Contax G to MFT adapter - anyone?

[hodad66]

I've been following the thread and just got a 45/2. I ordered the adapter
which circles the whole lens. I have to say that, so far, it is a little rough
to focus.. stops and starts. I'm thinking of getting one of the wheel
adapters next for the 90...... The "Kipon Adapter" seems to have a slightly
larger wheel which seems to make sense. Anyone using this adapter?

oh yea, a hand held shot in dim interior light....

 

[Annna T]

I've been following the thread and just got a 45/2. I ordered the adapter
which circles the whole lens. I have to say that, so far, it is a little rough
to focus.. stops and starts. I'm thinking of getting one of the wheel
adapters next for the 90...... The "Kipon Adapter" seems to have a slightly
larger wheel which seems to make sense. Anyone using this adapter?

oh yea, a hand held shot in dim interior light....

I have ordered one a few days ago, but I'm still waiting for it. I'm impatient to try it now. I own both Contax G Zeiss lenses and M lenses from the film time. At first there were no adapter for the G lenses, so I got the Novoflex for the Leica lenses. When finally a Contax G adapter came out, I wasn't really interested : they were not supporting either of the WA lenses and I already had the M lenses covering 35mm, 50mm and 90mm. So I thought that getting the Contax adapter would be redundant.

Seeing some pictures taken with the G lenses at Dpreview and even more here made me change my mind : the pictures you get from the Zeiss lenses are really different from the ones produced with the M lenses. With them, the bokeh is really soft and beautifull, but the Zeiss lenses should be sharper from what I see here, all the more so that I have older Summilux lenses.

When I ordered the new Kipon adapter with the bigger wheel, I hadn't yet read all the messages of this thread and didn't know about the one with a full ring. Perhaps that I have missed a better one ? or perhaps not after all ? I'll report about my experiences when I get it.

Now if only a camera taking all that nice Contax G glass was available ! My preferred lense was the 21mm.

 

[Annna T]

In my experience the Planar 45/2 and the Takumar (or any of the later reincarnations) are very different lenses.

The Planar is a modern high contrast lens with a resolution beating even the Zuiko 50/2 Macro or the Zuiko OM 50/2 Macro. The bokeh can be a bit rough wide open but from f/2.8 it does everything right.
/Jonas

I confirm, the bokey is quite harsh. After using the Zeiss lenses for several years, I was marvelled by the soft bokey of the M lenses. But these Zeiss lenses have other qualities.

That said all these lenses can be used for portrait work (the 90 being a bit long to my taste but otherwise impeccable) if the user thinks about what he/she is doing.

Some say a portrait lens can be too sharp. I don't know where that opinion comes from, perhaps somebody liking a lens they have that is soft until stopped down. It is very easy to make an image softer in PP, getting lost details back is otoh impossible.

/Jonas

Zeiss lenses will show you all the skins imperfections and all the small wrinkles.. this is one style of portrait which not every body likes. Usually people prefer softer portraits.

 

[monza]

Hard anodized, teflon infill, brass gearing.

More to come soon.

 

[Annna T]

Hard anodized, teflon infill, brass gearing.

More to come.

Thanks for the news and picture of the long awaited adapter. Interesting that you are finally showing a focusing wheel, rather than a focusing ring.

But wow.. do I see clealy ? is your adapter sitting on a 28mm lense? did you put it on an MFT camera ? what about the protruding plastic ears behind the lenses ? do you have to cut them ? or is your adapter able to take the WA lenses without altering them ?

If so, is it possible to have infinity in focus when the lense is stopped down ? and how much stops do you have to stop down so that everything is in focus from say 4-5 meters to infinite ? Well, with diffraction entering in the equation, this will probably not make the 28mm very usefull anyway.. too bad.. and it's probably the same for the 21mm.

 

[hodad66]

thanks for the pic Monza..... interesting looking
adapter.... think that I will wait to see more of yours

 

[Jonas]

Zeiss lenses will show you all the skins imperfections and all the small wrinkles.. this is one style of portrait which not every body likes. Usually people prefer softer portraits.

Yes, of course. But there is usually no problem making the sking softer and more pleasing, is there?

Hard anodized, teflon infill, brass gearing.

Finally! And if looks like something one would like to fell, not only look at.

/Jonas

 

[monza]

Thanks for the news and picture of the long awaited adapter. Interesting that you are finally showing a focusing wheel, rather than a focusing ring.

But wow.. do I see clealy ? is your adapter sitting on a 28mm lense? did you put it on an MFT camera ? what about the protruding plastic ears behind the lenses ? do you have to cut them ? or is your adapter able to take the WA lenses without altering them ?

If so, is it possible to have infinity in focus when the lense is stopped down ? and how much stops do you have to stop down so that everything is in focus from say 4-5 meters to infinite ? Well, with diffraction entering in the equation, this will probably not make the 28mm very usefull anyway.. too bad.. and it's probably the same for the 21mm.

For this quick photo, I just grabbed the first lens I had laying around, which was the 28mm. The rear element protectors are still on the lens. They have to be cut in order for the lens to work on micro 4/3.

The 21 and 28 are great lenses on the G1/G2 film cameras, nearly unbeatable, but are not ideal on micro 4/3. I can live with the corner smearing for the most part, but the main problem is there isn't much use for a 42mm and 56mm f/2.8 equivalent...not when there is the superb Panasonic 20mm f/1.7.

If anyone has the 35-70 f/3.5-5.6 Contax zoom, that lens has removable 'ears.'

 

[slau]

The 21 and 28 are great lenses on the G1/G2 film cameras, nearly unbeatable, but are not ideal on micro 4/3. I can live with the corner smearing for the most part, but the main problem is there isn't much use for a 42mm and 56mm f/2.8 equivalent...not when there is the superb Panasonic 20mm f/1.7.

Agree with monza 100%. While the G 21/28 are good, I cannot see they are so much better than the Panasonic 20f1.7 that we will give up the small size, weight and speed of the relatively inexpensive Panasonic lens. The quality of the Panasonic lens is amazingly good already for its price.

 

[nxlutz]

Hard anodized, teflon infill, brass gearing.

More to come soon.

Hi Monza,
Looking good and eagerly awaiting more pics. Question about distribution, how do you plan to get this to market, ebay, own website, here? Will you let us know? Any idea on pricing or plans for pre-ordering?

Best regards,
Nick

 

[monza]

 

[gmoe]

AWESOME!! Monza- the wider gear looks great. I'm ready to pick one up!!

How smooth is focusing with this new gear?

 

[monza]

I'm pretty pleased with the focusing. Now just have to get the spring rate correct for the lens release button.

 

[hodad66]

that looks very impressive..... good job.

 

[Alex Souvorov]

Monza,
Could you please tell what is the diameter of the focusing wheel and how many turns does it take to focus a 45/2 from infinity to MFD?

Alex

 

[skywalker]

same stucture with old KIPON geared version.

 

[monza]

Alex, I don't have a 45mm handy (it's at the manufacturer being used for testing.) The 35mm f/2 rotates from near to far in exactly one revolution. If I'm not mistaken, the 45mm is about 1.3 revolutions.

Diameter of the gear is 18mm.

 

[nxlutz]

Ecitement building up. This looks great and can't wait to hear of news on how to get one of these.
Cheers,

 

[monza]

Alex, I don't have a 45mm handy (it's at the manufacturer being used for testing.) The 35mm f/2 rotates from near to far in exactly one revolution. If I'm not mistaken, the 45mm is about 1.3 revolutions..

Bear in mind, near to far in this case means MFD to beyond infinity. The Contax lenses even in their native environment on the G1 and G2 cameras are capable of focusing beyond infinity. (i.e, the lens helical will allow it.)

In terms of revolutions, it's probably more like 0.9 to go from MFD to actual infinity (as opposed to 1.0 from MFD to the lens's physical stop.)

 

[Alex Souvorov]

Monza,
Thank you very much for the clarification.

Question to all other Contax G adapter users:
I have an original RJ adapter which I use with 45mm and 80mm. I love these lenses and I would like to get a second adapter.

Because of the crop factor full frame lenses adapted to mFT need twice as precise focusing compared to the original body. Often times it means that critical focusing needs microscopic movements.

My RJ adapter needs ~4 turns to go from MFD to infinity. It translates into ~12cm of the finger movement (if you understand what I mean). It looks like the focusing ring adapter and the geared adapters need ~5-6cm to go from infinity to MFD. This is about twice as shorter distance compared to an RJ adapter.

I sometimes wish that I was able to make more precise focusing with the RJ adapter. Would these new adapters be even more difficult to focus? On the other hand the focusing wheel of the RJ adapter is very hard to reach and it has very small contact area with the finger. It is quite possible that the convenience of the newer adapters will overcome their shorter throw.

Does somebody have experience with both RJ and geared adapters?

Alex