Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

Log in
  • 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, totally agree. The 80-200 is certainly "sharp enough", especially for human beings, which is what we use it a lot for. We have several copies, that all get used regularly.

Ben Scott said:
80-200 seems plenty sharp to me.. Maybe I got a good one. The forum embedding mushes them up but on flickr they are fine.


Pineapple seller -Floating market by Ben Scott, on Flickr

Pineapple seller -Floating market by Ben Scott, on Flickr

Abandoned party - Rex Hotel rooftop bar by Ben Scott, on Flickr

Serendipity Beach by Ben Scott, on Flickr

Dave the Sheep - Up a hill in Wales by Ben Scott, on Flickr
Click to expand...
 
Matthew Benjamin Canada said:
Hi guys. What is the best grease to get for dampening the aperture ring? I'll be doing the mod myself.

I've already modded my lenses with Leitax EF mounts and Cordvision gears.
My set is:
21 f2.8 MMJ
28 f2 MMG
50 f1.4 MMJ
60 f2.8
85 f1.4 MMJ
35-70 zoom

Thank you.
Click to expand...

I believe Zeiss sells grease for techs to use. There are different strengths.

Though it's also worth noting that lens techs seam to treat grease as a personal alchemy, and it's not uncommon for technicians to have their own "secret sauces" and techniques, earned after decades at being on the bench. Trying to pry those secrets from them can be a thankless and almost impossible task (I've tried and failed several times, simply out of personal curiosity).

Patrick Monaghan said:
Hey fellow contaxians. I managed to find a guy in my country that is willing to de-click and grease the lenses for me. I got him on the phone and he said that it should be no problem, however, he wondered how 'firm' I wanted the aperture ring. To be honest, I didn't know what to say... And it got me thinking, how 'firm' are your de-clicked lenses?
Click to expand...

See above. Greases come in several strengths. I personally like them STIFF, as I'm learly of aperture creep/drift, which is known to happen on modded stills lenses. Which is why I like all my mods armed with STIFF grease.

Hope this helps.
 
tell him to put NLGI grade #3 grease.
besides you'd better search for one with zero migration and evaporation. Good stability (equal firmness) at cold and hot conditions is also to keep in mind.
 
Nick Morrison said:
I believe Zeiss sells grease for techs to use. There are different strengths.

Though it's also worth noting that lens techs seam to treat grease as a personal alchemy, and it's not uncommon for technicians to have their own "secret sauces" and techniques, earned after decades at being on the bench. Trying to pry those secrets from them can be a thankless and almost impossible task (I've tried and failed several times, simply out of personal curiosity).



See above. Greases come in several strengths. I personally like them STIFF, as I'm learly of aperture creep/drift, which is known to happen on modded stills lenses. Which is why I like all my mods armed with STIFF grease.

Hope this helps.
Click to expand...

Exactly, I've asked technicians and they won't tell me what grease they use.
 
Found this pretty interesting article from Lensrentals on how they're going to start testing the MTFs of Cinema lenses like the Zeiss CP.2s because with the increased use of 6K and 8K sensors (i.e. REDs), the cinema lenses will start to show severe flaws:

https://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2017/07/why-were-going-to-start-testing-cinema-lenses-and-why-we-havent-before/

While there's nothing definitive from their quick MTF tests of the CP2s, is it more than likely that the Contax Zeiss lenses actually outperform them since it's been reported that they have no problems resolving 8K sensors like the Vista? Thoughts?
 
Nick Morrison said:
I believe Zeiss sells grease for techs to use. There are different strengths.

Though it's also worth noting that lens techs seam to treat grease as a personal alchemy, and it's not uncommon for technicians to have their own "secret sauces" and techniques, earned after decades at being on the bench. Trying to pry those secrets from them can be a thankless and almost impossible task (I've tried and failed several times, simply out of personal curiosity).



See above. Greases come in several strengths. I personally like them STIFF, as I'm learly of aperture creep/drift, which is known to happen on modded stills lenses. Which is why I like all my mods armed with STIFF grease.

Hope this helps.
Click to expand...

ok, i ordered NyoGel 774VH: https://shop.newgatesimms.com/produ..._pa_packaging=tube&attribute_pa_size=100-gram
more info: https://shop.newgatesimms.com/damping-grease/

i'll see how it goes.
 
Tony Yang said:
Found this pretty interesting article from Lensrentals on how they're going to start testing the MTFs of Cinema lenses like the Zeiss CP.2s because with the increased use of 6K and 8K sensors (i.e. REDs), the cinema lenses will start to show severe flaws:

https://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2017/07/why-were-going-to-start-testing-cinema-lenses-and-why-we-havent-before/

While there's nothing definitive from their quick MTF tests of the CP2s, is it more than likely that the Contax Zeiss lenses actually outperform them since it's been reported that they have no problems resolving 8K sensors like the Vista? Thoughts?
Click to expand...

In terms of resolving, most lenses will outresolve 6K and 8K RED sensors, as the small pixels are easily matched even by old lenses (for ex Super Speeds wide open outresolve 6K Dragon).

However other issues like CA, color accuracy, contrast, blooming, and other vintage design anomalies etc may indeed be accentuated by these extra large, high resolution, high DR sensors.
 
Last edited:
(Disclosure: I'm the owner of cordvision.com)
Just found this thread by coincidence. Unless Arriflex changed their caps (which I don't think they did), the Cordvision Caps definitely have a more snug fit. Be aware that I'm selling two different kinds of caps (Cordvision Caps and Standard Caps).

I was working for a prominent rental house in LA when I noticed that many Arriflex caps had little strips of velcro attached to them to make them tighter because they got loose over time. This was why I started making the Cordvision Caps, with the specific goal to make them as tight as possible without becoming difficult to take on and off. You obviously should take this with a grain of salt, but I haven't found a cap that has a better fit than my Cordvision Cap, and I've looked at a lot of caps. If someone does, please let me know.
Let me know if you have any questions.
 
Michael Althaus said:
(Disclosure: I'm the owner of cordvision.com)
Just found this thread by coincidence. Unless Arriflex changed their caps (which I don't think they did), the Cordvision Caps definitely have a more snug fit. Be aware that I'm selling two different kinds of caps (Cordvision Caps and Standard Caps).

I was working for a prominent rental house in LA when I noticed that many Arriflex caps had little strips of velcro attached to them to make them tighter because they got loose over time. This was why I started making the Cordvision Caps, with the specific goal to make them as tight as possible without becoming difficult to take on and off. You obviously should take this with a grain of salt, but I haven't found a cap that has a better fit than my Cordvision Cap, and I've looked at a lot of caps. If someone does, please let me know.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Click to expand...

What's the main difference between the Pro and Standard caps? Are they both made out of the same material? Are they both the same snugness?
 
Haven't been on this thread for a while, but I figured I'd drop some recent work. They were all shot on FS7 with Contax glass. I used 1/4 HBM for the last video.



 
Tony Yang said:
What's the main difference between the Pro and Standard caps? Are they both made out of the same material? Are they both the same snugness?
Click to expand...

They are made from different materials. The Cordvision Caps feel more rubbery, are more rugged and have a tighter fit than the standard caps. The standard caps have a little bit of a nicer surface finish. This comes in part from the manufacturing process that is not the same for both caps (Cordvision Caps are made with a more time intensive process including quite a bit of manual labor, hence the price difference).
 
I've recently been coming across instances of people going through several different copies of the same contax lens, in order to find a good copy. Is there really this much variance within close serial number groups?
 
Ben, despite the beliefs in brands, the variation was always there and will remain.

Here is brilliant test of modern cine lenses variation made by Roger Cicala of LensRentals:


[Zeiss Compact Prime CP.2 35mm T2.1 copy variation at 50 lp/mm]

That's why I came up with the idea of Star Tester Device crowdfunding in this thread
 
Ben Williams said:
I've recently been coming across instances of people going through several different copies of the same contax lens, in order to find a good copy. Is there really this much variance within close serial number groups?
Click to expand...

Many folks do this. Even with newly manufactured modern lenses.

Also note that many of these Contax lenses have over 30 years of use on them.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top