What's coming on Dec 21?

RJ,

I urrently use the Leica R9 and DMR. I have thought about selling it every now and then. Just one of those things we do for no reason :) However, If I had no digital camera now, my FIRST and ONLY choice would now be a NIkon with the Zeiss glass. Most Canon owners who strive for the best possible results end up with Zeiss lenses and an adapter. For me this is a no brainer. You could have th ebest camera in the world. If your lens is not up to par, its useless. I am not say that Nikon glass is bad. On the contrary. Its just that if you seek one of the best optics available and its made for a Nikon, Then a Nikon I would purchase :)
 
jaap said:
I would not call the 35mm f2.8 and a 85mm f2.8 "lesser"except for the speed when compared to their faster brothers. I use them when i want to travel light and don't wanna use my G2. The 2.8 versions are very sharp an contrasty when just one stop turned down. (at f4.0). But also very useable wide open especially the distagon 35mm f2.8
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I like them a lot and I mostly shoot around F4-8, so there was no need for me to get faster lenses. I'm an amateur after all and usualy shoot in bright daylight or with a flash.

Besides the optics, the Contax lenses are very sturdy and can take some abuse. I have used them in the northern northsea at galeforce 11 below minus 10°C without a filter and they survived saltwater spray without a sign of use.

In the caribbean over 40°C and a humiditiy close to 100% the rubber on my Yashica 75-150/4 came off, not so on the Contax lenses.

I think they'll stick to this kind of quality although the lenses are now built somwhere else in Japan.

And another thing, Kyoceras booth on the CeBit in Hanover is close to ours, so I had the chance to play with a Contax N digitl and a 17-35/2.8. Zeiss made a 17-35 zoom which does not vignete on a FF sensor!
Compared to a Canon 1Ds with 16-35 the Contax N digital with 17-35 had lots of problems, but neither soft corners nor vignetting were part of those.
If there would have been a chance to use the N digital with my existing lenses, I'D bought one! But a new body plus new lenses and the lack of primes was too much for me.
 
Socke,

I thought the N digital was discontinued. Was this a recent showing you talk about?
 
I've never understood why the Contax N digital didn,t make it. Was it because the mount change or was it something else? After all it was the first SLR with a full size sensor.
 
Jorge Torralba said:
Socke,

I thought the N digital was discontinued. Was this a recent showing you talk about?
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No, it was 2002 at CeBit and later at Photokina, Kyocera had the same personal there, and then again at CeBit 2003.

2002 the camera was still behind glass but it was a working model and since we use Kyocera printers we had good connections to the Kyocera personel.

To some extent I regret that this camera line was discontinued, Kyocera was ery proud to have solved the heat problems of big sensors in small cameras and their super thin lowpass filter.

With Kodaks sensor from the DCS Pro14 it would have been a realy nice camera.
 
jaap said:
I've never understood why the Contax N digital didn,t make it. Was it because the mount change or was it something else? After all it was the first SLR with a full size sensor.
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Definitly the mount change, I heard a lot of complaints, and the performance over ISO100. Batterie consumption was another problem.

I've been told by the Kyocera technician that the mount change was needed to support AF and digital, the old C/Y mount has a smaller diameter.

If my memory serves me, the 17-35 took 95mm filters!

Up to ISO100 the results are still stunning, even if only 6 MPixel.
 
I would like to see a digital RX. That could become reality if some would see money in the devlopment of a digital back for 35mm SLR's !
 
jaap said:
I would like to see a digital RX. That could become reality if some would see money in the devlopment of a digital back for 35mm SLR's !
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Me too! And there where rumors ....
 
Somewhat OT but since (digital) SLRs and Zeiss lenses are the topic here, I did some digging around and found the gallery with Contax N digital pictures by the guy who once brought me to photo.net

Kaisern Chen

look for the ND tests

The galleries from contaxinfo.com seem to be lost :-(
 
Jorge Torralba said:
RJ,

I urrently use the Leica R9 and DMR. I have thought about selling it every now and then. Just one of those things we do for no reason :) However, If I had no digital camera now, my FIRST and ONLY choice would now be a NIkon with the Zeiss glass. Most Canon owners who strive for the best possible results end up with Zeiss lenses and an adapter. For me this is a no brainer. You could have th ebest camera in the world. If your lens is not up to par, its useless. I am not say that Nikon glass is bad. On the contrary. Its just that if you seek one of the best optics available and its made for a Nikon, Then a Nikon I would purchase :)
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Jorge,

Those lenses that come with the DSLR bodies for an extra $100 are not worth buying IMO.

I researched the Canon 10D/20D with adapter option earlier this year. There are adapters for Leica, M42, Nikon, Rollei QBM and Contax/Yashica lenses. It looks like all of them have the stop screws now, too. Currently, I can pick up a used 85mm F/1.4 Contax Planar for $399 and a new adapter for $25.

So for me, it's a) the $1500 Canon 20D with adapters and a variety of lenses to choose from or b) a new $1700 Nikon D200, my MF Nikkors and possibly a new ZF. :)


R.J.
 
RJ, if you get a camera with a small sensor, get some serious wideangle, too!

This is shot at 22mm with a Canon D60 and I wasn't that close.
 
Socke said:
RJ, if you get a camera with a small sensor, get some serious wideangle, too!

This is shot at 22mm with a Canon D60 and I wasn't that close.
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Volker,

Persian bellydancer? :)

Yes, with the 1.6 FOV crop your 22mm lens is equivalent to a 35mm. The Nikon D200 isn't much better, 1.5.

Back OT, I suppose the ZF lenses can be used with Canon 20Ds with the Nikon to EOS adapters. :)

R.J.
 
Jorge Torralba said:
RJ,

I urrently use the Leica R9 and DMR. I have thought about selling it every now and then. Just one of those things we do for no reason :) However, If I had no digital camera now, my FIRST and ONLY choice would now be a NIkon with the Zeiss glass. Most Canon owners who strive for the best possible results end up with Zeiss lenses and an adapter. For me this is a no brainer. You could have th ebest camera in the world. If your lens is not up to par, its useless. I am not say that Nikon glass is bad. On the contrary. Its just that if you seek one of the best optics available and its made for a Nikon, Then a Nikon I would purchase :)
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Jorge,

With all due respect, why would you get a Nikon DSLR and put a manual lens on it (Nikkor or ZF or whatever)? With the new D-200 rated at 5 FPS where is the gain with a manual lens?

I don't understand.

George
 
Amazing that this thread is still so HOT.

For those of you who are eager to get these manual ZF lenses I would advise you to hop over to eBay. There are lots of good quality F1, F2 and F3 camera bodies for sale there - not to mention the earlier entry-level manuals such as the Nikkormats etc.

My first Nikon was a Nikkormat FT-2. I still have it and it works great (shutter speeds and meter remain "spot on"). I go it 30 years ago with a couple of great Nikkor manual lenses. They are still great too.

So, ZF fans, welcome to the wonderful world of manual Nikon film-based SLRs. We've been waiting for you....
 
copake_ham said:
Amazing that this thread is still so HOT.

For those of you who are eager to get these manual ZF lenses I would advise you to hop over to eBay. There are lots of good quality F1, F2 and F3 camera bodies for sale there - not to mention the earlier entry-level manuals such as the Nikkormats etc.

My first Nikon was a Nikkormat FT-2. I still have it and it works great (shutter speeds and meter remain "spot on"). I go it 30 years ago with a couple of great Nikkor manual lenses. They are still great too.

So, ZF fans, welcome to the wonderful world of manual Nikon film-based SLRs. We've been waiting for you....
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That's an interesting way to look at it, George. :)

R.J.
 
RJBender said:
That's an interesting way to look at it, George. :)

R.J.
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RJ,

Yes, I guess it strikes me as odd that there is all of this excitement over the introduction of a line of manual lenses for film-based SLRs. I still use my Nikon manuals (shot a couple of rolls of T-Max on my F3 over the past two weekends) but any check of eBay listings will reveal how many are being "dumped for digital" so to speak.

But what really gets me is how much "heat" is being generated here on the RFF about SLR lenses. Maybe it's time for Jorge to start a film-only SLR site. Going by the number of responses and "hits" on this thread there sure seem to be a lot of Zeiss fans that want to get into film-based SLRs! ;)

George
 
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