In this guest post, Vancouver based freelance filmmaker and an anamorphic lens freak Tito Ferradans, is exposing us to his Contax Zeiss Cine Tune-Up Guide. This is an endeavor I’ve been working on and off for the last two years and now I can see the finish line. It all started when I stumbled upon a post on Craigslist from a guy selling his Contax Zeiss set. It had five lenses: 28/2.8, 35/2.8, 50/1.4, 85/1.4 and 135/2.8. The price was pretty good and I’m the type of person that can buy something just because the price is good. Speaking of good prices, many links in this post will take you directly to eBay searches of each specific lens! Why Contax Zeiss So far, I had no previous love for Contax and a little bit of prejudice against Zeiss for making lenses too clean. As a reference, my main set of lenses at this time was a Soviet kit that I put together because of their imperfections and organic look. Also because Soviet glass was super cheap. Original Contax Zeiss set on the left, Soviet set on the right. Easy to see which one I loved the most back in 2015 After I got the five Contax I went to look for more info and found Nick Morrison’s Contax Zeiss Survival Guide at REDUser. That’s where my obsession started. These lenses thread the fine line between organic and sharp, a line as thin as depth of field on an 85/1.2 wide open, only second to Leica. The...
Published By: CineD - Monday, 26 March, 2018