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Explore the world of vintage lenses through repair notes, real test shots, and detailed archive threads packed with images.

Explore the world of vintage lenses through repair notes, real test shots, and detailed archive threads packed with images.
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Zeiss perfection...100mm f2
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Posted: Sun May 28, 2023 11:24 am
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Posted: Sun May 28, 2023 11:24 am
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There are some lenses which simply excel - their reputations, hard earned, simply never dim. One such is the Contax Zeiss 100mm f2 T* Planar.

I bought one in the early 1980s as part of a sports book project, along with a number of Zeiss' fastest lenses. It's edge-to-edge sharpness, even illumination and high contrast remain hard to better even today so I decided to see if it could pass muster with today's digital sensors. I popped it onto a Fuji GFX 50S using a Fotodiox Pro adapter and grabbed a few snaps - a 50Mp sensor should be a tough test.

The image of the end-of-season blackberry bush is an 80% crop from the original as the file size was far too large to upload but I think you can see the quality of the lens. The hand-held shot on a very cold morning was taken at 1/250s, f2 and at ISO800. One of the benefits of f2 is the shallowness of the dof which has helped isolate the berries from the rest of the image.

The photo of the lens shows it attached to a Contax AX - always a winning combination.
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Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2023 12:53 am
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Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2023 12:53 am
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No argument here.


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Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2024 2:36 am
Post subject: Re: Zeiss perfection...100mm f2
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Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2024 2:36 am
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biggles3 wrote:
... The hand-held shot on a very cold morning was taken at 1/250s, f2 and at ISO800.
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So the aperture of the CY 2/100mm isn't completely open at f2?
Or why are the background highlights not round, but polygonal ...?

S


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Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2024 8:43 am
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Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2024 8:43 am
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I've had a couple of F/D lenses do that to me in the cold- with the cause being less than clean aperture blades.

-D.S.


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Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2024 10:50 pm
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Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2024 10:50 pm
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Doc Sharptail wrote:
I've had a couple of F/D lenses do that to me in the cold- with the cause being less than clean aperture blades.

-D.S.


I've never seen a c/y Zeiss with oily blades neither with aperture not working properly, in this regard probably they're amongst the best (same as good focussing grease over the time) - totally contrary to m42 Zeiss

I'm curious if that hood is for the 100mm lens ? It seems like an ultra wide angle one , I might be wrong though,but it's weird that the front element is very exposed and that how would not help much I guess


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Posted: Mon Jan 22, 2024 10:19 am
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Posted: Mon Jan 22, 2024 10:19 am
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kiddo wrote:
Doc Sharptail wrote:
I've had a couple of F/D lenses do that to me in the cold- with the cause being less than clean aperture blades.

-D.S.


I've never seen a c/y Zeiss with oily blades neither with aperture not working properly, in this regard probably they're amongst the best (same as good focussing grease over the time) - totally contrary to m42 Zeiss

I'm curious if that hood is for the 100mm lens ? It seems like an ultra wide angle one , I might be wrong though,but it's weird that the front element is very exposed and that how would not help much I guess


Hi there,

The hood to which you refer is actually the Contax 67/86 Adapter Ring to which the Metal Hood No.4 is usually attached, but if the hood was in place, you could not see the front element and lens bezel.
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