Lenses

[Matt Kieley]

16 minutes ago, mercer said:

Nice, I had a cheap one and it not only caused a blue spot, but also a blue veiling flare wide open. And I am a lazy operator, I only shoot wide open with a fader ND. 

Of course the cheapest and most effective solution is just shooting with a normal adapter when you run into that problem, which is probably what I'll do most of the time.

[mercer]

Are there any two ring Contax Zeiss zooms that are any good?

[TheRenaissanceMan]

5 hours ago, mercer said:

Are there any two ring Contax Zeiss zooms that are any good?

Sadly no. Iirc, the only two-touch C/Y Zeiss zoom is the 28-70mm, which was a third party design and essentially a cheap kit zoom for them.

[mercer]

1 hour ago, TheRenaissanceMan said:

Sadly no. Iirc, the only two-touch C/Y Zeiss zoom is the 28-70mm, which was a third party design and essentially a cheap kit zoom for them.

Since I started shooting FF, my lenses aren't making as much sense as they do with super-35mm. For instance I rarely shot with a 50mm and used a 35mm or even stayed on the wider side with a 28mm. 

I found a cine modded Zeiss 50mm f/1.4 with the Leitax adapter for pretty cheap, so I was hoping to fill it in with a 35-70mm. Of course an hour later I got the 25mm for $200... so I may just roll with that for now and then maybe get an 85mm down the line. But to be honest, I usually shoot with one lens and rarely change them. 

Do you know how the 35-70mm f/3.4 is?

[BTM_Pix]

8 hours ago, mercer said:

 

Do you know how the 35-70mm f/3.4 is?

The flickr pool for that lens is quite interesting.

The first few pages are dominated by a single shooter (seemingly on a holiday to New York) and the processing is not to my taste but its all shot on A7Rii so its interesting to see from a resolution perspective.

The content gets a lot more people-y towards the bottom of page 6.

It's a shorter range than the 28-85mm that I've got but its a bit smaller, lighter, sharper and usually cheaper....

I'll see you on ebay

https://www.flickr.com/groups/1571522@N25/pool/

[mercer]

5 hours ago, BTM_Pix said:

The flickr pool for that lens is quite interesting.

The first few pages are dominated by a single shooter (seemingly on a holiday to New York) and the processing is not to my taste but its all shot on A7Rii so its interesting to see from a resolution perspective.

The content gets a lot more people-y towards the bottom of page 6.

It's a shorter range than the 28-85mm that I've got but its a bit smaller, lighter, sharper and usually cheaper....

I'll see you on ebay

https://www.flickr.com/groups/1571522@N25/pool/

By page 5 it starts getting really interesting. Hmm.

When I woke up yesterday, I had no intention of buying any Zeiss lenses, but then I saw those deals.

I'm looking to build 3-5 small sets of lenses. For me a small set could consist of a zoom and a Prime or two primes... a wide and portrait. So as I sell off a bunch of tester lenses, I want to rebuild with more quality.

I have my Canon set up and I have my Tokina zooms.

I also have a half ass Nikkor set which consists of my 28mm f/2, a 35mm f/1.4, a few Series E lenses, a couple old non-ai 50s and a Nikkor ai-s 35-70mm f/3.3-4.5... every review hates that lens but I find it has some interesting character and I bought it new for $50, so I may just keep it and the series e 50mm and sell off the better Nikkors. I don't know. my 28mm f/2 will be a difficult one to list.

Another 2 lens setup that interests me is the Leica (Minolta) design 35-70mm f/3.5 and the 50mm Summicron. I have the Minolta 35-70mm, and I love it, but I no longer have a camera to use it on.

Sorry, just thinking out loud here, in print...

[BTM_Pix]

1 hour ago, mercer said:

By page 5 it starts getting really interesting. Hmm.

When I woke up yesterday, I had no intention of buying any Zeiss lenses, but then I saw those deals.

I have the 28 f2.8, the 50 f1.7, the 135 f2.8 and the 28-85 f3.3-4 which I've built up over a few years if I see them cheap.

The one I've been after for a while is the 85 f1.4 but never found one cheap enough to make me cave in!

Until now....

Well, until tomorrow at least.

I've found one in London but the same place has also got a used Fuji 23 f1.4 for a silly price and which would probably be more useful (but I could easily persuade myself otherwise !) so I've been agonising over it as I can't get both. To break the impasse, I thought "I know, I'll put my Sigma Art 35 f1.4 on the X-T2 with the Lens Turbo and do a few shots and see if I can dissuade myself of needing the Fuji so I can get the Contax Zeiss....."

I took the Lens Turbo out of the ever growing box of adapters I've acquired, went to put it on the camera at which point one of the elements promptly dropped out and smashed on the floor. 

I don't know if this is God's way of telling me to get the Fuji (because there'll be no speed boosted Nikons for a while now) or the Contax Zeiss.

He was telling me to get both wasn't he?

Yeah, lets go with both.

[mercer]

42 minutes ago, BTM_Pix said:

I have the 28 f2.8, the 50 f1.7, the 135 f2.8 and the 28-85 f3.3-4 which I've built up over a few years if I see them cheap.

The one I've been after for a while is the 85 f1.4 but never found one cheap enough to make me cave in!

Until now....

Well, until tomorrow at least.

I've found one in London but the same place has also got a used Fuji 23 f1.4 for a silly price and which would probably be more useful (but I could easily persuade myself otherwise !) so I've been agonising over it as I can't get both. To break the impasse, I thought "I know, I'll put my Sigma Art 35 f1.4 on the X-T2 with the Lens Turbo and do a few shots and see if I can dissuade myself of needing the Fuji so I can get the Contax Zeiss....."

I took the Lens Turbo out of the ever growing box of adapters I've acquired, went to put it on the camera at which point one of the elements promptly dropped out and smashed on the floor. 

I don't know if this is God's way of telling me to get the Fuji (because there'll be no speed boosted Nikons for a while now) or the Contax Zeiss.

He was telling me to get both wasn't he?

Yeah, lets go with both.

Man, that's a tough call. As you said, the Fuji may make more sense... but that Zeiss is some legendary glass. But at that point, if you get that 85mm... then you NEED either the Hollywood or the 35mm 1.4. Supposedly, I don't know if it's true or not, they used the same glass in those Contax Zeiss as they did in the Master Primes or Super Speeds... of course it's probably just Zeisslore.

All I know is that I briefly owned the 50mm 1.7 a couple years ago and it was one of the absolute nicest lenses I've ever used but I didn't use 50mm lenses that much back then and I couldn't afford the other Zeiss lens I really wanted... the 28mm f2... so I sold the Planar for a profit. Since then I occasionally search for Contax Zeiss lenses and hit some deals yesterday. So now I'm rethinking everything. Lol. At least this keeps me from buying a camera. 

[BTM_Pix]

That is exactly the problem isn't it that the complete set would be showing me a bit too much ankle if I got the 85.

I thought it was God giving me a sign but it might well have been the other fella!

[mercer]

True but you're pretty damn close to a complete set anyway, so if you take the plunge you can finish it off. If you sell your 28mm, that will get you 25% of the way to the Hollywood or the 35mm 1.4. Then you could probably sell off two other complete sets of lenses because why would you need them when you have a complete Zeiss set? Then the proceeds from those lens sales will pay for multiple Fuji lenses.

Plus, Fuji deals will pop up more regularly than a Zeiss 85mm 1.4 deal will. 

[BTM_Pix]

I'm going to let fate decide.

I'm getting on the plane to London in an hour.

If the person sitting next to me is a man then I'll take the sensible route and get the Fuji.

If its a woman then I'll take the Zeiss path.

Stay tuned...

[BTM_Pix]

Fuck.

In an aisle seat with a man on the right and a woman on the left.

I'll go with the gender of whoever checks my passport at the other end.

Update in 2 1/2 hours !

 

[BTM_Pix]

This is ridiculous, it was one of those automated e-gate jobs so we still don't have a winner !

We now go on to the hotel receptionist gender then.

At this rate it'll be Bruce Jenner and I'll have to buy both.

[Mattias Burling]

6 hours ago, BTM_Pix said:

This is ridiculous, it was one of those automated e-gate jobs so we still don't have a winner !

We now go on to the hotel receptionist gender then.

At this rate it'll be Bruce Jenner and I'll have to buy both.

 

[jonpais]

I see several here, including @kidzrevil, swear by the Tiffen Black Pro Mist filters. I was reading Barry Braverman's blog and he seems to think those are best used in combination with vintage optics like the old Cooke zooms and Zeiss CP.2 lenses, and he recommends instead using the Tiffen Satin and Black Satin, as well as the Scheider Digicon and Black Magic types for general use with relatively low cost 4K cameras, camcorders and DSLRs. Does anyone here have experience with any of these filters?

[mercer]

I believe that frame that enny posted from the BMCC, the cinematographer used a Black Magic filter. I've never tried one, but I think with my next consumer camera purchase I will give the Pro Mist or some sort of diffusion filter a go. 

[kidzrevil]

@jonpais I love the tiffen satin and black satin filters and I generally just leave them on the lens ! The diffusion is not distracting and is pretty much invisible unless you know what you are looking for. The effect makes the filters great for general use and helps the image compress better ! Although I do love the black pro mist you have to be careful with them cause they flare like crazy. The image I attached was shot with a nikkor auto 85mm f1.8 with tiffen black satin 2 filter

[Gregormannschaft]

1 hour ago, jonpais said:

I see several here, including @kidzrevil, swear by the Tiffen Black Pro Mist filters. I was reading Barry Braverman's blog and he seems to think those are best used in combination with vintage optics like the old Cooke zooms and Zeiss CP.2 lenses, and he recommends instead using the Tiffen Satin and Black Satin, as well as the Scheider Digicon and Black Magic types for general use with relatively low cost 4K cameras, camcorders and DSLRs. Does anyone here have experience with any of these filters?

I bought a 1/4 Tiffen Black Pro Mist filter recently and was pretty impressed. It does amazing things to the highlights, giving a much gentler roll off and lends the image an all round 'classic' feel.

[BTM_Pix]

Well, unless it was a circus act, the bearded receptionist means that the Contax Zeiss will have to wait.

[Gregormannschaft]

1 hour ago, Gregormannschaft said:

I bought a 1/4 Tiffen Black Pro Mist filter recently and was pretty impressed. It does amazing things to the highlights, giving a much gentler roll off and lends the image an all round 'classic' feel.

Here's one or two examples from a recent shoot that I quickly graded that show off what the 1/4 Black Pro Mist can do.