Leica Rs are much prettier. The 85 is ridiculously fast with combo. Also almost twice as big and heavy as the previous one. There are MMG lenses out there I was weary of that for quite a while, since its not mentioned clearly anywhere. Impressive performance and also the fastest 35mm I ever owned. This was a game changer. I needed the one extra stop of light though, for consistent f/2 or faster through the main set. All times are GMT-8. Plus, fitting these is never a one-slip move. Eastern Zeiss instead consolidated all their smaller name brands into PENTACON. I thought I knew a bit but I just learned so much! Your choice if you want them Cine-modded or not. In mint condition, comes with lens hood. They get quite slow in the wides (the 18 is an F4, the 15 a 3.5). check out the. So I kept using an adapter on that one (the best adapter I had). Landmine Media, LLC. You have to keep wiggling them slowly, side by side, until they are in place. to use CONTAX RTS glass interchangeably alongside PL glass, such as Contaxs cinema cousins, Super Speeds and Standard Speeds. 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. Still on the DIY train, a friend and I had just bought a 3d-printer, so I started making my own focus gears. Time. 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. These are stills lenses, and as Ryan De Franco correctly points outare designed to MAXIMIZE their resolution at F4 or 5.6. Standard lens, cant really make a set without a 35mm in it, right? So far, I had no previous love for Contax and a little bit of prejudice against Zeiss for making lenses too clean. 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. The Contax Zeiss version fetches $800 on eBay but there's a $60 wolf in sheep's clothing called the Pentax PK 28mm F2.0 which has a fascinating story behind . I like to add 0.3mm to the measurement to give me a little wiggle room after printing. Collapse. I also added the f-stop for each lens and its minimum focus in meters and feet. The 135mm f/2.8 was a great lens. The only differences are minor ones in the coating and aperture shape which I'll go into below. 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. But Zeiss was so precious about these lenses that some of them were only made in Japan and others in Germany. (Nick hope you don't mind my piggy-back!). So far I had been using adapters on them, and they sucked. These terms refer to all lenses 45mm and up (to 500mm). Contax Zeiss Survival Guide. This page was generated at 05:50 PM. All times are GMT-8. This is an endeavor Ive been working on and off for the last two years and now I can see the finish line. That said, many still photographers (and DPs) have gotten magic out of these lenses at an F2 or faster. Againthis is just a hunch on my part, dont shoot me 5) HOW TO SHOP FOR THEM - DON'T GET "G", "N", or "645". It offers the advantage of one of the most sophisticated fully automatic through-the-lens exposure control available during the late seventies. cinema5D GmbH, Kranzgasse 22/9-10, A-1150 Vienna, Austria. I paid around $250.00 for my 35-70/3.4 and around $800.00 for my 21/2.8 both in mint condition! The main difference being that a normal human can afford Contax Zeiss but not Leicas. I almost went for the wrong one with my MM obsession, but I was warned by my followers on Instagram about the edge the AE had over the MM. That was rad :). Filter. Contax also made very impressive Zooms. Used it today on my 5D to keep things lightweight. Otherwise, you should notice no optical or mechanical difference between the two lines. I know I stopped mentioning how sharp these lenses are, but the 60mm is worth highlighting. When the ZF/ZEs first came out in 2006, they appear to have been direct re-badges of the Contax line (with small modifications to the designs). Its history criss-crosses wars, politics, and conjures up the never-ending battles between Leica and Zeiss. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. After I got the five Contax I went to look for more info and found Nick Morrisons Contax Zeiss Survival Guide at REDUser. Thank you to Tito for a captivating read. If thats your deal, then you will love Leica Rs. https://www.reduser.net/forum/shooting-red/lens-tests/94346-contax-zeiss-survival-guide. They are much more closer to a Super/Standard speed look then the modern zeiss glass including the Cp2s. Theres a lot of discussion whether the 135mm f/2.0 has a clear advantage over the f/2.8, especially when you take into account the price difference. Now Im gonna move into streamlining it for shooting and making it the best possible lenses to handle on set. Or do what I did and find an affordable Standard Prime 16mm T2. Fuck!). Badass thread, been looking around for a guide like this. But if you guys love circular bokeh and find this bit of personality too intrusive, then do yourself a favor and skip it and get the MMs. I like to add 0.3mm to the measurement to give me a little wiggle room after printing. Another trick is to heat them up with a blow dryer or even your house heater. 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. This one was only made in Japan and it doesnt exist in AE, just MM. Next came the 60mm f/2.8 Macro. That meant getting a few more lenses and upgrading various aspects I had neglected so far. is a huge fan. If you want to get in the same room and do a test to compare the 50/1.4 to a ZE/ZF, I'd be more than willing; just shoot me a line. I plugged in the focal length in white so theyre easy to read in dark sets. They are made in Spain, cost about 60 euros each and you install them on the back of the lenses using the provided screws. @Yean: I'm 99 % sure it's the adapter then. So this reasoning is pretty bullet proof. My favorite lens switched to the 85/1.4 after that, though. With less glass comes more consistency. The last thing I did was add step rings to normalize all their fronts at 58mm, to make my life easier when swapping NDs and other filters or anamorphic adapters in my case. 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. Expect there to be bidding wars on eBay now, the gates of CONTAX HELL have been unleashed. I got all my standard 80mm fronts from him, as well as slip-on lens caps. Every time I had to pick a lens I went for the 35mm f/2.8 instead. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisels Cinematography Tips on Filming a Blizzard in June, Useful Tips on Working with LED Walls in Mixed Reality, Creating Full Soundscapes The Huge Impact of Foley and Sound Effects, DJI Inspire 3 Drone Everything You Need to Know, In the Spotlight With FUJIFILM Featuring Anna Andersen and Nilu Amin, In the Spotlight With FUJIFILM Featuring Rachael Porter, In the Spotlight With FUJIFILM Featuring Gina Hackett, In the Spotlight With FUJIFILM Featuring Adriana Bernal Martnez, Im selling all the gears I made for my set on eBay, I made a tutorial on how to make focus gears, but I was warned by my followers on Instagram about the edge the AE had over the MM, he can provide caps with stickers already on them, see here, by Moritz Schierenbeck on VLFVs facebook group. ONLY "RTS". This wraps the first step in building a set of lenses: getting the glass. When designing your focus gears, keep the number of teeth constant for all the lenses. freelance filmmaker and an anamorphic lens freak TitoFerradans,is exposing us to hisContax Zeiss CineTune-Up Guide. By the 1960s, competition from the Japanese led to the eventual shuttering of both subsidiaries - even as the larger Zeisss stayed in business. 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. But then work started picking up and I saw that as the perfect opportunity to upgrade. Still on the DIY train, a friend and I had just bought a 3d-printer, so I started making my own focus gears. Contax Zeiss Survival Guide. In this buying guide weve rounded up all the current interchangeable lens cameras costing around $2000 and recommended the best. That information was usually written in the lens case, and the focal length was on a sticker attached to the lens cap. Landmine Media, LLC. 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 f/2.8 never really impressed me, even though its regarded as one of the best budget 28mm out there. They cover full frame, are super easy to adapt to many other mounts and never lose their value. Now Im gonna move into streamlining it for shooting and making it the best possible lenses to handle on set. To fit the barrel of the lens, use a caliper and be precise about it. X. X. It's definitely not lens breathing. The first one is AE and the second one is MM. Contax Zeiss lenses are the gems for sharp yet vintage glass. I needed the one extra stop of light though, for consistent f/2 or faster through the main set. Heres the answer to all of this, broken down. All times are GMT-8. Theyre fully manual focus and aperture -, have solid metal construction, long focus throw, and a great feel overall. (Heres where I beleive the Leica Rs have a clear advantage, their 19mm is a 2.8which is pretty amazing). In my previous buyers guide Ive shown you how to build a Zeiss Jena Mini-Cine set for $1000, but if you have a bit more money to spend then ContaxZeiss is the way togo! Nothing is free. As mentioned before, the 50mm F1.7 is no slouch and it sure isn't! 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. That's where my obsession started. They are also a little sloppy on the mount, which can be alarming. It also has built-in color filters which I freaked out when I realized how to turn them. I would take Contax Zeiss over Canon "Cine Primes," Zeiss Compact Primes, or the new "Superspeeds" any day. :) Thanks buddy. 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. Distance between first and last lens vertex: 33.6 mm 51.8 mm Weight: approx. 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? I started using these lenses casually. So all you do is get a Cine Ring with the rear thread of your lens and thats gonna make it standard! That was probably one of the most stressful experiences of my life with lenses. If I know Im not gonna need either the 15 and the 60, I just dont take their case with me. Are usually 3.5 and F4. For those not wanting to go the 'pro' Cine-Mod route, you can do it yourself with decent results. However, I wont argue that having a lens that says Made In West Germany is wicked cool. That information was usually written in the lens case, and the focal length was on a sticker attached to the lens cap. E) They are very easy to cinemod. WOW! It was intended to be a cheaper alternative. 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 If you wanna follow this path, theres no way to dodge reading the Survival Guide. The Standards were w/out a doubt the sharpest wide open. 80mm is the outside diameter of the rings, and that number is so specific because its a standard size for clip-on matteboxes. The bokeh behaves differently than with Sonnars and Planars and I find these can give the image an interesting look. All times are GMT-8. Some folks consider several of the Zeiss Contax Yashica lenses to be very similar to the real Super Speed. In terms of a look, weve shot with both and there is a clear difference to me. The downside of such magnification is that the focus ring travels a lot, pretty much doubling the physical length of the lens. . 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. comments sorted by Best Top New Controversial Q&A Add a Comment . My custom made front caps with focal length, f-stop and minimum focus distance. They cover full frame, are super easy to adapt to many other mounts and never lose their value. To check if I did it, just follow me on Instagram as I post all my lens experiments there! The stills guys LOVE IT. Sonnar originally meant "Sunny", because historically these used to be the bright, fast designs when they first came out. It was a time when I didnt shoot much, but I went on long bike rides. Im one of the blowhards (haha) that has routinely made this claim that Contax glass shares a lot of the same pedigree as its medium format and cinema cousins.Standards, Supers and Hasselblads, respectively. The fastest "wide" is the 28 f2. To me, Contax are a GREAT way to affordably get a very real cinematic look from a golden age in Zeiss optics. You know, like a cine lens! 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. Otherwise, the transition from AE was meant to be seamless. ALL of my MMs do NOT have the Ninja-Star, so Im going to say this is a Maxim. Those ocasional shots where you need to SNAP from one extreme focal length to another. This means that not all MM lenses are made in Japan. @ Yean: Same here, my Contaxes shift very little if at all, especially when compared to any modern electronic lens. If you dont want to deal with that, hunt for MMs. 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. Th 85 1.4 at an F2 for portraitsis KILLER. The original CONTAX RTS was introduced in ,highly advanced electronic SLR system camera developed by mutual cooperation of Carl Zeiss, West Germany, and Yashica, Japan. After I read stellar reviews about the 28mm f/2.0 Hollywood, I went looking for one. Its the one I always took with me and it gave me gorgeous shots. I won't bore you with the history lesson, but Pentax worked with Zeiss when the Contax series was developed and they came out with a suspiciously similar multi-coated lens at the same time. They are made in Spain, cost about 60 euros each and you install them on the back of the lenses using the provided screws. The 50 1.7 and 180 2.8 are also rumored to be better in MM. And other people too. You can use the code CINE at check out for a nifty discount! All of you, thank you. You have a wide range of lenses to pick from and equally different price tags. Its by no means unusable, but dont expect a Contax at F2 to perform like an Ultraprime. Contax are by no means the only cool, vintage kids on the block. It was, perhaps, the first standard zoom of truly decent quality throughout its range. They focus the right way, have an aperture ring, and the focus rotation on many lenses reaches 180 degrees. Im still weighing if I need it or not. 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 say that because Ive encountered many people who get confused and think Contax is weird Japanese junk.
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