This lens has a somewhat schizophrenic online reputation, despite being reportedly a copy of the pre-asph summicron, and it can be difficult to find photographs taken with it. I receive mine tomorrow - Post yours!
No one ever said the ContaxG 35mm Planar was not a really good lens, only that some thought it was not the equal of the 45mm Planar, consider one of the greatest lenses of all time.
I shot with a ContaxG for about 7-8 years and owned all the lenses. I shot with the 35mm about 95% of the time.
The 35mm ContaxG lens is a Zeiss Planar, a optical formulation first produced by Zeiss in 1896. It is hardly a copy of a Leica Summicron which was first produced in 1953. I am sure one can find design similarities as they both basically do the same thing. But one cannot say that Zeiss copied a Leica design.
It's an interesting lens - seems it will take some getting used to. Unlike the 28mm biogon and 45mm planar it is definitely quite different when shot wide open - it seems in the center it's very sharp, and fairly soft in the corners, and it also has a really strange plane of focus where if any subject is slightly out of the plane, they blur and get super super soft. At f2.8 it seems to correct itself and becomes sharp all over.
I get the feeling Zeiss designed this lens to be a black/white photojournalism lens with a little 'give' to it - as in they allowed it to be a little bit gentle wide open. First impressions though, I really like it. I'll be posting more as I shoot it.
No one ever said the ContaxG 35mm Planar was not a really good lens, only that some thought it was not the equal of the 45mm Planar, consider one of the greatest lenses of all time.
I shot with a ContaxG for about 7-8 years and owned all the lenses. I shot with the 35mm about 95% of the time.
Yes it's interesting - the G35 is quite different in how it renders to the other contax G lenses - a lot softer and more rounded. The G28 by comparison is just about a perfect lens - razor sharp wide open corner to corner but it's not always so nice - especially with high contrast films like t-max.
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