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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

Uli Plank said:
@Homer
I wouldn't go for the 135mm f2. It#s hard to find, expensive and not really great WO. The 135mm f2.8 is good from the start and far cheaper.

All the others you consider are great, but good luck with the 21mm…
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Tommaso Alvisi said:
Uli is totally right go for the 135 2.8 unless you like the softness and accentuated lowcon look (even for Contax standards he he) of the 135 F2!

BTW I have two gorgeous Zeiss 21mm, I could sell my main one or my new old stock one I bought as a backup since these babies are tough I don't need it after all he he;)
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Thanks for the advice guys!
 
Steve Sherrick said:
Just picked up the 80-200 in Mint condition for $200. I have a specific use for it coming up. So still missing the 100, 135, 180 and the 35-70 but getting there.
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The 35-70 is one heck of a lens (for the money) ... think: variable prime. I have had Duclos “leitax” all of my Contax lenses .... couldn’t be happier.
 
Sooo I was able to declick the lenses myself - very straightforward (they were MMs), and didn't take more than 15-20 minutes for each lens to do. Pretty proud of myself actually :laugh: Also used the Nye Lubricants 795A to dampen the aperture rings and it works wonderfully - a liberal application made the ring stiff, but not too stiff. For sure, the aperture wouldn't accidentally change in the middle of a shot. Wouldn't recommend this grease for focus rings though.

Also got the focus gears from helicoptersean - they fit beautifully. Totally recommend them.

For now, I'm using the K&F Concept Lens Mount Adapter until I can get the Leitax mount. There's surprisingly very little play with this mount, less than the Fotodiox Pro that I bought for almost 3 times the price. I bought the K&F from Amazon here: http://a.co/e4i1FxQ
 
I got my 25mm 2.8 / 35mm 1.4 / 50mm 1.4 / 85mm 1.4 (all AE versions) de-clicked today from a local lens tech and was a little disappointed in the job he did.
The 25mm and 50mm are fairly stiff, while the 35mm is super loose and the 85mm starts stiff then gets looser half way then goes stiff again toward the end of the aperture throw.

I actually have some Nye Lubricant 795A which I planned to dampen them with (while also hoping to clean/smoothen out the aperture ring at the same time) however I can't for the life of me work out how to get access to the aperture ring behind the black back plate on the AE lenses. All the lenses have Leitax mounts, so I'm talking about the part behind the little black metal ring that sits over the rear pre - leitax.
I took out the four screws but it's still stuck on there really solid.
In the past I have taken apart a MM 25mm and that part just lifted straight off.

I might take some photos of this tomorrow but does anyone have any experience in accessing the aperture ring to apply lubricant on the AE varieties?
I'd really really appreciate it if anyone could give me any advice.
 
Hey y'all.

I'm wondering if you have any experience with sending lenses to Henry Scherer. I've seen lots of mixed reviews from his work on actual cameras, but not on his work on lenses. I sent him an email and he told me that he works with people in the film industry all the time, but I want to hear if any of you have sent off your lenses to be overhauled by him.

I had some work done to cine-mod my lenses by Duclos and was not at all impressed with the job they did. Lots of aperture creep, pretty inconsistent with the focus ring stiffness. I got that work done for free though, so I wasn't TOO upset, but now I'm wanting to do it right. Henry seems like he'll do it right, explaining literally everything he'd do to my lenses to me before even seeing them. But at the same time, a decent amount of people haven't had good experiences with him (mostly with camera bodies). Just wondering if I should fork over the money to have him properly do these lenses (28, 50, 85, 135) or if there's someone else that can do a total overhaul of them. I'm totally open to other suggestions though.
 
Thanks for turning me onto these lenses. Pictured below 28mm MM f/2.8 (sorry, not a Red camera this time).

38131169201_f349a65a8c_h.jpg" width="1600" height="668"
 
Hey guys. Me and a friend are shooting on his GH5 this week, and he has a Speedbooster which we were going to use with my Contax lenses. Problem is, I have heard on this forum that there can be problems changing aperture with these adapters. Can anyone advise me on this? My lenses are 28 F2.8, 50 F1.4, 60 F2.8 C, 135 F2.8... all Leitexed MMJ
 
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Does anybody other than me ever use tilt and/or shift movements with these lenses?

I'm a still photographer, not a videographer -- sorry about that! -- and am using my four C/Y lenses with a Sony A7R / Cambo Actus mini-view camera outfit.

I photograph mostly architecture and architectural-related subjects, so I frequently use tilt-and-shift movements to carefully control DoF and correct geometric perspective as necessary, as well as to fine-tune my compositions in-camera.

I also photograph mostly at night, so mild vignetting and/or slightly soft corners aren't usually an issue for me because they're effectively invisible in most of my photos.

To my surprise, each of the MMJ lenses I own -- a 35/f2.8, 28/f2.8, 50/f1.7, and 45/f2.8 (I know, but I love the distinctive look of Tessar-type lenses, including this one!) -- projects an image circle that's sufficiently large to allow for between 6-10mm of shift movements on a 24x36 sensor (i.e., 25-40% of the short side's length) when stopped down to f8 and focused at or near infinity.

My success using these lenses over the past few months has caused me to wonder about the size of the image circles projected by some of the other C/Y prime lenses.

Unfortunately, this is an aspect of lens performance that gets very little attention, so my internet research has turned up very little useful information relative to the C/Y lenses.

In fact, it seems the only way to know for certain whether any C/Y lens will work for my purposes or not is to buy it and try it.

Alas, the C/Y lenses that interest me beyond these first four generally sell for quite a bit more money, so I'm not as keen to gamble and buy them to try them going forward.

Hence my question to this forum's C/Y lens brain trust: Does anybody here have any knowledge -- first-hand or at least on very good authority -- as to the size of the image circles projected by various other C/Y prime lenses? As well as whether they hard or soft vignette and how well sharpness and image quality hold up as the edge of the image circle is approached?

(Although the size of the image circles these lenses project is largely irrelevant for video use these days, as the size of sensors used in video cameras continues to increase, I believe this information will be handy to have in the future and I will happily compile a summary of my findings and share it here.)

FYI, the ones that interest me most are the 15/f3.5, 18/f4, 21/f2.8, 25/f2.8, 60/f2.8, 85/f2.8 and 135/f2.8, but information about any of the C/Y lenses will be much appreciated!

Thanks!
 
Jeff Goggin said:
Does anybody other than me ever use tilt and/or shift movements with these lenses?

I'm a still photographer, not a videographer -- sorry about that! -- and am using my four C/Y lenses with a Sony A7R / Cambo Actus mini-view camera outfit.

I photograph mostly architecture and architectural-related subjects, so I frequently use tilt-and-shift movements to carefully control DoF and correct geometric perspective as necessary, as well as to fine-tune my compositions in-camera.

I also photograph mostly at night, so mild vignetting and/or slightly soft corners aren't usually an issue for me because they're effectively invisible in most of my photos.

To my surprise, each of the MMJ lenses I own -- a 35/f2.8, 28/f2.8, 50/f1.7, and 45/f2.8 (I know, but I love the distinctive look of Tessar-type lenses, including this one!) -- projects an image circle that's sufficiently large to allow for between 6-10mm of shift movements on a 24x36 sensor (i.e., 25-40% of the short side's length) when stopped down to f8 and focused at or near infinity.

My success using these lenses over the past few months has caused me to wonder about the size of the image circles projected by some of the other C/Y prime lenses.

Unfortunately, this is an aspect of lens performance that gets very little attention, so my internet research has turned up very little useful information relative to the C/Y lenses.

In fact, it seems the only way to know for certain whether any C/Y lens will work for my purposes or not is to buy it and try it.

Alas, the C/Y lenses that interest me beyond these first four generally sell for quite a bit more money, so I'm not as keen to gamble and buy them to try them going forward.

Hence my question to this forum's C/Y lens brain trust: Does anybody here have any knowledge -- first-hand or at least on very good authority -- as to the size of the image circles projected by various other C/Y prime lenses? As well as whether they hard or soft vignette and how well sharpness and image quality hold up as the edge of the image circle is approached?

(Although the size of the image circles these lenses project is largely irrelevant for video use these days, as the size of sensors used in video cameras continues to increase, I believe this information will be handy to have in the future and I will happily compile a summary of my findings and share it here.)

FYI, the ones that interest me most are the 15/f3.5, 18/f4, 21/f2.8, 25/f2.8, 60/f2.8, 85/f2.8 and 135/f2.8, but information about any of the C/Y lenses will be much appreciated!

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Jeff this is a fascinating question, and one that can be answered soon. RED has just updated their firmware to include the actual sensor size in mm for every resolution you pick. Which means that on 8K Vista Vision Monstro (which at 40.96mm across is LARGER than the 35.8mm of an A7), it would be possible to see how many Contax lenses exceed the image circle of an A7.

I may testing a Monstro soon, lemme see what I can do.
 
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