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pooschey
Joined: 03 Jun 2010 Posts: 21
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Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 12:02 pm Post subject: Any better price-performance options to Contax G lenses? |
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pooschey wrote:
I just got the NEX 5N recently, having moved from the Sony A700. Loving the compact package as a whole and especially using MF lenses (M42s from my A700 days).
Seeing that this is not the best way to take advantage of the compactness of the NEX, I'm looking at options to go small at the lowest cost. I can't see myself using Leica M lenses, looking at the prices they go for. Browsing through various threads in various forums, it seems that the Contax G may be the way.
I'll like to know from if there're better price-performance lenses out there that are about the same size. I'll be looking at the G 28, 45 & 90. |
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rbelyell
Joined: 13 Oct 2009 Posts: 4269 Location: somewhere in the mountains of central NY
Expire: 2014-01-31
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Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 1:47 pm Post subject: |
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rbelyell wrote:
hi
i get your philosophy completely and did the same thing myself this past year. i went from a system centered around my 5d and zeiss contax lenses to one centered around the fuji x100, olly ep2 and M mount/m39 small compact lenses.
i explored the G system because i am at heart a 'zeiss-head'. for me, i concluded that the lack of on lens focus ability was going to yield a poor user experience on my olly. so i started trying lots of other lenses. after much experimentationi found the summicron-c 40/2 to be perfect for my olly. it is as small as a thumble but has the incredible resolution and 'pop' of zeiss lenses. i found a great deal and got mine for less than $400usd. i put the following M/m39 lenses, all compact, as almost as good as the summicron: cv skopar 25/4, cv color heliar 75/2.5, leica elmar 90/4, cjz sonnar 135/4.
if you need fast wider lens that is not expensive you should check out the kiron 28/2.0. i am selling one in c/y mount and keeping one in konica ar mount because it is slightly smaller, but both are pretty compact and best quality to price ratio ive found. anoth much mor expensive option is the cv 28/1.9. it also comes in 2.0 but i understand that one has color shift problems when paired with nex cams.
hope this helps.
tony _________________ Epson RD1 + Elmarit 21/2.8; Summarit 50/1.5; Summarit 75/2.5; Elmar-c 90/4; Sankyo Komura 135/2.8, Hektor 135/4.5; Braun Paxina 29 6x6; Photax Boyer Paris; Holga 120 Pano
GREAT STUFF FOR SALE:
Contax T
Hasselblad XPan + 45/4, 90/4
Kodak Retina Reflex IV + full set of Schneider Krueznach lenses
Mercury 2 half frame 35mm
Kodak Pro slr/n
Fuji GM670+100/3.5+65/8!
Praktisix 6x6 medium format + ZeissBiometar 120/2.8
Bessa T 101 Anniversary Edition in Navy Blue
Mamiya Six Folder with Zuiko 75/3.5
Adaptall: Tamron SP 28-85 macro
Cameras: Canon IX
PM for more complete descriptions/pix. All in great shape!
_________________________
'buy me a drink, sing me a song,
take me as i come 'cause i can't stay long' |
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pooschey
Joined: 03 Jun 2010 Posts: 21
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Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 2:34 pm Post subject: |
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pooschey wrote:
Thanks for sharing your experience, Tony.
I do have the same concern with focusing with the Contax G lenses, reading how different adaptors behave differently on the lenses.
I'm not so familiar with the M39. How is this different from the M mount? I keep seeing adaptors that connect the M39 to M, but am not sure how it works. Does it mean I can stack the adaptors, ie, M39>M then M>NEX?
Can you share with me what are the average price points for the cv skopar 25/4, cv color heliar 75/2.5, leica elmar 90/4, cjz sonnar 135/4?
My concern for the Kiron 28/2.0 is that it's prone to oily aperture blades. Regarding the Konica AR mount, my understanding is that it has the shortest adaptor length of all SLR lenses. How long is the adapter?
Thanks again.
rbelyell wrote: |
hi
i get your philosophy completely and did the same thing myself this past year. i went from a system centered around my 5d and zeiss contax lenses to one centered around the fuji x100, olly ep2 and M mount/m39 small compact lenses.
i explored the G system because i am at heart a 'zeiss-head'. for me, i concluded that the lack of on lens focus ability was going to yield a poor user experience on my olly. so i started trying lots of other lenses. after much experimentationi found the summicron-c 40/2 to be perfect for my olly. it is as small as a thumble but has the incredible resolution and 'pop' of zeiss lenses. i found a great deal and got mine for less than $400usd. i put the following M/m39 lenses, all compact, as almost as good as the summicron: cv skopar 25/4, cv color heliar 75/2.5, leica elmar 90/4, cjz sonnar 135/4.
if you need fast wider lens that is not expensive you should check out the kiron 28/2.0. i am selling one in c/y mount and keeping one in konica ar mount because it is slightly smaller, but both are pretty compact and best quality to price ratio ive found. anoth much mor expensive option is the cv 28/1.9. it also comes in 2.0 but i understand that one has color shift problems when paired with nex cams.
hope this helps.
tony |
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rbelyell
Joined: 13 Oct 2009 Posts: 4269 Location: somewhere in the mountains of central NY
Expire: 2014-01-31
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Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 3:20 pm Post subject: |
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rbelyell wrote:
m39 is a screw mount, just like m42, but made for rangefinder lenese, which are generally much smaller than slr lenses. it was the standard mount before leica came out with the M mount. m39>nex adapters are easily available, as areM mount>nex adapters. you just need one of each for each type of mount, no stacking. m39>M mount adapters are to mount m39 lenses on M mount cameras.
i would say that each of the lenses i mentioned sell for between $3-400usd, much like G lenses. you just have to look around for a good deal. check out the rangefinderforum.com, as people sell this stuff sometimes cheaper than ebay.
as for the kiron, ive had 2 copies, a beautiful c/y mount that i'm selling, and a pretty beat up AR mount that i'm keeping, and neither have had oil problems. AR mount adapters are the smallest ive found because the lenses sit closer to the film plane than other slr lenses. having said that, i found the kiron + c/y adapter to be pretty compact for what you get, an excellent fast 42mm on apsc, that is much much less expensive than other similar options.
comparatively the depth of adapters from large to small goes: m42, c/y, AR, M mount, m39, with the last two being almost even and very small. _________________ Epson RD1 + Elmarit 21/2.8; Summarit 50/1.5; Summarit 75/2.5; Elmar-c 90/4; Sankyo Komura 135/2.8, Hektor 135/4.5; Braun Paxina 29 6x6; Photax Boyer Paris; Holga 120 Pano
GREAT STUFF FOR SALE:
Contax T
Hasselblad XPan + 45/4, 90/4
Kodak Retina Reflex IV + full set of Schneider Krueznach lenses
Mercury 2 half frame 35mm
Kodak Pro slr/n
Fuji GM670+100/3.5+65/8!
Praktisix 6x6 medium format + ZeissBiometar 120/2.8
Bessa T 101 Anniversary Edition in Navy Blue
Mamiya Six Folder with Zuiko 75/3.5
Adaptall: Tamron SP 28-85 macro
Cameras: Canon IX
PM for more complete descriptions/pix. All in great shape!
_________________________
'buy me a drink, sing me a song,
take me as i come 'cause i can't stay long' |
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Attila
Joined: 24 Feb 2007 Posts: 57865 Location: Hungary
Expire: 2025-11-18
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Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 5:24 pm Post subject: |
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Attila wrote:
Russian L39 or Kiev/Contax unbeatable in price performance ratio and small one too, but there is many other low priced and excellent performers, just look galleries , virtually you can mount any lens on NEX-5. _________________ -------------------------------
Items on sale on Ebay
Sony NEX-7 Carl Zeiss Planar 85mm f1.4, Minolta MD 35mm f1.8, Konica 135mm f2.5, Minolta MD 50mm f1.2, Minolta MD 250mm f5.6, Carl Zeiss Sonnar 180mm f2.8
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pooschey
Joined: 03 Jun 2010 Posts: 21
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Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2012 2:16 am Post subject: |
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pooschey wrote:
Thanks for the tip. I'll need to do more research into these mounts as I'm totally ignorant of them.
Attila wrote: |
Russian L39 or Kiev/Contax unbeatable in price performance ratio and small one too, but there is many other low priced and excellent performers, just look galleries , virtually you can mount any lens on NEX-5. |
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IAZA
Joined: 16 Apr 2010 Posts: 2587 Location: Indonesia
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Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2012 2:29 am Post subject: |
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IAZA wrote:
pooschey wrote: |
Thanks for the tip. I'll need to do more research into these mounts as I'm totally ignorant of them.
Attila wrote: |
Russian L39 or Kiev/Contax unbeatable in price performance ratio and small one too, but there is many other low priced and excellent performers, just look galleries , virtually you can mount any lens on NEX-5. |
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+1 and the winner is Jupiter 8 for price/value ratio, I got it and never regret _________________ nex5, Olympus EPM1, yashica half 14, Canon eos 650 want to see samples of mine? please click My lenses
and My gallery
~Suat~ |
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ForenSeil
Joined: 15 Apr 2011 Posts: 2726 Location: Kiel, Germany.
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Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2012 12:11 pm Post subject: |
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ForenSeil wrote:
It's absolutely true that the Russians have a better price/perfomance value but when you directly compare them in picture quality to the counterpart in the Contax G series they are optically weaker in all disciplines. I decided to stick with the Contax G lenses.
Little hint if you wan't to buy some russian RF lenses:
The same lenses in Kiev/old Contax mount are cheaper than Russian L39 bye the way as they can't be used on Leica cameras but they can be adapted easily to NEX with an "Nikon S" to NEX adapter.
And be careful... some russian lenses have 39mm screw mount but a completly different flange distance, as they are made for SLR cameras. They won't work on a normal NEX M39 adapter but should work with a NEX - M42 + M42 -M39 adapter.
And bye the way I would also suggest to also look after non russian Leica M and Leica M39 lenses.
You should also have a look for Steinheil M39 lenses and Voigtländer M39 and Voigtländer Leica M lenses. _________________ I'm not a collector, I'm a tester
My camera: Sony A7+Zeiss Sonnar 55/1.8
Current favourite lenses (I have many more):
A few macro-Tominons, Samyang 12/2.8, Noritsu 50.7/9.5, Rodagon 105/5.6 on bellows, Samyang 135/2, Nikon ED 180/2.8, Leitz Elmar-R 250/4, Celestron C8 2000mm F10
Most wanted: Samyang 24/1.4, Samyang 35/1.4, Nikon 200/2 ED
My Blog: http://picturechemistry.own-blog.com/
(German language) |
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pich900
Joined: 10 Jun 2007 Posts: 1745 Location: The Netherlands/Zwolle
Expire: 2012-12-27
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Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2012 12:35 pm Post subject: |
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pich900 wrote:
ForenSeil wrote: |
The same lenses in Kiev/old Contax mount are cheaper than Russian L39 bye the way as they can't be used on Leica cameras but they can be adapted easily to NEX with an "Nikon S" to NEX adapter.
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Easily?....the adapter must also have a focus helicoid and it makes the price of RF lens+ adapter almost more expensive than M39 version ..... _________________ All my lenses are for sale, nikkor, Angenieux, Zeiss etc.....
Regards,
Pascal
-------------------------------------------------------
Nikon D700 |
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std
Joined: 09 Feb 2010 Posts: 1826 Location: Bulgaria
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Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2012 12:56 pm Post subject: |
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std wrote:
The Contax G 28,45, and 90 are reasonably good lenses and not yet too overpriced.
If you cannot afford the Leica M they are a good alternative with comparably good IQ.
I cannot recommend the Russian RF lenses (they are maybe good but certainly not that good as Contax G)
Another real alternative will be the CV in L39 which you can get new and won't cost so much. _________________ Stefan
My lens list:
SLR MD: Rokkor 1,7/50 Exakta: Kilfitt-Makro-Kilar E 3.5/4cm; CZJ 2/50 Pancolar;M42: CZJ 2.8/50 Tessar; Mir-1B 2.8/37; Jupiter-9 2/85 T-mount: Tamron 5.9/200; Tamron 6.9/300; Tamron 7.5/400 C-mount: Cosmicar 1.8/50 Y/S: Sun 3.5/38-90, Sun 4/70-210 RF Contax RF: Jupiter-8 2/50; Contax G:CZ 2,8/21 Biogon T; CZ 2,8/28 Biogon T; CZ 2/35 Planar T; CZ 2/45 Planar T; CZ 2,8/90 Sonnar T |
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