-85, 28-70, 24-85, 28-80 ??
Which one is best (apart 35-70 that should be the best, but quite near)? As of your advices it should be the 28-85 , the others how well are them?
 
I'm sorry, I dig more and discovered the 24-85, 28-80, 35-70 different, were for Contax N or G...

So the list updates:
I found used:
70-210/3.5

Nick listed in the first post:
35-70/3.3 (but in 2015 he says 3.4)
70-210/3.3

In this article:
https://www.apotelyt.com/photo-lens/...contax-catalog
I found:
28-70mm f/3.5-4.5
70-210mm f/3.5


So my questions:

1) the 70-210 was 3.5 or 3.3? (I find only 3.5) Or they made both versions equally good?

2) 28-70 is good like 28-85 and 35-70?
 
hi all
I have a problem with my contax 50mm 1.4. At 1.4 it's fine, and same for f16. But some stops between appear to be stuck. When i change from 1.4 to 2 and 2.8, it gets smaller. But around the 5.6 mark the aperture size stops getting smaller - it appears that 5.6, 8, 16 are all the same and set at the smallest hole size.

I'm interested in opening the lens to see what's wrong. I managed to remove the first rear ring. But after removing the next set of screws, the rear element just won't budge
Is there a lens assembly manual anywhere, or can anyone help?
 
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