[shoplink 39621 ebay]
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Lats week I reported how Fringer launched the world’s first [shoplink 39621 ebay]Contax N lens to E-mount autofocus adapter (here on eBay)[/shoplink]. You can now autofocus with all N lenses. And buy using the [shoplink 39631 ebay]Contax NAM-1 adapter (here on eBay)[/shoplink] you can even autofocus with the 645 medium format lenses! To see how good this works just check out the new video here:
Here are all the Contax N lenses you can make work with the Fringer autofocus adapter:
[shoplink 39622 ebay]Vario-Sonnar T* 17–35/2.8 (ebay search link here)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 39623 ebay]Vario-Sonnar T* 24–85/3.5–4.5 (ebay search link here)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 39624 ebay]Vario-Sonnar T* 28–80/3.5–5.6 (ebay search link here)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 39625 ebay]Planar T* 50/1.4 (ebay search link here)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 39626 ebay]Vario Sonnar T* 70–300/4.0–5.6 (ebay search link here)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 39627 ebay]Planar T* 85/1.4 (ebay search link here)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 39628 ebay]Makro-Sonnar T* 100/2.8 (ebay search link here)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 39629 ebay]Tele-Apotessar T* 400/4 (ebay search link here)[/shoplink].
Those are all 645 medium format lenses you can now use with autofocus support:
[shoplink 39632 ebay]Distagon T* 35/3.5 (ebay search link here)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 39633 ebay]Distagon T* 45/2.8 (ebay search link here)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 39634 ebay]Distagon T* 55/3.5 (ebay search link here)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 39635 ebay]Vario-Sonnar T* 45–90/4.5 (ebay search link here)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 39636 ebay]Planar T* 80/2 (ebay search link here)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 39637 ebay]Sonnar T* 140/2.8 (ebay search link here)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 39638 ebay]Sonnar T* 210/4 (ebay search link here)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 39639 ebay]Tele-Apotessar T* 350/4 (ebay search link here)[/shoplink].
39 Responses
Looks good.
Interesting choice of the background song 😉
Noticed that too. Guess Fringer is from Germany. Those are the only ones still listening to Roxette. And maybe Russia…
I’m from China. And I like Roxette, since my college time. Those beautiful songs let me recall the happy old times 🙂
Same here (Poland) 🙂
Amazing lenses, although you may need a wrench to help auto focussing some of them.
Why is it when (anyone) does these focus tests they go back and forth between 2 spots, just 2 spots, over and over again, like a monkey, not changing any variables or even picking out a 3rd spot to focus. Back, forth, back, forth, back… Okay! I got it. Between those two points, at those settings, it definitely works. Definitely. I’m not expecting it to fail the 27th time you switch to the same spot again.
However, in this case it sounded like the tester was having a cocaine party for one, listening to that music, so in this case it’s both forgivable and understandable.
$700 for a third party adapter. LOL.
they forgot including a focal reducer 🙂
Then this thing would cost 1.5k.
Wish Contax had survived. They were a really innovative company and got so many good products.
Agreed.
Me too. But I don’t know how they could have without a partnership with someone with digital expertise. It took Leica years to bring their first digital M with the M8 and that went down not too well, although there are ardent defenders of the camera.
The Contax N Digital, besides being the first ever FF digital camera, was a very picky camera with very picky files and Contax’s lack of marketing drive into the camera made it difficult to sell. When the Canon 1Ds launched, you knew that the Contax N Digital would not get to that level of refinement soon enough…
+1
Had used for the 20 years as photographer just Contax Equipment.
I am still sentimental for the end.
I believe that Kyocera purchased the right to use the Contax name from Zeiss. I still own six Contax cameras.. One compact, four manual focus SLRs and the G2. I also have lots of C/Y and G glass, but never had a medium format, or N camera. Zeiss could license the Contax name, but even Kyocera couldn’t make it work. The RTS III has a wonderful viewfinder and held the film really flat, but in the end they couldn’t compete with Canon and Nikon.
I never met someone who bought into the Contax N system. Anyone here? I’m really curious how many of them they can sell, especially for that outrageous price.
See above
I had 2 N system cameras. N1 and NX.
With them, I had the 17-35, 24-85 and 50.
I had many Contax sets, but this comment is related to these two systems.
I also had the 645 system, complete even with the waist level finder,
pola back, vaccuum insert and the 45mm, 80mm, 120mm MP and 210mm.
IF you have any of these lenses with you today, which I don’t, I could see the use of this adapter today…almost maybe.
IF
you DON’T, then I wouldn’t get out of my way in covering focal lengths
that you can cover with any other more modern design, whether on FE/A
mounts but also on other Nikon/Canon mounts. Why? I hear you ask…
because regardless of how good those lenses are/were, there are better
lenses today in most technical aspects. Think about it:
* There is a better 55mm FE than trying to adapt a Contax 50mm or 45mm 645 or 55mm 645 lens to FE mount.
* There is a better Batis 85mm than adapting the 85mm Contax N or 80mm Contax 645.
*
While the 17-35mm was a really, really good 17-35mm (better than any of
the Canon L’s) You could cover this zoom with the no-longer
manufactured Nikon 17-35mm and have a more or less same-ish performance.
THIS lens was the most popular lens to be converted to Canon EF by
Conurus. It made the lens work on Canon EF bodies just as well as it did
with Contax N bodies. But that was it, all other Contax N lenses were
not exceptional, especially compared to the C/Y lenses which had a few
legends.
The only two lenses worth using from these two
mounts, I would say, are the 120mm Makro-Planar (an excellent I still
miss today) from the 645 system and the 17-35mm N. All else, I’m sure
you can find a suitable replacement.
Last but not least…do remember that the Contax N and Contax 645 were not AF demons, so I would suggest not holding your breadth when it comes to AF speed expectations when it comes to these lenses.
Very good points, it’s not like there are many users who had invested in these lenses. It’d make sense to buy them cheap and use them on A7 but they are not cheap at all, are they?
Haven’t seen the prices for stuff like this anymore, but “cheap” won’t be a word you can associate with these.
As far as I know, the 645 is still a coveted system, so a kit would set you back quite a bit of cash, especially if it’s in mint condition (which now you really want that because Contax cannot be repaired anymore outside of Japan or without having a body to cannibalise for parts)
As for the Contax N stuff…my guess is that it is worth less than when I had it except the very special lenses like the 17-35mm and maybe the 85mm 1.4.
If I remember correctly, a 17-35 is around 1700$ nowadays and 85/1.4 is around 2000$.
So, why should anyone buy a $700 adapter instead of just selling these lenses and get newer, better and cheaper native lenses?
Contax love.
I WOULD consider getting the adapter, but it would be very far from an instant sale to me even if I had the lenses.
Like I said, the 17-35mm was a great lens anyway and in my head I would have thought: Sell a lens I know its great, for a lot of dough, and get a second hand or new Nikon 17-35mm JUST to fit an A7/r/s/II/rII/sII and get better AF ORRRR…just keep it, keep the Contax N set as is…get an adapter.
Every bit of Contax gear I sold was a sad moment because you knew you had something unique. Yes, Nikon and Canon had the same focal lengths and apertures…but their lenses did not have the zeiss characteristics and the bodies’ logic of working was also different and I guess you felt different by working with Contax.
The RTS III I had was an outstanding camera. Amazing 100% viewfinder, smooth shutter mechanism, great solid feel and ergonomics. It was a manual focus only camera but the prism finder was so bright and clear you had no problems seeking focus at all. I did consider getting a Nikon F6 or Canon 1V at the time, but they felt as if the only thing they had going for themselves were 2.8 zooms and AF.
Contax was also not for everyone, not because of the price (G2 kit second hand was less than a Leica m6 second hand body alone), but because the cameras had some quirkyness that once you learnt how to deal with it, you were very efficient in working with them. Same thing as a rangefinder, I guess. Some people can work with them, others can’t.
Last but not least, in the age of film, it was the lenses’ colour characteristics that also gave Contax lenses an extra edge over Canon or Nikon in the image quality department and you couldn’t climb out of that one easily even if you had Imacon scans from your shoots.
WOW! I just had to check on ebay after I read those numbers.
You’re not far off. $1500 for a 17-35mm super mint from Japan.
And yes… EUR1,600 for the 85mm 1.4 N from Germany.
Now that I dig in a bit more, I think I sold my 17-35mm for around £1000+ I also remember acquiring a Nikon 17-35mm for my D2x at the time for less than that…
I remember the 17-35 had really bad corners…? Judging solely from the MTF charts that is.
A speedbooster-type adapter for MF lenses would be interesting, if incredibly niche.
Oh just saw this is almost $700. They’ll sell precisely 0 of them.
For someone that already got Contax N and 645 systems it shouldn’t be that expensive for them.
Wow it’s again much cheaper in China, 3000RMB 🙂
This video always remember me that current tech is ready to make a mirrorless medium format with AF that works as fast as any other cameras on the market…
A Bronica RF645/Mamiya 6 Digital would be awesome.
There isn’t, and never was, a real MF digital sensor. The existing sensors bigger than 35mm fullframe are way smaller than the format in the mentioned cameras. They are called MF but they are not really. The effect of the slightly increased 35mm format do not justify the effort and the resulting outragous prices. As much as I would love to see a real Mamiya 6/7 Digital, I’m pretty sure we will not see a 45x60mm or 60x60mm sized sensor in the next 10 years.
I know, but even with the crop, it could be good to see a fast AF medium format, that isn’t the size of a shoebox, like the Leica S and Pentax
Well technically the actual image area was less than 45×60 so the IQ380 is pretty much close enough to a real 645 IMO. You’re really splitting hairs there. My Hasselblad exposed about 56x56mm squares even though we call it 6×6. I too would love to see a big square sensor but there seems to be no will to do this among camera producers. They could make me happy by making a 4×4 sensor with lenses to match (i.e. 60/2 instead of 80/2.8). That’s a pretty reasonable ask IMO.
What a load of bullshit. The Phase one sensors are marginally smaller than 645. The difference is so small you don’t even really need a focus mask. The “effect” is image quality that annihilates any small format camera – you’ve clearly never used one to say it isn’t justified. Please stfu will you?
You are right. My apologies. I missed the recent full-frame 645 Medium Format XF camera by Phase One.
Feel free to correct others if they are wrong. However, there is no need to be rude and to tell me that I have to “STFU”!
Recent? The P65+ has been around since 2009!
At this price, total non starter. Turning page now.
Now someone need to start making Pentax adapters.
WOW, WOW … WOW … awesome ,,, it seems like, that SONY FE line of cams got the biggest selection of lenses now …
I just rented the A7rii, it puts out the raw files that are ‘there’. Rent one and see. Even the jpegs are great. I’m gonna be eatin beans & rice for a few months.