FS7: Zeiss Milvus

Not sure what the deal is the the 35 f2.

I owned and utterly loved the Contax 35mm f1.4 and the ZE/FZ was based on that design. I know there was a ZE/ZF 35 f2 design as well but I thought it was the cheaper version. Not sure whether this is a rehousing of that lens or something tweaked.
 
If it's optically a match for the 35mm CP.2/ZF.2 then it's a lovely lens in general, sharp, with lovely contrast, but with pretty ordinary CA handling wide-open.

I shot about 85% of a feature on that sole CP.2 focal length.
 
Interesting lenses.




I saw this lens test and it opened my eyes.

In the stills reviews of lenses, there rarely is any character variations between lenses. Almost only CA, sharpness, barrelling, and edges are given review. But is there a similar video to the above for lenses more in our price range? Like the Milvus vs. cheap Sigma Art primes?
 
Contax Zeiss standard and superspeeds share the optical characteristics of Zeiss standard and superspeeds. Same optics and same coatings. Just the mechanics are different.

Martin if you go on Reduser in the Lens test section in the stickies there are a bunch of exhaustive lens tests of cine lenses old and new, and some stills glass - Canon and Zeiss ZF I believe.


EDIT: Cool Liam.
 
When I was buying my Zeiss ZF lenses a few years ago I started out with the 35mm ZF f1.4. I took the lens out of its bubble wrap and popped it on my F3 and was dismayed to see the bubble wrap look like a bright electric mass of green and magenta CA . It must have been an accidental but perfect storm for that lens . I'd never seen anything like it. I was wide open but even at f2 it persisted and I also noted bad green magenta halos around my household lamps at f1.4 and at f2 also. Now I was used to seeing some of this with all my lenses but the 35mm f1.4 left them in the dust. I tried another 35mm f1.4 and it was the same and then tried the f2 version. The f2 had mild CA wide open but much reduced from the f1.4 even when it was at f2. Hence I stuck with the f2. Its true that you won't often see the CA in ordinary shots but when you do it was disturbing. Plus I figured I'd want to be wide open in household rooms at night and that's where the CA around lamps was most prominent.

I asked a Zeiss rep at NAB about it and he said that's you pay for in real cine glass where its greatly reduced or eliminated. Also he said it was often something that came as a"gift" as the lens is made sharper and sharper and very difficult to remove.
Still testers on the web don't seem to care so much about CA I guess because they can get rid of it in post easily, but its not easy in video. Maybe they didn't want to deal with that in the Milvus line.

So to me that's the difference between the f1.4 and the f2 version. I've never tried the Contax 1.4 but assume it would be similar . If it isn't I'd pick one up as I want all my lenses to turn in the proper direction these days. Don't know about the difference in lens design though.
 
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Most fast lenses display CA to some degree when shooting in high contrast environments until stopped down a touch.

Fast Canon glass can be horrific for this.

I believe it's a combination of physics and coatings.

Unsurprisingly the Otus is by far the best lens I have seen this regard. Better than any cine lens short of the latest $100,000 Leicas. Supposedly better than Master Primes due to the more modern coatings...This shot was a bit of a stress test to see a 'worst case scenario' shooting small and busy complex shapes into a setting sun. Zero lens correction done.

Zeiss Otus Stress test by Ben Scott, on Flickr

That said it sounds like you have had terrible luck with Zeiss in the past!

EDIT: Another stress test of a tiny and busy object in a very high contrast environment

Zeiss Otus Stress test by Ben Scott, on Flickr
 
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Thank you. (regarding the 35mm)

I'm in the market for one and used to own various Sigma ARTs, but I don't really like the focus ring/throw on them.

The Canon 35mm 1.4LII was my original choice and it's supposed to be one of the best Canon lenses ever made, but we'll see...
 
It's a great stills lens but it's not built for motion and in its price range there are better options of video is more important.
 
Im intrigued by the contax line going into milvus and otus glass later on. A question regarding contax on fs7 and speedbooster: can you adapt contax to nikon f speedbooster? I dont want any electronics in my adapters and own almost exclusively nikon glass (with a switchable FF :)

looking to get the 28-85 first, and thats a pushpull so no FF on that one I guess?
 
Martin.G said:
Interesting lenses.




I saw this lens test and it opened my eyes.

In the stills reviews of lenses, there rarely is any character variations between lenses. Almost only CA, sharpness, barrelling, and edges are given review. But is there a similar video to the above for lenses more in our price range? Like the Milvus vs. cheap Sigma Art primes?
Click to expand...

Looking at that video makes me even more pleased with my Nikkor AIS Primes, maybe I should wake the f*** up and use them more often.
 
stokstad said:
Im intrigued by the contax line going into milvus and otus glass later on. A question regarding contax on fs7 and speedbooster: can you adapt contax to nikon f speedbooster? I dont want any electronics in my adapters and own almost exclusively nikon glass (with a switchable FF :)

looking to get the 28-85 first, and thats a pushpull so no FF on that one I guess?
Click to expand...

yep no FF with the zooms.

Not it sure about Nikon but all my Contax glass was modded to Canon so it could be used across a range of cameras.
 
stokstad said:
Im intrigued by the contax line going into milvus and otus glass later on. A question regarding contax on fs7 and speedbooster: can you adapt contax to nikon f speedbooster? I dont want any electronics in my adapters and own almost exclusively nikon glass (with a switchable FF :)

looking to get the 28-85 first, and thats a pushpull so no FF on that one I guess?
Click to expand...


You can definitely get Nikon if you want. Leitax mounts are the ones to use for Contax lenses, they are a semi-permanent modification that changes the hard mount on the lens. I modified to Canon but Nikon is fine.

BE AWARE... Contax lenses do NOT work on a speedbooster. I have a full set of Contax (21,28,35,50,85,100) and they have a pin that controls the aperture which interferes with the design of the speedbooster. The result is that the lens is always wide open, but also I think it could cause permanent damage to the aperture lever. I only use dumb adapters.

That said it's a really beautiful set for the price. They are sharp as anything when you stop down, but have tons of mojo and make your footage look unique. They are not totally perfect in that there is a decent amount of CA wide open some and distortion but I get tons of compliments on them from other shooters and clients alike. The whole set plus modifications cost about $7500.
 
remsyatassi said:
BE AWARE... Contax lenses do NOT work on a speedbooster. I have a full set of Contax (21,28,35,50,85,100) and they have a pin that controls the aperture which interferes with the design of the speedbooster. The result is that the lens is always wide open, but also I think it could cause permanent damage to the aperture lever. I only use dumb adapters..
Click to expand...

Odd, I use my Contax lenses with SpeedBoosters all the time and the manual aperture works perfectly.
 
Some of the Contax lenses have the pin that Ben describes - not all. The 85 f1.4 definitely does. However you can easily and safely grind the pin down with a dremel. The only purpose of the pin is to control Iris on a Contax camera which is no longer used by anyone as I understand it. I did it to mine and it was quite simple. Just put a piece of tape over the opening to the lens to protect it.

The one issue with adapting to Nikon is the focus ring will turn the opposite way to Nikon lenses.

Actually I had to grind down something on some of my old Nikon AI type lenses as well to use with EF adapters.
 
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