Help! I need a lens for my Contax.

I have to agree that the Sonnar 50/1.5 can be a magical lens that will rival anything Leica have produced.. mine was superb until Henry Scherer overhauled it.. now it's stellar.. so nice that I was compelled to buy a Contax-to-M mount adapter so I can use it on both platforms
 
outfitter said:
I have J-3s and J-8s love them and use them all the time. Nevertheless I have never seen a Soviet copy that equaled the f2/50mm or f1.5/50mm Sonnar - this of course is entirely my own opinion.. Even among the real Sonnars there are good and better examples - best to try the lens if you can. The f1.5/50mm tends to be the more desirable for a few reasons but I have at least one f2/50mm Sonnar that is extraordinary.

I'm not quite certain there is a useful distinction between the Opton and the late CZ f1.5/50mm Sonnar. True there is that separation problem but Henry Scherer often can fix that - I bought one with separation for about $50 and even though Henry couldn't do a perfect job (and charged me only $25 as a result) the lens is outstanding. Opton lenses have their share of problems as the factory workers were not particularly skilled or experienced in the early days (chipped or decentered elements are not unknown) and there were a number of design changes to the internal construction to solve deficiencies in holding the elements in place and/or the disassembly of the lens.

If you add to the cost an overhaul by Henry (he frequently can be persuaded to do lens work in a few weeks rather than years), Ken Ruth or Dan Goldberg (DAG) you will have a cleaned, centered, lubes and properly collimated lens - only then can you appreciate the full potential of the classic lenses.

Aside from the 21mm Biogon which I have a long standing love affair with (partially romanticism but hell that's part of the fun of classic cameras) the post-war West German 35mm Biogon is a real winner - noticeably better than the pre-war and the CZJ postwar coated version of the prewar (and that was a great lens as is the J-12) In fact I would buy a J-12 to hold me until I could get the West German lens. BTW I had dissappointing results with both a white early J-12 and the late black one until someone told me to use the white one on early Kievs and the black ones on later - whether true or not it worked very well for me and both lenses are really quite good.

The Helios is a double gauss formula which is basiclly a copy of the CZJ Biotar; a good modernish lens somewhat susceptible to flair - great value for the money but without the special visual character of the Sonnar. If you like the Sonnar go for it, if you prefer a Summicron the Helios may be for you. At the price of the Helios you can afford to use both.

Michael
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Hello Michael,

I have a Zeiss Lena Sonnar 5cm/2 in LTM, which is a rare lens if it is genuine. I sent it to DAG twice to get it in perfect shape. Instead of spending a lot of money on a Zeiss Sonnar in LTM I should have bought then a Contax camera and then buy a Zeiss Sonnar in Contax mount.

I fully agree with you that having a vintage lens CLA's/shimmed/repaired is very important to get something special out of the lens. Don Goldberg (or DAG) was the only person who was willing to take apart my vintage Zeiss 50/2lens. Other places [quite known here] found it too costly to do the repair. It needed afterwards some shimming that I did not ask for the first time, and DAG did the work for free. He also once saved my Canon 50/1.2. It gave everything in the image as OOF. He discovered an internal element that had moved. Now I have a stellar Canon 50/1.2 lens.



I will start with the Menopta to see what I can capture with it. All my lens testing files give me plenty of data to use for comparisons for the Menopta. If I like what I see, I will take photos for a while until I find a very clean Zeiss lens [50/2 or 50/1.5]. I have many lenses so that I really do not "need" the best lens in every camera mount that I own.

Cheers,

Raid
 
JoeFriday said:
I have to agree that the Sonnar 50/1.5 can be a magical lens that will rival anything Leica have produced.. mine was superb until Henry Scherer overhauled it.. now it's stellar.. so nice that I was compelled to buy a Contax-to-M mount adapter so I can use it on both platforms
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Brett: You give me ... GAS! Now where is my GAS-X! [my wife reminds me ...]

Raid
 
I've got a "thing" about 50mm lenses. For my II and IIa Contax cameras, I've got (besides the 35f2.8 and 85f2):
1. carl zeiss jena f1.5 uncoated
2. ziess opton f1.5
3. carl zeiss jena f2 collapsible
4. carl zeiss jena f2 (aluminum barrel)
5. J8m
6. Helios 103
Some day I'll have the time and impetus to compare them.
 
Brian Sweeney said:
On a side note: I bought some very late optics (1984, 1985) modules for the J-3. These are black modules, meaning they are for the LTM lenses. The Kiev mount lenses were always in chrome. The original spec sheets were included for the modules, and the given focal length was 52.5mm. That explains the focus error when using a J-3 on a Leica camera. I'm sure actual focal length varied, and some were closer to the Leica 51.6mm. But the target focal length was the Contax standard.
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Brian,

I know that I ask too much from you, but could you [one day ....] put together a very sharp J-3 for me in Contax mount?

Raid
 
FrankS said:
I've got a "thing" about 50mm lenses. For my II and IIa Contax cameras, I've got (besides the 35f2.8 and 85f2):
1. carl zeiss jena f1.5 uncoated
2. ziess opton f1.5
3. carl zeiss jena f2 collapsible
4. carl zeiss jena f2 (aluminum barrel)
5. J8m
6. Helios 103
Some day I'll have the time and impetus to compare them.
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Frank: We have to get you into the "Testing Group" at the RFF.
We all learn from the results. I have in LTM the CZJ 50/2 and the J-8 [from your list of lenses], and I am getting in Contax mount my only lens from Brian, a Helios-like Menopta.

Raid
 
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