New S-mount Sonnar 50/1.5 from Zeiss

105,000 yen is about 920 USD. Actually, somewhat less than i figured it would sell for.

Very tempting...Of course, I keep telling myself that I should have bought that millenium nikkor that Nikon Kiu bought from the classifieds a few ago.
 
this lens would pair nicely with an S3 2000 body like Jon recently sold.
everyone lauds the 50mm millenium , but this baby is nothing to sneeze at.
 
NIKON KIU said:
You still remember that one?
It stayed around for a few days,remember?
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Yes, and I almost bought it, but I was in GAS-resist mode at the time. If another one appears, I will buy it!
 
On a more serious note - how do you actually go about if you want to order it?! Anyone figured that out? It will for sure not be in the windows of the local store and apparently you will have to pre-order... Those of you who have read/understood the japanese ads etc - does it actually say how you order it ??

900 USD with the weak USD (getting weaker by the day) isn´t that bad if you can do a dollar purchase.

/Jon
 
JonR said:
On a more serious note - how do you actually go about if you want to order it?! Anyone figured that out? It will for sure not be in the windows of the local store and apparently you will have to pre-order... Those of you who have read/understood the japanese ads etc - does it actually say how you order it ??

900 USD with the weak USD (getting weaker by the day) isn´t that bad if you can do a dollar purchase.

/Jon
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Jon, the add says you can order the lens through official Zeiss dealers. Regarding Japanese stores, I don't know of any that do internet sales to outside of Japan, though you could try contacting Map Camera http://www.mapcamera.com/ through their website (click the ENGLISH link at the top of the page) and ask. They're the only store I know of that at least tries to cater for foreign customers. I ordered one of these lenses there earlier today 🙂

Jon
 
OK - will check that one out!
I guess the one making the allocations won´t even know where Sweden is on the map and with import duties, currency conversions and VAT it will cost a fortune here !?!
Thanks!
Jon
 
JonR said:
900 USD with the weak USD (getting weaker by the day) isn´t that bad if you can do a dollar purchase.
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Hmmm, let me see, 105,000.00 JPY is about Eur 650.00. So, if I add a Finnish 22% VAT or German 19% VAT, the price would be here about Eur 795.00 or in Germany Eur 775.00. ZM C Sonnar 50/1.5 costs now in Zeiss own webshop (inc. 19% German VAT) Eur 999.00 + Lens Shade CS50 Eur 75.00. So, the new S-mount lens is indeed cheaper than ZM version, if my calculations are right! 🙂 But that's only my hopeful speculation. Let's see, when and how Zeiss will announce the lens in their own website...
 
Paul T. said:
Wow, your outrage bar must be set very low.

I applaud Zeiss for bringing new rangefinder products to the market, just as I applaud Nikon for producing great cameras - many ideas for which were ripped off from Carl Zeiss!
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Yes I completely agree, the more players here the better. This lens is a big deal. While its cost, about $900 US is hardly cheap, it's not outrageous, and we may be seeing a trend here which is that of resurrecting past glory in the rangefinder domain. We can only hope for a revival of such cameras as the Contax II or III itself, perhaps a Canon rangefinder, a Leica Bottom loader, or some exotic lens like a Biogon or whatever. Before this new Sonnar I tended to regard the recreation of the Nikon RF as an anomaly, now I'm not so sure!
 
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f2eyelevel said:
Fred, there are two optical glass manufacturers in the world :

- Schott (who now belongs to the French group Corning)
- Hoya

In your opinion, *who* makes the glasses for the Nikkor lenses ?
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There are three prime glass manufacturers of glass - Cosina makes all their own glass, both for their "in house" production of lenses and beam splitters as well as sell to other lens manufacturers. About 40% of the lens-glass goes to outside markets! In case of the Zeiss ZM/ZF lenses, it comes from Cosina.
 
Interesting point about quality on bodies. Problem is that the core of his business from a body perspective for years has been the same basic unit. Slap a mirror box and OM mount on and call it an OM 2000, swap in a Nikon AI mount in and it's a .......

I think he may have been right to keep prices low to help build a niche. If the R cost another $200 it might not have blossomed the way it did. If you look at prices of the As and Ms these days they have moved up market a bit, but not too much. I wonder if he came out with a more robust RF assembly that could take some of the abuse a M3 or S2 could how much more would it cost? Is it the design, the tolerances, the materials used or a bit of all three?

My gut tells me that ZI owners baby their systems a bit more than old M users might so data on that design might not be indicative of the same abuse you or others have put the Ms through. Does make one wonder though.

There is no question that Pres K has done a great thing for photography and our RF niche, he has my respect and thanks.

B2 (;->
 
I have heard lots of praise from some(tell 'em joe) when talking about the Zeiss Ikon camera, although, just like any other new camera, I read some horror stories at the begining of the production.

The Bessa seems to be a middle camera meant for the starting RF user, kinda like a Nikon FM10.

The new Zeiss lenses have been gobbled up by Photo entusiasts all over and everyone seems to love them, I haven't read a single negative review.

Kiu
 
I saw the proto type of this lens in March in Japan. At that time there was a thought of making a {very) small run of these lenses with a Contax C-mount, but Zeiss was not really interested (at that time at least).
The formula in the lens is the ZM lens adapted to the S-mount. I dont know if it is going to be markedly better than the Millenium 50f1.4, but I know that Mr Kobayashi used the Nikkor lens as a bench mark for the Sonnar design. It is not as simple as it sounds to translate a M-mount to a S mount as you are dealing with different back focus issues and a completely different mounting system. The benefit of the Contax.Nikon mount is that you can make the lens a bit more compact as you dont need an internal helicoil in it.
When the ZM 50f1.5 came out I know that given time, Mr kobayashi was going to make it in the S mount. He is a dedicated Nikon fan and the opportunity to adapt a truly classic design with upgraded glass and coating was too much of a temptation.
The arrival of the S3 Millenium and the SP 2005 has created a renewed interest in the classic S and to some extent the C mount lenses and Cosina's S mount series of lenses, though not huge sellers (there were never expected to be that) has shown that there is a small, but dedicated market. In spite of digital running amok, there are still small pockets of shooters who like to use film. I always feel that with an "analog" camera you take a picture, with digital, the camera performs a multi task operation. Mr Kobayashi has single handedly revitalized the range finder market in the last decade. For those of us who have been using RF's for a long time, we have NEVER had such a choice of lenses and bodies.
 
Im curious if this lens is dedicated to Nikon S mount why its called the C Sonnar?

When I was looking at buying a Heliar S I posted the question since the lens didnt have its own focusing helix and it just used the internal camera one, would it matter at all if it was used on either Contax or Nikon? The response I got was yes it still mattered. Even though I have tried the Heliar S on both I found no difference but that may be due to it not being very fast. But it is designated a S lens rather than an SC lens like the 21, 25 and 35's were. This new Sonnar however is faster, so is it definately an S lens or a C as its title suggests?
 
xayraa33 said:
this lens would pair nicely with an S3 2000 body like Jon recently sold.
everyone lauds the 50mm millenium , but this baby is nothing to sneeze at.
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It will!
/jon
 
Palaeoboy said:
Tom, did you also by chance see a C/S mount prototype 21mm f4.5?
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No. there was no 21f4.5 prototype around when I was in Japan - however, that does not mean that there wont be one! Mr Kobayashi considers the Biogon 21f4.5 one of the best lens designs ever and with his penchant for Nikon Rf's - it is probably a possibility (at least one for his own SP's and I hope one for one of mine!). The problem here is the cost of redesigning mounts and the customers willingness to cough up money for it! You cant run a business by making 2-3 pieces of something of the complexity of a lens (the 35f1.2 S mount was more of a "can it be done" project and I doubt that this lens in S-mount would be viable financially.
 
Captain said:
Im curious if this lens is dedicated to Nikon S mount why its called the C Sonnar?

When I was looking at buying a Heliar S I posted the question since the lens didnt have its own focusing helix and it just used the internal camera one, would it matter at all if it was used on either Contax or Nikon? The response I got was yes it still mattered. Even though I have tried the Heliar S on both I found no difference but that may be due to it not being very fast. But it is designated a S lens rather than an SC lens like the 21, 25 and 35's were. This new Sonnar however is faster, so is it definately an S lens or a C as its title suggests?
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James, the Japanese says ニコンS マウント (do the characters display properly?), which says Nikon S mount, so there is no question that this lens is for Nikon RF. As to the meaning of the C ....dunno mate 🙂

Regarding the Contax/Nikon focusing difference, it starts to be a problem from 50mm and longer, and gets more pronounced the faster the aperture is and the closer you focus. On 35mm and below DOF covers any difference, hence the CV 21/4, 25/4, 28/3.5, and 35/2.5 lenses are called "SC" even though they were designed for the Nikon mount (as per what's written in the small user's guide that comes in the box). There's more detail at the following links.

http://www.cameraquest.com/NRF-Contax.htm

http://www.dantestella.com/technical/compat.html

http://www.dantestella.com/technical/nikoleic.html
 
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