|
Forums >
Photography Talk >
CARL ZEISS JENA Lens, anyone !
I love the CZ glasses but it's out of my price range. I was trying to get your opinion if you have used the Carl Zeiss M42 screw mount lens with an adapter with DSLRs. Questions: 1. How easy or hard is it to use the manual focus? 2. What’s your experience with the adapters? 3. How do you find the picture quality with the DSLR? (comparing to a good lens of your camera specific manufacturer) 4. Any other thoughts? Examples: http://tinyurl.com/phlt794 http://tinyurl.com/pczx68b Note that I did not mention any specific camera brand to keep the discussion focused on the lens specifically. Don't want to make it a Nikon vs Canon vs Rest of the world ... kinda discussion. Thanks for your input in advance. Jun 27 13 08:46 am Link It works with Canon and Pentax, but you're going to want a mounting ring for each lens, and you should put a drop of thread lock on there. If the adapter ring gets stuck in the camera, it is an absolute pain to get off. Nikon and Sony don't have room in their camera mount for these adapter rings, and the ones with glass in them to refocus the image properly are bad news bears. Also, I'd recommend Schneider lenses over the Jenas. They go for about the same price, and I find them to be much better. They're not as nice as top-spec Zeiss or Leica, but they're much nicer than the cheaper Zeiss and Leica lenses, and even better than some of the midrange versions Leica offers. I'm pretty sure Zeiss only has top-end and Jena, so it's hard to compare them there  Oh, and I would say that the older German lenses are much more prone to flare because of their older coatings, and many have more CA wide open than newer lenses. But they tend to be sharper, especially when stopped down, and rarely suffer from poor bokeh because of it. Many of them only have a few blades in the aperture though, so out of focus highlights will often be sharp, even if bokeh is totally smooth. Keep in mind that is a stereotype of affordable German lenses. There are lots of exceptions. Jun 27 13 10:17 am Link manual focusing through the viewfinder can be tricky with fast lenses because modern focus screens will give a minimum dof equivalent to around f/2.8 even if the lens is at f/1.4. there are replacement focus screens available specifically for manual focus. using live view will give you an accurate dof. focus peaking is a real help. if your camera doesn't have it, cranking up the sharpness will give you extra moire on the lcd in the focused areas of the image. using an lcd viewfinder helps too, especially outdoors. i don't know about the canon adapter rings, but genuine pentax ones are great. DO NOT use any sort of thread lock on them because they can't be removed from the camera without first removing the lens. avoid the cheap knock-offs. they jam easily, lenses end up mounted wrong side up and they shed tiny bits of metal. Jun 27 13 11:06 am Link Michael Broughton wrote: I'm not sure what you mean by this. I know that removing a screwmount adapter that has been threadlocked means purposely jamming the adapter in the camera mount and then working it out, and cleaning all the threads with alcohol and a q-tip. But isn't it better to only deal with that once, and on your own time(when you plan to sell the lens, or switch to a new camera brand) better than having it happen multiple times, and possibly during a shoot? Jun 27 13 11:43 am Link Zack Zoll wrote: m42 adapter rings for pentax cameras are designed to lock in place inside the lens mount. you have to remove the lens to get at the locking mechanism. Jun 27 13 11:53 am Link I wear CZ glass (minus 6) in my spectacles and nothing is better. I do agree with your remark about the price these things sell for: top of the bill. Jun 27 13 12:07 pm Link Gallery de Aphrodite wrote: I don't own any CZ MF lenses, but I do own a couple Helios and Meyer MF lenses with adapters. I find it is more challenging to focus than film camera's so I wouldn't use it for fast action but for a more controlled environment (portraits, etc.. ) I LOVE using them. Jun 27 13 12:20 pm Link I have 3 Zeiss lenses with EF adapters - 1 Jena M42 mount, and a Tessar and a Vario-Sonnar with C/Y mounts. I just changed my old C/Y adapters to ones that have an AF confirm chip, and the confirm is nice to have, but they mostly only work well enough at f8 or faster. But I grew up with manual focus so I'm used to it in any case. You might miss AF for a while if you're not used to MF, but I don't imagine it would be too much of a problem with a little practice as long as your eyesight is good. Plus, it can certainly help your shooting skills in the long run, in my opinion. IQ is excellent for all three of my lenses, film and digital both. No complaints whatsoever, at least with my copies. I don't know if this is true for all M42 adapters, but mine only works on my full-frame bodies. The back of the mount blocks the mirror on my Rebel, can't use it. The C/Ys are fine. Jun 27 13 12:21 pm Link Learn zone focusing. It's not that hard to focus manually without looking through the viewfinder or the LCD. Jun 27 13 12:23 pm Link Michael Broughton wrote: Huh. I've never used those. I've only used the generics that have a thread on one end, and unlock with the lens release button on the other. I always threadlock those (or screw them down really tightly, if they're build with screws), so that I can just pop them on an off like regular bayonet lenses. Jun 27 13 04:25 pm Link Zack Zoll wrote: my bad. didn't even occur to me that you might be using the even-cheaper-than-the-knock-offs flanged adapters. yeah, it's safe to glue those to the lens. you lose infinity focus with them though and the distance and dof scales will be wrong. Jun 27 13 06:33 pm Link Michael Broughton wrote: I've only used those guys with a Canon, and a Pentax Super-Takumar 105 f/2.8, so I don't want to speak in generalities. But with that combination, I got infinity focus just fine. I'm afraid to say that I'd forgotten the brand, so I can't make any recommendations. But I can say that it did not include any lenses. Jun 27 13 07:25 pm Link Zack Zoll wrote: i was talking specifically about the adapters for pentax cameras. the ones for canon are completely different, so you can ignore pretty much everything i've said so far. ;P Jun 27 13 08:46 pm Link |
