marco0782
05-24-2009, 07:57 PM
I have owned a Contax G2 rangefinder for a few years now, and the lenses are incredible. These were Zeiss-designed, Kyocera-built autofocus lenses, and are famously good. The 45mm is considered to be the sharpest lens ever in 35mm still photography.
Until recently, these lenses could only be used on the G series of cameras. That's because they are designed for the G mount, and they are autofocus. But a company in Japan has for a while now been converting these lenses to Leica-M mount, and the conversion makes them manual focus. It also removes the aperture click-stops, making the apertures infinitely variable like cinema lenses.
I haven't tried using these as cinema lenses, but with the ease of converting Leica-M to Micro 4/3, I am excited about the possibility.
One particular lens from this set, the 21mm f/2.8 Biogon, beats the pants off any wide angle lens made for a reflex camera. It is a known fact that it is much easier to make wide angle lenses for rangefinder cameras, since the rear element can sit virtually next to the film plane since there is no mirror to bump into. This lens, as well as the 16mm and 28mm, are better than anything you can get from Nikon, Canon, even Zeiss, since all those lenses are compromised retrofocus designs.
You can read more about these lenses throughout the web, but here is the link to the site that handles the conversions:
http://www.japanexposures.com/lens/
Here is a site that has thousands of pictures taken with these lenses:
http://www.contaxg.com
Here is the original manufacturer's page:
http://www.contaxcameras.co.uk/gseries/glenses.asp
These lenses are far superior to the Zeiss ZF lenses, and are less expensive including the conversion. Just thought I would share.
Marco
Until recently, these lenses could only be used on the G series of cameras. That's because they are designed for the G mount, and they are autofocus. But a company in Japan has for a while now been converting these lenses to Leica-M mount, and the conversion makes them manual focus. It also removes the aperture click-stops, making the apertures infinitely variable like cinema lenses.
I haven't tried using these as cinema lenses, but with the ease of converting Leica-M to Micro 4/3, I am excited about the possibility.
One particular lens from this set, the 21mm f/2.8 Biogon, beats the pants off any wide angle lens made for a reflex camera. It is a known fact that it is much easier to make wide angle lenses for rangefinder cameras, since the rear element can sit virtually next to the film plane since there is no mirror to bump into. This lens, as well as the 16mm and 28mm, are better than anything you can get from Nikon, Canon, even Zeiss, since all those lenses are compromised retrofocus designs.
You can read more about these lenses throughout the web, but here is the link to the site that handles the conversions:
http://www.japanexposures.com/lens/
Here is a site that has thousands of pictures taken with these lenses:
http://www.contaxg.com
Here is the original manufacturer's page:
http://www.contaxcameras.co.uk/gseries/glenses.asp
These lenses are far superior to the Zeiss ZF lenses, and are less expensive including the conversion. Just thought I would share.
Marco