GH2 Contax G 45mm f2 sample video

bitcrusher

bitcrusher

Well-known member
Quick unscientific test of the Contax G 45mm lens.

I love the contrast, color rendition, flare performance, and sharpness.

No coma issues shooting wide open, and I have never seen any chromatic aberration in this lens.

One of the big criticisms about this lens is poor bokeh. I did not find the bokeh unpleasant at all. It has a nice organic quality unless you point it at a light source and you are stopped down, then you get not so lovely hexagons.

Because this lens was made for the Contax G camera there is no focus ring. This is the one thing that kills me about this lens. The metabones adapter has a nice geared ring that if mounted correctly can give you a ok feel.

This guy is a winner there is no doubt about that, it has amazing sharpness and still keeps a organic look. This is my favorite lens in the Contax G line up.

 
Watch out, there are some issues that you need to over come to use the G's. The adapter is the bigest and the one. I used is the best and it still kind of sucked. Because there is no focus ring the adapter has to dive focus. The most basic use a thumb wheel, the nice ones have a ring that turns. I used the metabones adapters which will add $120 to the cost of the lens. The metabones can be smooth after you play with it for a while.

Also note that the 28mm and wider will have a ton of IQ issues wide open, it turns out that the rear element gets too close to the sensor and that will case a lot of CA to happen around the corners of the frame. ( Sony NEX seems not to have this issue )

You can watch a example of what I am talking about here: http://vimeo.com/20473245 @ 00:15 look at the conners of the frame.

IMO the only one worth geting is the 45mm but by the time you get it and the adapter you are spending something like $500+ dollars for something that is hard to focus. I ended up selling my because life is too short to have to deal with that focus ring. There is no dubt that this lens is amazing in the IQ department but for me the poor ergonomics killed it for me.
 
Thanks for the heads up! Appreciate it.

I had just arrived at that same conclusion, focusing via adapter is too much of a weak point.

What are you using now?
 
I am going to pick up a nikon 35mm F1.8G and call it done for now. 35mm is a nice FOV on m4/3.

That Nikon is worth a try its center sharpness is very good so it might look really good on my GH2, its also easy to sell if dosent work out.
 
bitcrusher said:
I am going to pick up a nikon 35mm F1.8G and call it done for now. 35mm is a nice FOV on m4/3.

That Nikon is worth a try its center sharpness is very good so it might look really good on my GH2, its also easy to sell if dosent work out.
Click to expand...

Hi James,

Thats a nice sample vid. That Nikon 35/1.8G is a nice deal - loved it on my D300 way back when. I'm currently using a Nikkor 28/2 and a CV 40/2 SLii to cover those focal lengths.

BTW - What part of China are you living in? I'm in Shanghai.

Cheers
 
agitprop said:
Hi James,

Thats a nice sample vid. That Nikon 35/1.8G is a nice deal - loved it on my D300 way back when. I'm currently using a Nikkor 28/2 and a CV 40/2 SLii to cover those focal lengths.

BTW - What part of China are you living in? I'm in Shanghai.

Cheers
Click to expand...

Yeah spent some time on flickr and that nikon has the look that I want. I am not in China but live in central Taiwan in a town called Taichung. Shanghai sounds like a fun/insane place to be right now.
 
I used to have a Contax G2 and a lot of those Contax G lenses. They were for some time the biggest bargain in 35mm rangefinders. That 45mm is one of the sharpest lenses ever made, and one of the best performing in most areas, including classic Zeiss bokeh, but it's true, more blades is always nicer ;) . I never saw such a sharp and lovely lens actually, and I have owned hundreds of lenses over the years.
 
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