New contax fit / m42s

Sleepyd · 7 Apr 2006 at 23:34

Okay, so I may have gone a bit mad lately with the lenses included in my signature on the forum. Truth is I raided the attic for lenses and I found some interesting lenses that I used to have with my old pentax. All were in perfect condition. I've also aquired an old Carl zeiss Planar F1.7 T* from a well know auction website for £51 inc delivery - cheaper than the nifty 50! The Zeiss is supposed to be one of the sharpest lenses available. I'm hoping that by using primes again I'll think a hell of a lot more about focus, composition and then let the lens do the rest for colour and contrast.

I tend to use the 50mm Canon mkII so much I though that I'd like to have one lens that's sharp wide open and gives really great bokeh. I've been looking at getting a Pentax super takumar 50mm 1.4 which is rumoured to be as sharp wide open as the canon at F2.8.

I finally got my contax/m42 adapters this week and I intend to try out these this weekend (weather permitting).

Anyone else with a similar interest? I'll try and post some pics here at the weekend.

Joe T · 8 Apr 2006 at 08:15

Looking forward to seeing the pictures mate.

NB: if you are going to have an image that big as your sig, you can only have one line of text.

Psilonaught · 8 Apr 2006 at 11:16

would be very interested indeed to see how the contax works out!

Psilonaught · 8 Apr 2006 at 19:19

sleepy have seen on another forum a SUPER TAKUMAR 50MM 1.4 "SCREW FIT" for sale.

is screw fit whah m42s is, and therefore with the same adapter as yours could i use this lens with my 350D?

Also, would i have to set the apperture manually?

DRZ · 8 Apr 2006 at 19:28

I have the 50mm Takumar 1.4 here somewhere - its so sharp it cuts my eyes when I use it!

Yes, M42 is the right fitment

I have a 200mm f/4 pentacon prime too - its amazingly difficult to manually focus when the ring is so stiff (compared to modern lenses!) that it really makes you plan ahead mentally - fantastic!

I will dig out a (poorly focussed

) shot I took with the 200mm manual in a sec...

EDIT:

Yes, manual aperture control is needed (on the lens) - if you plan on buying older lenses you MUST make sure you can manually set the aperture on them else they are wide open all of the time!

On the bodies they were designed for, there was a little hammer that forced a pin on the back of the lens forward, moving the diaphragm to the right place. Obviously, that isnt present any more on modern bodies so you need to watch out!

Psilonaught · 8 Apr 2006 at 19:29

right am going to buy it then. The body of the 350D is so small that using a tiny lens like the 50mm turns it into something you could fit in a coat pocket

DRZ · 8 Apr 2006 at 19:32

Obviously the focussing is off (It was the first time I had used the lens and its not easy when you have two powerful cars exploding forwards out of a corner at you!) but you can see that the bit that is in focus is sharp

Sleepyd · 8 Apr 2006 at 19:35

Psilonaught said:
sleepy have seen on another forum a SUPER TAKUMAR 50MM 1.4 "SCREW FIT" for sale.

is screw fit whah m42s is, and therefore with the same adapter as yours could i use this lens with my 350D?

Also, would i have to set the apperture manually?

The thing to note about the Super Takimar 1.4 is that is has 'hot glass' - in some cases this turns yellow overtime. Make sure you get one that hasn't had this, having said that you can fix it by putting it under a UV lamp for a few days. Not all copies have this problem.

I have a SMC (Super multi coated) Takumar 55mm F/2 and it's very good. I'd like a good copy of a 1.4. (SMC is the best type of takumar)

Yes you have to set the aperature manually but in AV mode on the 350D it'll give you a shutter speed - so, no problems there.

Gave the zeiss ago today - tis v. sharp - pictures to follow

Psilonaught · 8 Apr 2006 at 19:53

sweet. Thanks guys. Hope it doesnt out my L glass to shame

DRZ · 8 Apr 2006 at 19:57

Camera -> ACR -> *teeny* bit of PS work (absolutely NO sharpening) -> 100% crop -> save as...

F/4 sharpness. Nice.

Sleepyd · 8 Apr 2006 at 20:11

Carl Zeiss Planar 1.7 T*

Click for 100% view - have a look - there's no CA. Even the 50m mkI used to give me some. No post-processing applied.

More to come...

Psilonaught · 8 Apr 2006 at 20:26

Sleepyd said:
Carl Zeiss Planar 1.7 T*

Click for 100% view - have a look - there's no CA. Even the 50m mkI used to give me some. No post-processing applied.

More to come...

christ the full version is extremely impressive

freebooter · 8 Apr 2006 at 21:04

But...but...they are not made by Canon - how can they be any good :confused:

9designs2 · 8 Apr 2006 at 21:58

Nice result, so how hacked off am I that Contax never made a digital body to take the stack of T* lenses I have !!! The 1.7 I think scores one of the highest MTF scores going.
...... L glass

Sleepyd · 8 Apr 2006 at 22:32

Why not get an adapter 9designs? The planar is rated 4.6/4.8 for MTF whereas the canon 1.4USM is rated 4.4, but then you do get AF, but it's £250

In the future this'll be used when I know I'll have time to get things right - not spontanious stuff. The procedure is like this:

Spot something
Set the widest aperature
Compose & focus
Set the correct aperature for the shot
Shoot

Manual focusing is harder in darker situations - I really feel for those poor lenses that hunt in the dark - I know now how it feels!

The colour&contrast in the lens is really nice.

9designs2 · 8 Apr 2006 at 22:38

No mount for my Nikon D70 body !!!!!

I have an 18,28,35,50,85 and 135 ...

But I still shoot film and scan....with the RX

milou · 9 Apr 2006 at 01:28

I was looking at something similar but at 21mm e.g. http://www.16-9.net/lens_tests/best19_21.html but the Zeiss 21mm Distagon is silly money.

rG-tom · 9 Apr 2006 at 02:16

Sleepyd said:
Okay, so I may have gone a bit mad lately with the lenses included in my signature on the forum. Truth is I raided the attic for lenses and I found some interesting lenses that I used to have with my old pentax. All were in perfect condition. I've also aquired an old Carl zeiss Planar F1.7 T* from a well know auction website for £51 inc delivery - cheaper than the nifty 50! The Zeiss is supposed to be one of the sharpest lenses available. I'm hoping that by using primes again I'll think a hell of a lot more about focus, composition and then let the lens do the rest for colour and contrast.

I tend to use the 50mm Canon mkII so much I though that I'd like to have one lens that's sharp wide open and gives really great bokeh. I've been looking at getting a Pentax super takumar 50mm 1.4 which is rumoured to be as sharp wide open as the canon at F2.8.

I finally got my contax/m42 adapters this week and I intend to try out these this weekend (weather permitting).

Anyone else with a similar interest? I'll try and post some pics here at the weekend.

mmmm m42 for the win

I have a 135mm MC Sonnar Carl Zeiss F3.5, and it's gorgeous both in build quality and optical quality, and the bokeh is just so nice compared to a lot of modern lenses. here's a shot of our cyk, and despite what he says, he is ginger

Wide open @ f3.5

Also have a 29mm Pentacon F2.4, which was extremely cheap but not too shabby:

Tom.

cyKey · 9 Apr 2006 at 02:26

rG-tom said:
here's a shot of our cyk, and despite what he says, he is ginger

Tom.

You can clearly see the extremely high contrast in this lens, coupled with the terrible use of white balance of the ametuer user

Everyone knows I'm not ginger, I'm black and white or maybe duotoned

rG-tom · 9 Apr 2006 at 02:27

cyKey said:
You can clearly see the extremely high contrast in this lens, coupled with the terrible use of white balance of the ametuer user Everyone knows I'm not ginger, I'm black and white or maybe duotoned

haha

Tom.