Thoughts on a couple of Zeiss Contax lenses.

jdsanika

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Just picked up a beautiful Zeiss Contax iia with three lenses. Carl Zeiss Jena Tele-Tessar 18cm f/6.3, a Zeiss-Opton Sonnar 85mm F/2 (T), and a Zeiss-Opton Sonnar 50mm f/1.5. All in pristine like condition. The shutter is a little slow so I have sent the body off for CLA. Any thoughts on what I might expect from the afore mentioned lenses?

Thanks
John
 

Trask

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I've got the 21mm, 35mm, 50 f/2, and 135 Zeiss lenses for my IIa, and find them to produce fine images. I have a 50mm f/1.5 on its way to me, having read great things about that lens. No input from me on the 18cm lens -- that's a long focal length to focus accurately with a rangefinder, though admittedly the rangefinder base on a Contax is relatively long. You're lucky to get the 85mm lens -- that's been on my "buy" list for a long time, looking for a clean example.
 

GRHazelton

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Cameraquest.com has Voigtlander 21, 25, 28, and 35mm lenses in limited quantities for the Nikon RF. As I'm sure you know the Nikon lens mount is identical to the Contax, but lenses 50mm and up won't focus properly. The wide angle lenses focus fine. I have the 21 and 35mm for my Nikon S2. Beautiful lenses.

See this: https://www.cameraquest.com/nrfVClens.htm for info on the above lenses.
 

Theo Sulphate

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Here's the 50/1.5 on my new-to-me IIIa. Haven't had a chance to use it yet.

 

darinwc

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From limited experience.. the Sonnar at f1.5 is very soft. Much better stopped down to f2.8 and below, but really need f5.6 to get good into the corners.
I think the post-war Sonnar 85mm is the same design as the Nikkor 85mm for their rangefinder. (which I have 3 of) if so it is a little soft at f2. But stopped down at f4 it is quite stunning. Definitely something 'special' in those old sonnar design.
make sure and use a hood because those exposed front elements like to flare to hell and back.
Here is one wide-open (i think) from the 50mm Sonnar. You can see it is soft but in a pleasing way.

 

Patrick Robert James

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I have owned a bunch of Contax Sonnars over the years. Pre war, post war, collapsible, f/2 and f/1.5. Actually now that I think about it, I must have owned every version. In my experience a properly adjusted Sonnar is still sharp wide open. Most Sonnars at this point have been messed with by internet hackers, or someone else along the way thinking they knew what they were doing, which I think is why people believe they are soft wide open. There is also the focus shift issue. The best of the post war Sonnars IMO was the Carl Zeiss. IIRC the Opton Sonnars had a tendency to separate. I stupidly sold off all of my Contax gear when I started using Leica. Dumb. I still have one IIIa CD body that works fine but is really beat up, and a pre war 1.5 Sonnar that is absolutely fantastic. I also have a Helios 103. If you want to shoot color I would recommend getting one. The lens is a real sleeper. Images from it have a look kind of in between a Sonnar and a Summicron. They are super cheap too, which is nice.


There is a way to wind them super fast. If you shoot the camera cradling it in your left hand you simply pinch the wind with your right thumb/forefinger. Twist your left wrist towards your body and twist you right wrist away from your body while spinning the wind with your fingers. You can wind it as fast as a Leica this way.
 
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jdsanika

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`Thanks to all for your input. I hope to have the iia body back in the next couple of weeks and look forward to using the lenses especially the 50mm (actually have two of the 50mm 1.5's, probably will sell one) and the 85mm f/2. Haven't found much info on the 18cm f/6.3 so I will be interested on how that one shakes out.
 

Dali

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Where do you plan to send you camera for CLA?
 

Patrick Robert James

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gorbas said:
Hi, how do you compare it to Jupiter 8M or original Sonnar 2/50mm? Last week I made some test shots with Jupiter 3, 1.5/50mm (Valdai made) and Frankensteined to original Contax, German made lens mount. Very nice renderings at f1.5 and f2.
Click to expand...

As far as the Helios goes, just buy one! I think it is a great lens. Wide open the roll off of focus is a little harder than the Sonnar, but it is sharper too. The only real issue I have with it is the large ring is for the aperture and the focussing ring is too small. It is really easy to grab the aperture when you are focussing. Of course if you use the wheel on the Contax this isn't an issue, but I have an adapter for Leica M mount that I use it on occasionally. I also blackened the aperture blades on mine so it has much less flare. One problem I saw with all of the post war Sonnars was the blades were shiny. The pre war Sonnars had a flat coating on the aperture blades, so they can actually flare less than the later coated ones! I shoot a lot contre jour so it is a big deal for me. I have images where the reflection off the blades are actually imaged on the neg. Pretty stupid design flaw IMO. I intended to do the blackening on one of my post war Sonnars but I ended up selling it.

Hope that helps you.
 

Patrick Robert James

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gorbas said:
Thank you very much Patrick! Yes, I will buy soon Helios 103. They are affordable. In the last few years I did put on the back burner my Kiev & lenses in order to use other RF cameras. How do you blacken aperture blades?
Click to expand...

There are several different methods, but I am not really qualified to answer, nor do I really remember (unfortunately). I know one method is to use gun blueing which is a selenium compound I believe. If you figure out what your aperture blades are made of then Google blackening along with that info you can find what you are looking for. Sorry I couldn't help more.
 

darinwc

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Good info, i've only had one of the f1.5's. My current Contax sports a f2. -and I havent had a chance to put film through it yet.
 

cschwerrochesterny

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I have a lovely Contax IIa camera with both the post war Sonnar 50 1.5 and the 2.0 as well as a 35 2.8 Biogon. I love the 15 Sonnar but I don't think its as good as the Nikkor-S rangefinder mount 50 1.4 which I have used extensively. I use the 35 Biogon the most and its a fine lens. All of the vintage Zeiss lenses are very contrasty. They have a signature tonality which I like but needs proper film development to control. I am looking for a 21 4.5 Biogon at this point. Please enjoy your camera and lenses!

 
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