Any experiences with Contax/Zeiss lenses?

[Tom]

I have the chance to get some old Contax lenses with C/Y bajonett out of a collection. All made by Zeiss. 

 

Any recommendations for certain lenses? Can't buy them all

 

Any recommendations for adapters?

[flysurfer]

2.8/180mm T* MM (Made in Germany).

Use it with Speed Booster Ultra. 

[John B]

My all time favourite Contax lens is the 100 3.5 Sonnar. It's small and sharp. Suits the XT1 perfectly with a C/Y adaptor and makes me feel like I'm using my beloved RTS and STs again! Happy days.

[Bobabooeh]

I have the chance to get some old Contax lenses with C/Y bajonett out of a collection. All made by Zeiss. 

 

Any recommendations for certain lenses? Can't buy them all

 

Any recommendations for adapters?

I would recommend the 28-85 zoom. While it is rather slow and heavy, I was always surprised by its performance. The only other Zeiss lens I used was the 45 2.8 pancake (I am not including the Contax G lenses). The rest of the lenses I used with the Contax slrs were tamron sp and yashica ml lenses.

 

A friend has a 100 f2 he likes very much. The same friend had the 100-300 zoom. That one he didn't like at all.

[Digitalrules]

I used an adapter on my X-Pro 1 and my Carl Zeiss 50mm f:4 lens for my Hasselblad. I was amazed at how sharp it was wide open.

All Photos-15 by -digitalrules-

[kev.pfeifle]

I'm using an older 85mm f2.8 for the Rollei system, nice lens but no T* coating.

[sir_c]

difficult to say if you don't tell us which ones you can pick...

 

The Planar 50/1.7 is nice & small. Light and very, very sharp. Nice for portraits.

The Planar 50/1.4 is my favourite. Wide open it is less sharp than the 1.7, but its rendering is very pleasing. Skintones are wonderful. Stopped down a little bit can give lovely 3D.

The Planar 85/1.4 is very nice, but big and bloody heavy. Taking the crop factor into account, I hardly use it because its view is too narrow, but it is not really tele enough for more distant subjects. Due to the large front element, it is *very* front-heavy. But if you happen to nail the shot...

The Sonnar 135/2.8 is not too heavy and with proper light quite astonishing. Against bright backgrounds you'll see lots of lateral CA (green/magenta) however. I really like this lens but I do not use it very often because of the focal length.

The wide-angles contain some very decent Distagons etc. I have no experience there, but many of those designs are still available in modern mounts like EF and Nikon.

 

Please note that especially the heavier lenses will make you camera front-heavy when stuck onto an adapter. I use a standard Kipon X->CY adapter, not some speedbooster thingy. It is well built and works as designed.