Your choice if you want them Cine-modded or not. I prefer the FOV of a 25, but for the budget.the 28mm is amazing. It had five lenses: 28/2.8, 35/2.8, 50/1.4, 85/1.4 and 135/2.8. :) Thanks buddy. Zeiss AE lens information I found a link to this awesome Zeiss Contax lens brochure, dated October 1975 (12 MB). In this buying guide we've rounded up all the current interchangeable lens cameras costing around $2000 and recommended the best. If you wanna follow this path, theres no way to dodge reading the Survival Guide. I then redesigned and printed new focus gears for these and ordered more Leitax mounts and that was good for another five months. The main difference being that a normal human can afford Contax Zeiss but not Leicas. As mentioned before, the 50mm F1.7 is no slouch and it sure isn't! The price-performance ratio of the Minolta lenses is the best in the camera world. If youre not a DIY spirited person or you dont like getting things from a million different places -, I worked with Ron at SIMMOD so he can provide caps with stickers already on them. Another major advantage to the Contaxs is the sheer SIZE of the lineup. We've combed through the options and selected our two favorite cameras in this class. Another trick is to heat them up with a blow dryer or even your house heater. I havent tested these much yet, and I ended up not doing standard outside diameters. Whenever I started thinking the Soviet lenses were sharp, Id pop one of the Contax on the camera and stare in awe. I repeated the technique for the rear caps, this time with only the focal length written on them. Thats where my obsession started. The AE's are no longer serviced by Zeiss, keep that in mind. Theyre much cheaper than modern lenses, yet share similar designs and performance. There are a lot of photo/video cameras that have found a role as B-cameras on professional film productions or even A-cameras for amateur and independent productions. VLFV family also gets 10% off any order you make with this companies, just add a promo code VLFV (SimmodLens) or VINTAGE (FollowFocusGears.com) on checkout. Its the one I always took with me and it gave me gorgeous shots. All I ever had so far was a Canon backpack and that is not a safe way to transport this grade of gear everywhere. Contax I. After I got the five Contax I went to look for more info and found the Contax Zeiss Survival Guide at REDUser. DaVinci Resolve Quick Tip What Are Power Bins and Why Are They So Useful? I personally own the 35mm and the 50mm. This gave me a great set of lenses ready for action, all I missed was a way of getting them to said action. This means that not all MM lenses are made in Japan. For a little over a year, this was enough. The 135mm f/2.8 was a great lens. However, the optical quality of the Contaxs is certainly very close to ZF/ZEs and many of the designs appear to have only subtly changed over the years, in particular the 21 2.8, 34 1.4, 50 1.4, and 85 1.4. Are usually 2.8. Its a gradual process, guys. Heres the answer to all of this, broken down. 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). One thing that the push-pull nature of the zooms helps with, is snap-zooms. The stills guys LOVE IT. Thats when I learned of Leitax and their mount replacements. Things can still look beautiful, but Zeisss philosophy is not to make things pretty, but to be true. Im still weighing if I need it or not. 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. Plus, fitting these is never a one-slip move. You can unsubscribe at any time via an unsubscribe link included in every newsletter. 300 g Possibilities of combining Carl Zeiss lenses with Mutarconverters for use with the ContaxSLR camera system Carl Zeiss Photoobjektive D-73446 Oberkochen Telephone (07364) 20-6175 Fax (07364) 20-4045 eMail: photo@zeiss.de http://www.zeiss.de It was a time when I didnt shoot much, but I went on long bike rides. Look for an MM with serials in the 8's. Also almost twice as big and heavy as the previous one. The Hollywood is indeed a star and the image that comes out of it is much more appealing than the 28/2.8. So I figured I would write up a little CONTAX SURVIVAL GUIDE that tries to answer them all at once Contax Zeiss should be on your radar for a couple of reasons. 1. It is smoother one direction than it is the other too which is peculiuar. Its by no means unusable, but dont expect a Contax at F2 to perform like an Ultraprime. Still on the DIY train, a friend and I had just bought a 3d-printer, so I started making my own focus gears. The planar 35mm F/1.4, 50mm T1.4 and 85mm F/1.4, are among some of them. This is a guide for people that love handling gear and tweaking little things here and there. ZF/ZEs only go as far as 135mm. Your 50/1.7 is an AE lens, based on it's serial number and lack of green last numbersince made in Japan, it is an AEJ. Originally launched in 1932 as a rangefinder system to compete with - you guessed it. All I ever had so far was a Canon backpack and that is not a safe way to transport this grade of gear everywhere. to use CONTAX RTS glass interchangeably alongside PL glass, such as Contaxs cinema cousins, Super Speeds and Standard Speeds. Tito Ferradans spent the last six years researching, writing and making videos about the anamorphic format and how to achieve it without breaking the bank on low-budget productions. My favorite lens switched to the 85/1.4 after that, though. One last note on their generations, MMs were mostly made in Japan, so theyre called MMJs, while AEs were made in Germany and named AEGs. You have to admit they look sexy. 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. If you are like me and are interested in building up a large, varied kit of lenses that can fit every jobthen Contax are a great choice. Its not. adapters work fine ($15) (They are conservative and tend to overcompensate by a millimeter or two, so they can make your glass focus past infinity at the tail end, a bit annoying but nothing terrible). I paid around $250.00 for my 35-70/3.4 and around $800.00 for my 21/2.8 both in mint condition! D) They are very easy to adapt to EOS mount. Of course, that was way before RED and Leitax adapters. These terms refer to all lenses 45mm and up (to 500mm). I'll definitely look into my adapter. These are way more common in AE, but I was lucky enough to find a MM coming straight from Japan. First I measured the slip-on caps I got from SIMMOD and created a Photoshop template with that size. This turns the original C/Y mount into a solid EF mount that wont budge for nothing. Then Nick Morrison went on and on and on about the 35-70. The 60/2.8 AE can do 1:1 magnification, while the MM can only reach 1:2. I think its safe to say all these lenses from this era of Zeiss optics have remarkably similar coatings and magic. People (me included) didn't like the poor performance of the Canon EF wide lenses and the 21mm and 28mm 2.8 Contax lenses filled the gap. The Contax Zeiss Distagon 'Hollywood' 28mm F2.0 is a classic fast wide for full frame and is incredible on Super 35mm as well. 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. Mirrorless Camera of the Year 2022 & Other Camera Candidates, Adobe Firefly for Video Announced Bringing Generative AI to Creative Cloud, CineD NAB 2023 Best of Show Awards go to DJI, frame.io, FUJIFILM, LumenArc and ZHIYUN, CineD at NAB 2023 - Visit our Booth, Win Prizes. These are stills lenses, and as Ryan De Franco correctly points outare designed to MAXIMIZE their resolution at F4 or 5.6. Slowly I fell in love with them. It offers the advantage of one of the most sophisticated fully automatic through-the-lens exposure control available during the late seventies. The only thing I could maybe do later is update the markings on each lens with fluorescent paint like what you see here, by Moritz Schierenbeck on VLFVs facebook group. Damn Nick! On almost all shoots weve done with Contax lenses, where we have used other glass, be it Leica Rs or Canon EOS, every time the DP has noticed that the waveforms jump. If you're reeeaaaally on a budget and don't mind a very low contrast look, Zeiss Jena's are a guilty pleasure of mine. 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. Or do what I did and find an affordable Standard Prime 16mm T2. If youre not a DIY spirited person or you dont like getting things from a million different places -, I worked with Ron at SIMMOD so he can provide caps with stickers already on them. Wide open, the 35 1.4 and 85 1.4 are fine (circular bokeh). check out the. The wides are slow. It's a weird, over-the-top kind of effect, but when you need it (as I did a few weeks ago) it's actually pretty helpful. I still dont know when to use them, though! The mount is exactly the same, and barring a couple of exceptionsALL the lens designs are the same. So I respond to that more. Because the wides are slow, you will almost certainly need to compliment your kit with a Tokina/Duclos 11-16 2.8. These capable cameras should be solid and well-built, have both speed and focus for capturing fast action and offer professional-level image quality. Every time I had to pick a lens I went for the 35mm f/2.8 instead. Just to be clear (think you left that part out, haha). Copyright 2007-2022. AE lenses also show ninja-star bokeh when stopped down, which is a major turnoff for some folks. 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. For that reason I had to make a super tall focus gear that would not slip off when travelling from infinity to minimum focus. To fit the barrel of the lens, use a caliper and be precise about it. 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. Would I be crazy to say I kinda prefer my 85mm f2.8 to my 85mm f1.4. http://www.ebay.com/itm/EX-Modified-item3a8193c812, If this is your first visit, be sure to Would love to check out the Hollywood, but $$. If you are not great at DIY, make sure to check out our sponsors SimmodLens and FollowFocusGears.com for pretty much all the mods mentioned in the article above. I have a mixed set and barely notice the difference. It's very, very sharp. But on CERTAIN LENSES (with wide barrels) you def see it prominently at your SECOND and THIRD F-stop position (counting wide open as your FIRST position), For example, I notice it by far the most on my 35 1.4 and 85 1.4. Leica has announced a mono-only version of its M11 60MP manual focus rangefinder. check out the. After I read stellar reviews about the 28mm f/2.0 Hollywood, I went looking for one. After WW2, Zeiss was split asunder in TWO. Search. 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. . Heres a little short-hand: ". Copyright 2023 Vintage Lenses For Video. After I got the five Contax I went to look for more info and found Nick Morrisons Contax Zeiss Survival Guide at REDUser. There is a lot of good information about which lenses were improved optically between the earlier AE and later MM versions, as well as lots of user comments. I'm thinking about a Contax tele, such as the 180/2.8 Sonnar. reduser.net. Happy Memorial day all. They cover full frame, are super easy to adapt to many other mounts and never lose their value. 18mm is way too close to 21mm, plus lots of reviews mention its not-impressive performance. Im a big fan of these lenses and have been building my own set for the last few years, but Im nowhere close to creating a buyers guide, so Im very happy that a good friend of VLFV, Tito Ferradans has written the amazing guide below, which doesnt just introduce and explain various aspects of ContaxZeisslenses but will also show you how to tune them up for video use! The Zeiss ZF is phenomenally sharp and modern, which I found good for general and macro photography but I found unpleasant of for portraiture. The 60/2.8 AE can do 1:1 magnification, while the MM can only reach 1:2. to use on my Komodo. I went for the fastest lenses and snuffed out the AEGs I had, in favor of the prettier bokeh of the MMJs. Both look awesome, and I think people are splitting hairs. Zeiss made the jump to MM's in order to enable camera control of the aperture. Easy to see which one I loved the most back in 2015. 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! . On digital, these things are a home run, like Standards and Super Speeds. I own them both. When designing your focus gears, keep the number of teeth constant for all the lenses. AE vs MM? Its been there for quite a while and I have checked up on it countless times to help me make decisions. 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. Out of curiousity, what is the purpose of having both the 35 f2.8 and the 35-70? And they all have a very wide focus throw compared to other still lenses. 80mm diameter Cine rings by SIMMOD Lens and 77mm filter threads. Filter. Oh and I believe that where the results are for "Real Aperture" in those tests may actually be the measured T-Stop? The Hasselblad we threw up also seemed to have an uncannily similar T* coating too. This makes life easier when grabbing gear to go out and renting it as well. Even the 21 is only a 2.8. I needed a proper case! There is a bit of breathing when rack-focusing. length (call Peter at RP lens, he can help), but if you can get them on your RED, they are also fantastic budget options. Only correction I did to this photograph was to increase RAW color temperature, that's it. Theyre fully manual focus and aperture -, have solid metal construction, long focus throw, and a great feel overall. 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. All times are GMT-8. So do you still wonder if Contax lenses are worth looking into? Not saying the 135/2 isnt worth it the investment, its just much heavier and harder to carry as a walk-around lens. WOW! Filter. This is an endeavor Ive been working on and off for the last two years and now I can see the finish line. It all started when I stumbled upon a post on Craigslist from a guy selling his Contax Zeiss set. In fact, i'm almost considering selling my 85mm f1.4 for that reason. However, I wont argue that having a lens that says Made In West Germany is wicked cool. Really. Im a fan of DIY, so I decided to install the mounts by myself. 28mm comparison: 28/2.8 on the left, 28/2.0 Hollywood on the right. It's definitely not lens breathing. 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. I needed the one extra stop of light though, for consistent f/2 or faster through the main set. See the photo below! Wide open, Contax glass seems as mushy as Supers. DxO PureRAW 3 aims to come to their rescue without totally reinventing your workflow! Its history criss-crosses wars, politics, and conjures up the never-ending battles between Leica and Zeiss. Zeiss has their own language, their own nomenclature, for lens designs that is very useful to be familiar with as you start hunting for lenses. I'm sure its just due to copy variation and the years its weathered but pretty disappointing. The 50 should be among the easiest to get right because the optical path is among the simplest. These are creative tools, use them as such. 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. The screws on the back of the lenses are tiny, and if you strip them, you cant get the new mount into place. MM's from 1984 to 2005. I needed a proper case! On the 918 I keep the main six lenses of the set plus variable NDs and other filters. Yupthey go as far 500mm. remained behind in the ruins of the city of Jena, trapped behind the Iron Curtain. This is my personal opinion. It was a time when I didnt shoot much, but I went on long bike rides. 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. Like ZF/ZEs, they have fantastic barrel rotations (often 180 degrees or more). There are MMG lenses out there I was weary of that for quite a while, since its not mentioned clearly anywhere. This will ensure a constant outside diameter, which means you dont have to adjust your follow focus every time you change lenses. Heres a very interesting article by Edward T. that summarizes tech papers published on these designs and their differences, pros and cons. The Contax I is a high-end 35mm rangefinder camera made by Zeiss Ikon to compete with Leica models. Its a gradual process, guys. All times are GMT-8. For declicking, I read a lot of posts from people saying its a super easy process on Contax Zeiss lenses, but I didnt have the guts for it. The optics in these Zeiss are very similar, if not the same as the current Zeiss still lenses, a different coating on the glass is the main difference. @ Yean: Same here, my Contaxes shift very little if at all, especially when compared to any modern electronic lens. You have a wide range of lenses to pick from and equally different price tags. . What's the best camera for shooting landscapes? From the Contax Survival Guide: 100 3.5 - Like the 85 Sonnar, but slower and possibly even sharper. But it's a lens meant for stills and cheap as hell compared to cine glass. Though alot of the photography forum guys refer to those tests for 'official' MTF results they're a lot easier to read than Zeiss's graphs and they're all in one place. There are DOZENS of lenses to choose from, that cover all focal lengths from 15mm to 500mm. All times are GMT-8. 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. As photography slowly shifted from rangefinder to SLR, Contax was. thanks Nick im building Contax set in soon :). You have to keep wiggling them slowly, side by side, until they are in place. The only thing I could maybe do later is update the markings on each lens with fluorescent paint like what you see here, by Moritz Schierenbeck on VLFVs facebook group. I plugged in the focal length in white so theyre easy to read in dark sets. Are not only the slowest, but frequently the most classic. 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. What's the best camera for shooting sports and action? So I kept using an adapter on that one (the best adapter I had). Copyright 2007-2022. Whats the best camera for around $2000? With less glass comes more consistency. Renting Komodo ST, Helium, Gemini, Alexa Mini, Phantom VEO4K, break down into purple splotches when they flare, http://www.ebay.de/itm/Contax-Carl-Z#ht_500wt_1156, dittok One Stop RAW Visual Production Service, If this is your first visit, be sure to Never been an issue for us - and truth be told, if I have a problem with a lens, Id send it to Duclos anywaybut be advised. I plugged in the focal length in white so theyre easy to read in dark sets. Still on the DIY train, a friend and I had just bought a 3d-printer, so I started making my own focus gears. The process turned out alright and the gears worked great, but later on I learned some useful tricks. All times are GMT-8. 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.
13 mai 2023