raid
Dad Photographer
I recently bought a pre-war Contax mount Carl Zeiss Jena 50mm 2 lens for $135 . The seller said that it was used by his father on a Contax I. I took the risk, and I bought it. I tried it out a few days ago on the M10, and at one image taken I realized that it looked very OOF. The collapsible lens was still a little collapsed. I am not used to collapsible lenses. I am posting a few images here after I extended the lens, I think. It took me a while to figure out what was incorrectly done by me.
No PS was used. There is one dirt spot in the middle of the "sky".
No PS was used. There is one dirt spot in the middle of the "sky".
raid
Dad Photographer
raid
Dad Photographer
The colors come out similar to what I get with the M9 when using this old lens with the M10.
raid
Dad Photographer
I like the vintage Zeiss look in such images with CZJ 5cm lenses. The 5cm 2 is not much inferior to the outstanding CZJ 5cm 1.5. My 5cm/1.5 is from 1937~1938. I like the idea of having the 5cm 2 from 1938. History in such lenses is unknown. Who used these lenses then and for which photos?
Mudman
Well-known
Ansel Adams was a contax shooter when he used 35mm.
ranger9
Well-known
Pretty much every 35mm-using professional who cared about lens quality was a Contax shooter back in the '30s (Eisie was an exception.) I can't rattle off names except for Robert Capa and Merlyn Severn of Britain's Picture Post (probably nobody here has ever heard of her except me, but she was kind of a big deal back in the day)... still, there were a lot of them, and much of this came down to the fact that Leica didn't have anything that even approached the optical performance of the 50mm f/1.5 and 85mm f/2 Sonnars. I think there's a whole thread about this over on the Jason Schneider subforum...
Mudman
Well-known
Yeah, I've heard that the Leica was really seen as a consumer camera vs professional pretty much until the late 40's early 50's.
raid
Dad Photographer
I have a Contax II and also a III. I read about problems with the (elegant) Contax I, so I did not get one.
raid
Dad Photographer
I love using the CZJ 5cm 1.5 and less often the 85/2.
Erik van Straten
Veteran
The most famous of all, Cartier-Bresson, wasn't a Contax user. He cared about lens quality and user-friendliness so he used a Leica.
Erik.
raid
Dad Photographer
Didn't he use a Zeiss lens on his Leica?
Erik van Straten
Veteran
raid
Dad Photographer
I used an Amedeo adapter, Erik. Finding such lenses in Contax mount becomes less costly and more lenses are for sale.
Erik van Straten
Veteran
I've never heard he used Zeiss lenses. After the war he sometimes used an RF Nikkor 50mm f/1.5 in Leica mount for portraits, like this one.
Erik.
raid
Dad Photographer
I may be confusing HCB with another famous photographer who used Zeiss lenses. The Nokton 50/1.5 was also popular then.
Erik van Straten
Veteran
Many professionals used Zeiss lenses after the war, but the Nikkors were popular too.
Erik.
Erik.
raid
Dad Photographer
This is true. The Nikkor lenses became popular then.
Erik van Straten
Veteran
Shafovaloff1
Well-known
Raid, Pensacola has a few bayous but it takes an artist to capture them well. Nice work. When I have a problem with focus the first thing I do is try the tape test....nothing new....open the back, tape the film aperture and put it on a tripod and use a magnifier. I have one of these lenses Sn2201158[could swear this one "had coating" on the front lens] that had filter ring damage but I cleaned up and one coming in but WWII vintage, Sn2273620, coming in on a Contax III, both with "wings". Hope you find something simple was done and easily corrected though at $135 it should be in great shape to begin with. As for Contax I, I think it is underrated in the last version but you will need a viewfinder. I like the camera 50mm finder cleaned well...just fine, but for other lenses a separate finder would be necessary anyway even with the Contax II improvements. Another quick check is to mark the tape facing the front of the lens and have a look at it, looking through a SLR with medium telephoto lens set at infinity. With the Zeiss on infinity also you should see the tape markings as if under a microscope in sharp relief. [Just make certain the light behind the film aperture is bright enough for this.] Best of luck![The first Contax I that bought had grease around the first curtain spring spool compartment and looked very used....a lot of metal and grease grime cleaned out of it! The second an (f) model, from Belgium works like new well maintained and not so much used, nice!
raid
Dad Photographer
Thank you for sharing your experiences with vintage equipment. I try to capture what I locally see around me. I see beauty in simple things.