Zeiss Contax 85/1.4, bucketloads of contrast

marius.zaech · Joined: 27 Jan 2021 Posts: 53 Location: Switzerland

Lately acquired a Contax Zeiss 85/1.4 and apart from it's beautiful handling and the blazing fast speed the first thing that struck me was the amount of contrast. I've had two fast 85's before, a Minolta MD 1.7 and a Canon FD 1.8. Both were very nice performers (The canon being more practical bc it's tiny but the Minolta had waaay better Bokeh) and they both didn't have the amounts of contrast at f4 that this Zeiss delivers at f2.

To be honest I've even found it to be nearly too much, it gives pictures taken in harsh daylight a very modern look. Sometimes that's what i want, sometimes not. Certainly not as "smooth" as the Minolta rendered. Luckily this is no problem to tone down in Lightroom, plus the "pop" and rendering in softer light makes up for it.

Here are some pic's I took recently, from a portrait shoot and a local outdoor concert. They are all edited to taste.

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iangreenhalgh1 · Expire: 2014-01-07

It's mostly due to the T* coating. Careful, you'll get addicted to it and have to buy more Zeiss T* glass.... Smile

If you want to also have a vintage looking less contrasty 85, look for a Russian Jupiter-9 2/85, copy of the Zeiss Sonnar 2/85, it's a bit soft at f2, sharpens up closed one stop, but has a beautiful rendering and buttery smooth bokeh. Best of all, they can be found dirt cheap.

Gatorengineer64 · Joined: 26 Oct 2017 Posts: 279

Zeiss TT* IS A SEVENTY PLUS YEAR OLD COATING. B ZEISS ZEISS NEEDS SOME NEW MARKETING FOLKS.

marius.zaech · Joined: 27 Jan 2021 Posts: 53 Location: Switzerland

iangreenhalgh1 · Expire: 2014-01-07

T* was introduced in the late 70s, which is nowhere near 70 years ago.

Furthermore, the * coatings have continually evolved and been enhanced countless times, so they are still state of the art.

So no, Zeiss don't need to change the T* name anymore than they need to change the Zeiss name itself.