Collapse. You can see, Ryan de Franco called my bluff recently, and he let me sit in on his informal test looking into how similar Contax in FACT areto Standards and Super Speeds. I know a bunch of photo magazines back in the 90's and early 2000's did comprehensive tests and reviews of Contax, I wonder if they lifted the numbers from one of those? You can use the code CINE at check out for a nifty discount! Optically, Ive read numerous reports that show BOTH lines are very sharp, but frequently the Contax equivalent is deemed a tad sharper (stopped down). If you are referring to breathing, there is some, but less than in many other still lenses. It was the most expensive lens in the set and it shares a lot of the beautiful look of the 28/2 Hollywood. Its also quite similar to the modern 15/2.8 ZF/ZE offered by Zeiss, just a 2/3 stops slower. You can tell them apart because MM have their last aperture number painted green, and they have a small tab on the mount that doesnt exist on AEs. They cover full frame, are super easy to adapt to many other mounts and never lose their value. Give the AC a good follow focus and a . Contax RTS Series SLR Camera Models - MIR One thing I want to mention here is that I have found the new 50/1.4 ZE and ZF's to be MUCH softer wide open than my Contax 50/1.4. The last decision I had to make was between the 18mm f/4 and the 15mm f/3.5. DxO PureRAW 3 review: Give Adobe's apps a much-needed boost with modern AI algorithms, The best cameras for family and friends photos in 2022, Best affordable cameras for sports and action in 2022, May 2023 Part 1 This Month Through Your Adapted Lens. You have to admit they look sexy. Shervin, thank you so much for posting those R3ds. All times are GMT-8. I was not impressed, so I decided to make my own. You can either build a $1500 set or a $10000 set and youll always impress with the results. thanks Nick im building Contax set in soon :). Its been there for quite a while and I have checked up on it countless times to help me make decisions. The Minolta MC 2/28 is the oldest and fastest of the bunch, it was introduced in 1975. Germany vs Japan? Eventually will spring for 135/2.8. Its the one I always took with me and it gave me gorgeous shots. Theyre much cheaper than modern lenses, yet share similar designs and performance. Because the Contax lenses are noticeably more low-con than even Leica Rs their contemporaries, you will notice more latitude in your image. Chris Ware Media - Cinematographer, Photographer, Journalist AgThunderbird A7Riii | A7ii infrared mod | Minolta 7 . We've selected a group of cameras that are easy to keep with you, and that can adapt to take photos wherever and whenever something memorable happens. There are MMG lenses out there I was weary of that for quite a while, since its not mentioned clearly anywhere. You can also tell their place of manufacture based on whats written on the lens! I returned to the guide and started eBay hunting. After I got the five Contax I went to look for more info and found Nick Morrison's Contax Zeiss Survival Guide at REDUser. Having them separate also gives me versatility on pricing, since the main set can still go out without them for a more accessible price. The issue that came up from was the stickers were having a hard time sticking to the material of the lens caps and were peeling off on their own. Want regular CineD updates about news, reviews, how-tos and more?Sign up to our newsletter and we will give you just that. All times are GMT-8. AEs and MMs all color match. The 15mm is a gorgeous rectilinear super wide angle, it shares the same optical formula as the Leica Super-Elmar 15mm f/3.5, with different coatings. Learn how your comment data is processed. Vintage Lenses Recommendation (Contax Yashica, Canon FD, Minolta MD The 135mm f/2.8 was a great lens. Theyre killer tools for video, but in order to achieve maximum performance, theres a number of steps and procedures to tackle. The 50 should be among the easiest to get right because the optical path is among the simplest. Back then, not all C/Y Zeiss lenses could be adapted for EOS cameras . some lenses required minor surgery to make them useable. I already talked about the mount replacements and focus gears, so Im left with standard fronts and de-clicking. Would I be crazy to say I kinda prefer my 85mm f2.8 to my 85mm f1.4. Its regarded as one of the best 21mm ever made, and to this day they still use the same formula for the 21mm f/2.8 ZF/ZE primes. http://slrlensreview.com/web/reviewszontalmenu-172, http://web.archive.org/web/200710120rode/TestZ.htm, If this is your first visit, be sure to Contax Zeiss lenses are the gems for sharp yet vintage glass. Contax Zeiss Survival Guide In reply to Giovanni_1968 9 months ago While this site is targeted to adapting Zeiss Contax lenses for video, it also seems to be the go-to guide for the rest of us with respect to these lenses. And they all have a very wide focus throw compared to other still lenses. Conveniently for me as I was finishing the set, SIMMOD Lens came into the picture, with very competitive prices, impressive customer service and super high-quality products. The Contax Zeiss Distagon 'Hollywood' 28mm F2.0 is a classic fast wide for full frame and is incredible on Super 35mm as well. In terms of a look, weve shot with both and there is a clear difference to me. The last decision I had to make was between the 18mm f/4 and the 15mm f/3.5. Mixing Zeiss Rollei/Contax/Z/Milvus/Otus/645/Sony/etc. The 180 is cleaner, sharper and technically better. I know organic is a hackneyed term, but it fits. Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* (C/Y) 35-70mm f3.4: A review (Heres where I beleive the Leica Rs have a clear advantage, their 19mm is a 2.8which is pretty amazing). ZF/ZEs only go as far as 135mm. That meant getting a few more lenses and upgrading various aspects I had neglected so far. In fact, i'm almost considering selling my 85mm f1.4 for that reason. The Contax I is a high-end 35mm rangefinder camera made by Zeiss Ikon to compete with Leica models. Conveniently for me as I was finishing the set, SIMMOD Lens came into the picture, with very competitive prices, impressive customer service and super high-quality products. 06-22-2022, 04:47 PM Hey, everybody, I know we have the awesome Contax Zeiss Survival Guide but looking at building a set of Zeiss lenses myself from bargain finds and fixer uppers I've collected, I wondered what anybody's experiences might have been with mixing Zeiss lineups together? The 'Contax craze' is 15 years old and dates back to the introduction of the Canon 5D which was the first affordable full frame sensor. What IS the Ninja-Star? For a while I didnt understand the need for 80mm fronts, so Ill share what I learned so others wont live too long unknowing like me! Contax rangefinder - Camera-wiki.org - The free camera encyclopedia comments sorted by Best Top New Controversial Q&A Add a Comment . cinema5D GmbH, Kranzgasse 22/9-10, A-1150 Vienna, Austria. In this buying guide we've rounded up all the current interchangeable lens cameras costing around $2000 and recommended the best. See the photo below! Its by no means unusable, but dont expect a Contax at F2 to perform like an Ultraprime. Contax Zeiss Survival Guide - REDUSER.net I will leave you with a few beautiful videos that will definitely help you make up your mind! Contax Yashica lenses - German vs Japanese: Adapted Lens Talk Forum This website or its third-party tools use cookies, which are necessary to its functioning and required to achieve the purposes illustrated in the cookie policy. This gave me a great set of lenses ready for action, all I missed was a way of getting them to said action. Its also quite similar to the modern 15/2.8 ZF/ZE offered by Zeiss, just a 2/3 stops slower. The 21/2.8 was a must. Lucky for me my 50 and 85/1.4 were already MMJ. Super Speeds and Standards for cinema. So all you do is get a Cine Ring with the rear thread of your lens and thats gonna make it standard! So all you do is get a Cine Ring with the rear thread of your lens and thats gonna make it standard! Landmine Media, LLC. The lenses were made in two generations. They are made in Spain, cost about 60 euros each and you install them on the back of the lenses using the provided screws. Thank you! Almost six months after I wrote this guide, I decided to update it with a quick survey of what lenses to consider - a general overview of the Contax lineup, if you will. The Contax dont look vintage to me, but they also dont look modern. http://www.ebay.com/itm/EX-Modified-item3a8193c812, If this is your first visit, be sure to Whenever I started thinking the Soviet lenses were sharp, Id pop one of the Contax on the camera and stare in awe. My MM 18 f4, 21 2.8, 35 2.8, 50 1.4, 50 1.7, 85 1.4, 135 2.8, 180 2.8, and 300 F4 are all W/OUT the Ninja-star. Yes, it's one step slower than the its siblings, but it definitely crushes them with razor sharp focus and a beautiful transition into bokeh. You have to admit they look sexy. AE lenses were made between 1975 and 1984. We noticed this specifically on a shoot where we mixed Leica Rs and Contaxs, and the Contaxs def gave us about a stop extra in latitude. These last two are challenging to adapt to EOS because of their. The process turned out alright and the gears worked great, but later on I learned some useful tricks. You can unsubscribe at any time via an unsubscribe link included in every newsletter. send me payment method & how many days it will take? . We case our eye over the options costing more than $2500 but less than $4000, to find the best all-rounder. The data provided and the newsletter opening statistics will be stored on a personal data basis until you unsubscribe. The Soviets were good enough for my own projects, but I needed something more reliable on this one. The first one is AE and the second one is MM. Still on the DIY train, a friend and I had just bought a 3d-printer, so I started making my own focus gears. All times are GMT-8. It also has built-in color filters which I freaked out when I realized how to turn them. http://web.archive.org/web/200710120rode/TestZ.htm, https://dl.dropbox.com/u/51913995/marley28.jpg, If this is your first visit, be sure to Zeiss Ikon was also split apart into Eastern and Western divisions, but these two subsidiaries kept working togetherand Contax rangefinder cameras and lenses continued to be made on both sides of the wall. The fastest "wide" is the 28 f2. As a reference, my main set of lenses at this time was a Soviet kit that I put together because of their imperfections and organic look. check out the. In fact, at 5.6 Contax, Supers and Standards looked IDENTICAL. Lastly, now that we have a great Contax guide on VLFV, my plan is to concentrate on individual Contax Zeiss reviews, so look out for those in near future. Their disadvantages are that they don't have matching T stops (hey, theyre still lenses!). Great help. Im gonna stop saying these lenses are sharp, because at this point its just standard! This means that not all MM lenses are made in Japan. What's the best camera for shooting sports and action? It had five lenses: 28/2.8, 35/2.8, 50/1.4, 85/1.4 and 135/2.8. It all started when I stumbled upon a post on Craigslist from a guy selling his Contax Zeiss set. After I read stellar reviews about the 28mm f/2.0 Hollywood, I went looking for one. The lenses were made in two generations. The Contax I was Zeiss' answer to Leica's offerings in the 35mm market, one . 80mm is the outside diameter of the rings, and that number is so specific because its a standard size for clip-on matteboxes. I find it charming, its a lot like the Cooke 8-blade star you see in the back of every True Blood Merlots shot, so I dig it. to use on my Komodo. The AE's are no longer serviced by Zeiss, keep that in mind. These lenses thread the fine line between organic and sharp, a line as thin as depth of field on an 85/1.2 wide open, only second to Leica. Im sure that approach had similar benefits with cinema lenses and Hasselblads. That meant getting a few more lenses and upgrading various aspects I had neglected so far. Having them separate also gives me versatility on pricing, since the main set can still go out without them for a more accessible price. By the 1960s, competition from the Japanese led to the eventual shuttering of both subsidiaries - even as the larger Zeisss stayed in business. Zeiss was making Hasselblad lenses for Medium Format. Fuck!). For further details, see our Privacy Policy. Search. When the AE's flare, they generally flare white, evenly, and when overwhelmed by a direct source, can reveal a touch of green ghosting. This page was generated at 05:50 PM. For me the 35mm F/1.4 has become a go to lens while working as a DP. Also, Super Speeds are a 1.2/1.4 at 18mm and 25mm. Wide open, the 35 1.4 and 85 1.4 are fine (circular bokeh). The most up-to-date guide to almost every Contax lens ever made. That's where my obsession started. At this point the price argument was adding a lot of weight. These capable cameras should be solid and well-built, have both speed and focus for capturing fast action and offer professional-level image quality. The main difference being that a normal human can afford Contax Zeiss but not Leicas. I didnt think too much about them when designing, they just needed to fit around the ring, and our printer was painfully slow (M3D, Im looking at you). I went for the fastest lenses and snuffed out the AEGs I had, in favor of the prettier bokeh of the MMJs. The 18mm is almost one fourth of the price and half the weight of the 15mm, plus it fits along with the other MMJs in the set. @ Yean: Same here, my Contaxes shift very little if at all, especially when compared to any modern electronic lens. Then I sent that to be printed at StickerYou in vinyl stickers. These babies were bleeding me dry. check out the. But I now have the 200 and I have to admit, the bokeh is very pleasing and captivating, and I prefer it. After I got the five Contax I went to look for more info and found the Contax Zeiss Survival Guide at REDUser. This wraps the first step in building a set of lenses: getting the glass. ----------------------------------------------------------, Oh, just to add I was watching the BBC drama 'Ripper Street' last night when I noticed a couple of shots with fairly extreme ninja star bokeh No technical information on IMDB as to what it was shot on/with sadly but you never knwo. It was not a problem as a starter set. But then work started picking up and I saw that as the perfect opportunity to upgrade. Or get a Duclos/Tokina 11-16. If you want something ready to use from the get-go, Id say this is not for you. 18mm is way too close to 21mm, plus lots of reviews mention its not-impressive performance. DPReview TV: Nikon 58mm F0.95 Noct Review! Thats where my obsession started. The 15/3.5 took the cake though. After that, B&H and ADORAMA are great choices. All content, design, and layout are Copyright 19982023 Digital Photography Review All Rights Reserved. The price was pretty good and Im the type of person that can buy something just because the price is good. I started with the 28mm. So I kept using an adapter on that one (the best adapter I had). Next came the 60mm f/2.8 Macro. Otherwise, you should notice no optical or mechanical difference between the two lines. I repeated the technique for the rear caps, this time with only the focal length written on them. I also added the f-stop for each lens and its minimum focus in meters and feet. On digital, these things are a home run, like Standards and Super Speeds. I paid around $250.00 for my 35-70/3.4 and around $800.00 for my 21/2.8 both in mint condition! Lucky for me my 50 and 85/1.4 were already MMJ. . Only thing I can add to those going the Contax Zeiss route, is that it is important to understand that because of the age of this lenses, despite their . In Contax, that corresponds to all lenses 35mm and wider (down to 15mm). Luckily for me, out of the five lenses I only messed up really bad on one (the 85mm, which was also the first one I tried). Lastly, just for curiositys sake, Carl Zeiss has a specific nomenclature for his lens designs and you can see some of them written on the ID ring of these Contax Zeiss lenses. Impressive performance and also the fastest 35mm I ever owned. DxO PureRAW 3 aims to come to their rescue without totally reinventing your workflow! Wide open these are more likely to deliver a strong image that is consistent up and down the aperture. is a huge fan. Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom impress in a lot of ways, but their noise reduction lags the competition and their lens corrections lack a real-world basis. Thats when I learned of Leitax and their mount replacements. I started using these lenses casually. Ron also offers the full mod service for great prices, including focus gears and lens mounts. I needed the one extra stop of light though, for consistent f/2 or faster through the main set. Collapse. Ron also offers the full mod service for great prices, including focus gears and lens mounts. DaVinci Resolve Quick Tip What Are Power Bins and Why Are They So Useful? This page was generated at 05:50 PM. Its also a big change in size and weight, almost doubling its predecessor. So where Contax wins in coverage (they are FULL FRAME, and will cover Dragon and beyond), they lose out in speed (they are F4 at 18mm! Collapse. What's the word on that lens? This is an endeavor Ive been working on and off for the last two years and now I can see the finish line. All times are GMT-8. Well done mate. Enjoy our Full Show Coverage, Winners of the First AI Film Festival Showcasing the Latest Tools in AI Filmmaking. I remember someone doing a test a when the epic first came with stills lenses and noticed it too. https://www.reduser.net/forum/shooting-red/lens-tests/94346-contax-zeiss-survival-guide. Thank you to Tito for a captivating read. They dilate quite a bit and fit much more easily. Live with it. So I kept using an adapter on that one (the best adapter I had). I repeated the technique for the rear caps, this time with only the focal length written on them. The stills guys LOVE IT. We've combed through the options and selected our two favorite cameras in this class. Zeisss quality control was extremely demanding. Now Im gonna move into streamlining it for shooting and making it the best possible lenses to handle on set. What an amazing amount of learningand research condensed and shared. Nick, awesome thread. Copyright 2023 Vintage Lenses For Video. As stated repeatedly, like ZF/ZEs, Contax lenses have great cinema mechanics. Contax Zeiss Survival Guide In reply to Giovanni_1968 Nov 30, 2021 While this site is targeted to adapting Zeiss Contax lenses for video, it also seems to be the go-to guide for the rest of us with respect to these lenses. On the 918 I keep the main six lenses of the set plus variable NDs and other filters. But dont expect them to have the even performance of a set of Ultraprimes or Masterprimes (where many of the primes are not only similar in size and weight, but also perform similarly at matching T stops!). It looked neat, but from my experiences as 2nd Assistant Camera, I was constantly being asked how fast so-and-so lens was, or whats its minimum focus. D) They are very easy to adapt to EOS mount. As they were designed for photography, they have clicked stops, which has to be dealt with, but they all feature non-rotating front elements, which is a very valuable feature these days with vari NDs. It's cheapass ones I got from China. May be one of the sharpest Contax primes ever made. Distance between first and last lens vertex: 33.6 mm 51.8 mm Weight: approx. I personally own the 35mm and the 50mm. I prefer the FOV of a 25, but for the budget.the 28mm is amazing. They dont have it. I plugged in the focal length in white so theyre easy to read in dark sets. Canon FD's are the predecessors to Canon L glass, and have a superb pedigree. This is another trick to make lens swaps faster, since you wont need to adjust your follow focus back and forth on the rig. Its the one I always took with me and it gave me gorgeous shots. The downside of such magnification is that the focus ring travels a lot, pretty much doubling the physical length of the lens. Also ZF/ZE's tend to. It was intended to be a cheaper alternative. The questions get dizzying. Yes, its one step slower than the its siblings, but it definitely crushes them with razor sharp focus and a beautiful transition into bokeh. Yupthey go as far 500mm. 1. Above $2500 cameras tend to become increasingly specialized, making it difficult to select a 'best' option. Thanks for the advice nick. I also feel that the ninja-star may funkify the bokeh a bitgive it a touch of painterly magicbut that may just be meand this wild opinion is something I may need to test out a bit more! Wide open the 1.4 is great, but the focusing ring just feels very clunky on my copy. Im a fan of DIY, so I decided to install the mounts by myself. I met amazing businesses with folks that really know how to deal with their customers, I did try out mindblowing glass and I was humbled by all the feedback I got when asking questions about what would be my best options in the middle of the process and posting updates of what I was working on. As they are still lenses, there is some breathing on some of them, but nothing insane that has ruined any of our shots. Its history criss-crosses wars, politics, and conjures up the never-ending battles between Leica and Zeiss. Happy Memorial day all. Time. Damn Nick! Now Im gonna move into streamlining it for shooting and making it the best possible lenses to handle on set. Contax Zeiss Survival Guide - REDUSER.net I also added the f-stop for each lens and its minimum focus in meters and feet. i want contax set for ef mount how can i buy? The price was pretty good and Im the type of person that can buy something just because the price is good. I think its safe to say all these lenses from this era of Zeiss optics have remarkably similar coatings and magic. This page was generated at 05:50 PM. They are made in Spain, cost about 60 euros each and you install them on the back of the lenses using the provided screws. Almost six months after I wrote this guide, I decided to update it with a quick survey of what lenses to consider - a general overview of the Contax lineup, if you will.