Are 35 yr old Carl Zeiss really that good? Testing Contax lenses out!
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 10 дек 2019
- Can I test and judge 35 year old Carl Zeiss lenses? Spoiler alert, No. But I can judge and compare them with the modern day Canon lenses and grow my new found love for the lenses.
These are photo lenses and I compare them with photo lenses. Because I shoot video for work I will throw a focus pull on the lenses too. They are cheap for a high-end brand and top class lenses from 30+ years ago. From 100 dollar and up, depending on focal length, speed and production year and country. Cheap for prime lenses if you ask me. One of the cheaper ways to build a prime set. For video, the lenses can be de-clicked.
I do not own all the fastest lenses, mainly from 2.8 and up.
My set consists of all Carl Zeiss primes Yashica Contax mount:
25mm f2.8 Distagon AEG
35mm f2.8 Distagon MMJ
50mm f1.4 Planar AEJ
50mm f1.7 Planar AEJ
85mm f2.8 Sonnar MMJ and AEG
100mm f3.5 Sonnar AEJ
135mm f2.8 Sonnar AEJ
180mm f2.8 Sonnar MMJ
200mm f3.5 Tele-Tessar AEG
Media Division Germany made a great video and they compare them specifically with cine lenses; The Legendary ‘Carl Zeiss super speeds’ They also explain the difference between the MMJ and AEG lenses. • Legendary cine lenses ...
Overview of all the available options: camera-wiki.org/wiki/Contax/Ya...
I simply adapt all the lenses to a 10 dollar adapter from ebay on my full frame Canon. All of them fit and work except 1. On the MMJ 180 lens the adapter didn’t fit and when i gently tried is without the adapter fully locked on the lens, the mirror slammed into the lens and the camera quit on me with an ERROR message on the display.
There are too many variables to judge the lenses with only a few tests, bokeh, color fringing, aberration, contrast, sharpness, vignetting. And every lens behaves different on different focal length, focus distance and aperture. The combination of options makes the list endless and impossible to reproduce with just a few photos in an uncontrolled environment.
Even though I didn’t even complete my own test, I love the lenses and wil save for some of the faster options, especially on 35 and 85.
Hope this is useful and leave a comment if you have questions regarding these lenses.
All the lenses are adaptable to modern mirrorless and dslr’s. There are some exceptions but I’m afraid you have to try this before you know, as far as I understood (on www.pebbleplace.com/databases...) Of my 11 lenses only 1 did not fit: 9% chance on bad luck :-(
These video’s show my process of finding the perfect set of analog cameras and lenses. The series consist of trying a wide variety of film cameras, lenses and film.
![Sean Rii, Karyon, Sharzkii - Taungule [My Love] (Official Music Video)](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/eJoMuypbSzQ/mqdefault.jpg)
The biggest difference between Zeiss CY lenses and modern Canon lenses are a difference between the color, contrast, and overall look will be different. That’s the reason why Zeiss CY lenses are popular among film makers, who adapt Zeiss lenses for video.
So on the 5D4 did you go all manual settings and turned off Autofocus as well for both the Contax and Canon lenses? Awesome effort.
Wish you would have put the side by sides full screen...
Which ones you want to see up close?
We can’t see the photos if u don’t put them full screen side by side, what’s the point of this video then?
Hi Martijn, trust you are well. I use my old CONTAX Zeiss lenses (film camera CONTAX RX) with Fuji X-H1 and Metabones speed booster. I find the results are amazing. With some trials on portrait photography the models always prefer the look of the Zeiss images. I took a test photo with a monkey (Zeiss AEG 200mm f3.5) at 10m and zooming in see perfect detail on eye lashes. Personally, think the CONTAX Zeiss lenses (40-20 years old) are capable of 8K plus image resolution.
What a great idea to use the fuji lenses!!
@@MartijnBaudoin never used a fuji lens only CZ-C/Y
@@julesfisher3551 sorry, camera
@@MartijnBaudoin I think the Metabones Speed booster works well as a focal reducer. Retaining original FoV and DoF
nikkor nonAI S.C. 1.4 50 (multicoated) has way better flare resistance than famous T* contax planar 1.4 50
Technically nikkor has much less coma and color fringing
But! contax planar 1.4 50 is way prettier to my taste for color film and digital sensors
Still - nikkor is my lens of choice for b&w film (if I choose between these two)
Constantin, thank you for your thoughts and ideas!
Wel gedaan, hoor!
There is no such a battle, Zeiss is Zeiss
and that is it. :-) thanks for the insight!!
Did you buy them from japan? I want to buy some on ebay but they are from japan and i dont want to get scammed
Christian El Chococrispis no I bought them from Europe but you have to be patient.
You'd probably get fucked over shipping fees but buying stuff from Japanese sellers in general is 10/10.
Bought a Contact/Zeiss 28-85mm from Japan and it came *very* nicely packaged and in better condition than expected, glass was extremely clean and the lens was in pretty much excellent condition but I bought it relatively cheap bc of a few scratches on the body.
hear carl, good stuff is coming from japan
the zeiss have more light because of you are setting the same F number, not the same T number. The F number is just saying you how much the apperture opens not how much light is going to the sensor(depends on the construction). Because of that cine lenses works with T number, that says you how much light is going to the sensor. I don´t see the full video, just I pass fast and I hear you saying that you didn´t know why the canon looks darker. Maybe if you do a full screen comparision more people(me also) will see the full video. In general, in miniature, and without hearing what where the thinks you didn´t like about the zeiss, seen the miniatures I prefer the look of the zeiss. Surely the canon is a more "perfect" lens, but the imperfections are beautiful. I´m so happy with my old nikkor ai lenses, they are incredible and imperfect. But just buy new and expensive lenses if you are looking for perfection.
Hey Ander, I believe these Zeiss lenses are marked with f/ numbers (they are not cine lenses) the T* marking on the front of these lenses has nothing to do with the stop, its referring to the Zeiss T* coating.
Canon cameras often expose adapted lenses a little differently than EF lenses. Which, likely accounts for the difference in brightness. Digital Canon cameras also process the photo in camera with EF lenses, to give you a more corrected preview.... which often makes its way into the jpg files or embedded raw preview files on the computer.
Nice video! Thank you! )))
Contax vs Pentax lenses?
In my opinion zeiss is more art lens
What do you mean by 'art' lens?
Your Canonens is 1,2/50 not 1,4!