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Contax Tele-Tessar 3.5/200
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PostPosted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 1:36 pm    Post subject: Contax Tele-Tessar 3.5/200 Reply with quote
Sunday I could try this lens at human portraiture - previously I used it only for landscapes.
It confirmed the impression I had with landscapes - the lens delivers plenty of contrast and saturation, perhaps even too much of them, so that in a few cases I had to tone them down a bit. Plenty of sharpness too, also wide open. The bokeh is very nice, with unobtrusive OOF highlights.
The lens does not, however, have the "sparkle" of the 2.8/180 Sonnar, nor it's remarkable 3Dness. Although very detailed, the images appear flatter to me than those of the 2.8/180.
I think the Tele-Tessar can be a very good general purpose tele, useable at all apertures, but having the choice with the Sonnar, I am not sure I would use it again for portrait work, as far as my personal taste is concerned. Mind, we are still talking of excellent lenses here - the differences being minimal and largely on the subjective plane.

Here's some samples from Sunday, all taken with the 400D:











PostPosted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 2:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
I think I commented in the Majorette set - I like the performance of this lens. It's not quite up there with the 180 (I fully agree with your assessment of it's character) but it's still a great lens.


PostPosted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 3:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
This lens does some purple frindging (100% crop) and a little bit of chromatic abheration :





but is very sharp :



Full picture is here :

http://flor27.free.fr/forums/carl_zeiss_tele-sonnar_200_3.5/IMG_6310.JPG


PostPosted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 4:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
@Flor: I never noticed such horrendous CA from my copy.
Mine is AE version, made in West Germany, serial n. 6102160
what aperture did you take your sample at?

Actually at second thought I am not even sure that what you display is CA.
It could also be some digital artifact (like pixel bleeding).

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PostPosted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 4:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Excellent colours.


PostPosted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 8:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
I guess my lens is MM version (how can I recognise that ? I haven't found any thing on Google), made in West Germany, serial n. 5809727.

I've read that this lens has also evolved between MM to AE version.


PostPosted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 8:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Flor27 wrote:
I guess my lens is MM version (how can I recognise that ? I haven't found any thing on Google), made in West Germany, serial n. 5809727.
I've read that this lens has also evolved between MM to AE version.


With that serial number, your lens must be AE
For most Contax lenses, the first two numbers of MM production are usually 68
Some start earlier, but not much earlier.
You can tell an AE from a MM easily by looking at the last number on the aperture ring: if it's white, it's AE, if it's green, it's MM.
Where did you read about the Tele-Tessar having been changed for MM? I have never heard of this. I know the sure ones to have been changed are:

Sonnar 2.8/135mm
Distagon 2.8/28mm
Distagon 2.8/25mm

The above have been confirmed by Zeiss.
Rumoured to have been changed, but without official confirmation:

Planar 1.4/85mm
Distagon 1.4/35mm

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PostPosted: Wed Feb 13, 2008 8:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Orio, you are right. I've just inverted AE and MM timeline Wink

My Tele-Tessar is AE as all aperture ring numbers are white and I can see no way to let the body choose itself an aperture on the lens.

Here is a small review of 200mm Contax lenses :
http://photo.net/neighbor/view-one.tcl?neighbor_to_neighbor_id=93110


PostPosted: Wed Feb 13, 2008 11:29 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Flor27 wrote:

Here is a small review of 200mm Contax lenses :
http://photo.net/neighbor/view-one.tcl?neighbor_to_neighbor_id=93110


Thanks, nice review. It confirms what I already knew: zooms suck Twisted Evil Laughing (just kidding), and the TT 3.5/200 is optically a better performer than the later TT 4/200.

We should also remember that both Tele-Tessars were the "affordable" (so to say, as they were still quite expensive) offerings in the Contax lineup, while the Apotessar was the rich people lens.

The fate of the Tele-Tessars was quite signed by the fact that the Sonnar 2.8/180 only costed about 75 of today's Euros more than the Tele-Tessar 3.5/200, with a clear quality margin over it. So many people preferred to fork out the extra 75 and buy the Sonnar. Read about this:
http://www.nadir.it/ob-fot/contax_obiettivi.htm
Still, the 3.5/200 remains an excellent lens (as the article reports), and it's a pity that it was practically in direct competition with the Sonnar.
The later version at f/4 was a tentative to make the lens smaller, lighter, and more clearly differentiate it from the Sonnar. The f/4 version was also a very good lens, but vignettes wide open (something that the f/3.5 does not, or just imperceptibely)
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 13, 2008 11:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Orio wrote:
zooms suck

Can you translate this in English, it is for my zoom
Nadir wrote:
Zoom 80-200 F/4 - Davvero molto buono. La resa, secondo i test MTF forniti dalla stessa Zeiss ? sempre uguale o superiore ai corrispondenti Zeiss a focale fissa


PostPosted: Wed Feb 13, 2008 11:50 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
poilu wrote:
Orio wrote:
zooms suck

Can you translate this in English, it is for my zoom
Nadir wrote:
Zoom 80-200 F/4 - Davvero molto buono. La resa, secondo i test MTF forniti dalla stessa Zeiss ? sempre uguale o superiore ai corrispondenti Zeiss a focale fissa


Poilu, I wrote it clearly that I was kidding, and I added TWO smilies to make it 100% clear.

Relax.

And please get off my socks, thank you.

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PostPosted: Sun Oct 18, 2009 7:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
reviving an old thread...

today i bought this lens (CZ Tele-Tessar 3,5/200) in close to mint condition @ the bay!

as it is my first C/Y lens now the same suffering is going to begin as when i bought my summicron. now i 1st have to wait for the lens to come and then it will take some more days waiting for the C/Y-EOS-adapter. Evil or Very Mad

but anyway, i am happy with this purchase! Very Happy


PostPosted: Sun Oct 18, 2009 8:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Congratulations! This is a good lens, with super strong colour saturation. Much better than the TT 300.


PostPosted: Mon Oct 26, 2009 10:38 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad

the mirror of my eos30 hits the surface of the lens. first i thought it's the auto-lever. i tried to open the back of the lens to remove it. the screws where so tight that would have destroyed the screwdriver or the screw. so i decided to bend the lever out of the way. as i did so, a short *knack* showed me, that the lever was made of plastic. afterwards i had to realize, that it wasn't the lever, 'caus the mirror still hits the surface.

i wonder about it, because the mirror of my eos30 is heavily shaved. this would be the first of my lenses which hits it.

i am simply sad. this is the second long tele that brings up trouble (after a 4/200 tele-tessar in QBM where the screw channel completely jammed).


PostPosted: Mon Oct 26, 2009 10:42 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
supahmario wrote:
Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad

the mirror of my eos30 hits the surface of the lens. first i thought it's the auto-lever. i tried to open the back of the lens to remove it. the screws where so tight that would have destroyed the screwdriver or the screw. so i decided to bend the lever out of the way. as i did so, a short *knack* showed me, that the lever was made of plastic. afterwards i had to realize, that it wasn't the lever, 'caus the mirror still hits the surface.

i wonder about it, because the mirror of my eos30 is heavily shaved. this would be the first of my lenses which hits it.

i am simply sad. this is the second long tele that brings up trouble (after a 4/200 tele-tessar in QBM where the screw channel completely jammed).


Is your lens AE or MM ?
My copy is AE


PostPosted: Mon Oct 26, 2009 10:59 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
mine is ae too!


PostPosted: Mon Oct 26, 2009 11:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
I don't really know, I can mount and use my lens no problem


PostPosted: Mon Oct 26, 2009 11:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
@orio
could you also post some pictures like these two, with adapter attached to the lens? so perhaps we can see the difference. if the lens-adapter combination should look similar, we know that it is a eos30 issue!




sorry for these noisy images... i didn't find a 5D jet Mad


PostPosted: Mon Oct 26, 2009 12:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Later I will take the pictures.
I think I can say in advance the EOS 30 is likely to be the issue. I read that some EOS film cameras give more problems than the EOS digital with regards to lens mount.
I used to have an EOS E50 (I think - can't remember the name exact) which I sold to Carsten - it could mount all Contax lenses ok.


PostPosted: Mon Oct 26, 2009 12:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
seems that i will have to do further shaving! Evil or Very Mad i'll try out now and will report!


PostPosted: Mon Oct 26, 2009 12:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Could be the EOS 30, for my Distagon 15 I had to shave my EOS 50E.
But it was a good lesson, after that I was prepared for the 5D-shave. Wink


PostPosted: Mon Oct 26, 2009 12:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
so,... now i completely shaved the mirror from left edge to right edge. (before there was some more plastic rim at the edges). and now....


IT WORKS! Laughing Laughing Laughing Laughing


but now i am frightened if i have to shave my coming 5D Confused


PostPosted: Sat Feb 06, 2021 9:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
This is quite an old thread but recently I have an opportunity to buy one of these lenses and am interested to know if anyone is still using this lens and what your impressions are for digital use. (I would mainly use it with a Sony full frame camera (the A7s with 12 megapixels - pretty modest pixel count I admit).
In short I thought it might be interesting to have an update on this thread from those who know and use the lens.
The reports on it seem to be a bit equivocal though samples I have seen look very good.


PostPosted: Sun Feb 07, 2021 6:29 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
I have the Contax-Zeiss 80-200 f4 which is a very nice and versatile lens with great sharpness and beautiful rendering.

I don't see the point in getting one of these primes; the difference in max. aperture is not significant.


PostPosted: Sun Feb 07, 2021 7:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
hasenbein wrote:
I have the Contax-Zeiss 80-200 f4 which is a very nice and versatile lens with great sharpness and beautiful rendering.

I don't see the point in getting one of these primes; the difference in max. aperture is not significant.


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