Contax CY 85 F1.4 + Fuji XT2, not too impressed -- problem?

[eddy1123]

Hi guys,

I just recently got a lens adaptor to connect my contax 85 1.4 to my Fuji xt2. After taking some sample shots, I am not too impressed with the sharpness. I did a quick search on the web, most people regard this lens highly, so I don't know if its the adaptor, the lens or me that is causing the problem. Couple questions here:

1. What's everyone's experience with this lens?

2. I got a cheap adaptor (about 15 USD), can bad adaptor cause this? I didn't properly put it on the first time, I thought it was totally aligned but it was not, so I heard this weird sound then unmounted, and nothing was broken or cracked.

3. Can someone post a sample image best if at 100% for my reference? Maybe I was spoiled by the Fuji 56 F1.2. I have been hearing how great the vintage Zeiss glasses are even when compared with modern lenses and I am sure they are great but for vintage like the Contax glass is it too much to ask when I compare to modern lens such as the FX 56?

4. posting a shots from F1.4 to 5.6, the focus is on the flower / at the back roll of the houses, as you can see its not even that sharp at F2.8, at 1.4 its like living in a dream, very dreaming look and def not sharp. At F4, center is not bad, but corner still a bit soft, you need to stop down to F5.6 or 8 to get everything sharp in the frame. Is this a bad copy?



@1.4







@2.8





@F4





@F5.6







Thanks guys

 

[Diacyclops81]

For film, available light, portraiture, the 85 1.4 is excellent. For digital, it somewhat depends on the sensor I think, but regardless, it isn’t a landscape lens. The flower pic is considerably less than I would expect. Presumably you have inspected the inner glass by using an LED penlight, while looking in from the other side, focusing on the insides and looking for haze, fungus, excessive dust, etc. I just put my copy on an EM5ii and aside from purple fringing, which disappears around 5.6, the sharpness is similar to your distance pics. It is an impressive hunk of glass and I have gotten nice people pics using it in the past. The snapshot of the girl was taken with an 85 1.4, undoubtedly stopped down, probably f8 or so.

 

[Rol Lei Nut]

Remove your adapter from camera & lens and look through it towards a light source: do you see smooth & shiny inner walls? Any reflections at all? That could be a cause of your results.

The 85 1.4 isn't very sharp in the corners wide open, it needs some stopping down for that.

 

[David Kieltyka]

The Y/C 85/1.4 Planar is a lovely portrait lens and also excels in other situations where shallow DOF with a gentle rendering is what you want. You might get along better with the 85/2.8 as it has more bite to it even wide open. I have both, and for general use I go with the smaller & lighter f/2.8.

-Dave-

 

[eddy1123]

Thanks guys for your comments. So I guess people generally agree this is not the sharpest lens, and it doesn’t get tack sharp until it is stopped down.

I came across this review:

http://slrlensreview.com/web/review...8-carl-zeiss-planar-t-85mm-f14-cy-lens-review

Could have due to different camera / sensor but I know my lens doesn’t perform as well as the reviewer claims. He claims it’s sharp starting from f2 / f2.8 even at the corner, I wish I see that on my copy — my camera the Fuji XT2 is even a crop sensor and I don’t see anything sharp at the corner at these apertures

 

[Laagwater]

I have the same lens and using it on a Sony A7. The lens is sharp, allready at 1.4 but of course not from the center into the corners. Here's an example taken at F2.

C/y 85mm f1.4 planar @ F2

Maybe yours has some haze inside the lens or your cropsensor is more demanding...

 

[eddy1123]

I have the same lens and using it on a Sony A7. The lens is sharp, allready at 1.4 but of course not from the center into the corners. Here's an example taken at F2.

C/y 85mm f1.4 planar @ F2

Maybe yours has some haze inside the lens or your cropsensor is more demanding...

Thank you for sharing. Yes it does look sharp. I do however see the file is downsized, if at original size, it is still very sharp? I checked my lens, there is no fungus or haze, I bought the lens like new, and still looks new. So I guess its either my sensor or copy variation. Is yours Japanese made or Germany?

 

[ThomasB]

I have the same lens and using it on a Sony A7. The lens is sharp, allready at 1.4 but of course not from the center into the corners. Here's an example taken at F2.

Maybe yours has some haze inside the lens or your cropsensor is more demanding...

Thank you for sharing. Yes it does look sharp. I do however see the file is downsized, if at original size, it is still very sharp? I checked my lens, there is no fungus or haze, I bought the lens like new, and still looks new. So I guess its either my sensor or copy variation. Is yours Japanese made or Germany?

The performance of old legacy lenses which have been designed purely for film varies a lot on different digital cameras; i.e. sensors. To the contrary, modern lenses designed for specific digital cameras are in many cases additionally software optimized by the camera software. Sony and Panasonic (most probably others as well) do a lot of software tweaking to optimize the result of their own lenses on their cameras.

That means, if a lens performs excellently e.g. on a Sony A7 it may perform less good on e.g. a Fuji XT.

I own really many old SLR and RF lenses and can tell you that they all perform quite differently on my different digital cameras with different sensor sizes and resolution.

Therefore I strongly recommend to look always also for the camera used if you want to select lenses based on testing reports.

I only consider such test reports as a overall rough guidance and prefer to test lenses myself on my own cameras. In many cases I came to different results.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[Diacyclops81]

Good point, worth repeating. Recently an old Pen F lens came available in very good condition. I have a copy, the glass is good but the exterior cosmetics are in the KEH “ugly” category. As I considered using it on a recently acquired XE-2, I tested my copy on a Sony NEX5n and the XE-2. All went well, both cameras have APS sized 16mp sensors, but different designs. On close scrutiny there was less color fringing on the Fuji than on the old Sony. I would have different opinions of the lens if I had only tested it on one body. So, sometimes chickens, sometimes feathers.

 

[Laagwater]

I have the same lens and using it on a Sony A7. The lens is sharp, allready at 1.4 but of course not from the center into the corners. Here's an example taken at F2.

Maybe yours has some haze inside the lens or your cropsensor is more demanding...

Thank you for sharing. Yes it does look sharp. I do however see the file is downsized, if at original size, it is still very sharp? I checked my lens, there is no fungus or haze, I bought the lens like new, and still looks new. So I guess its either my sensor or copy variation. Is yours Japanese made or Germany?

Hello, mine is from Germany. On a Sony A7 the lens is also usable at F1.4 IMO, but there is a lot of purplefringing wide open.

Here are two examples (jpg) directly from the camera.

A7 CZ 85mm F1.4 planar c/y @ 1.4

@ F2.0

Both are still in ARGB

Maybe you can try your 85mm on someones Sony and see if it's the lens or the sensor...

Edwin

 

[eddy1123]

I have the same lens and using it on a Sony A7. The lens is sharp, allready at 1.4 but of course not from the center into the corners. Here's an example taken at F2.

Maybe yours has some haze inside the lens or your cropsensor is more demanding...

Thank you for sharing. Yes it does look sharp. I do however see the file is downsized, if at original size, it is still very sharp? I checked my lens, there is no fungus or haze, I bought the lens like new, and still looks new. So I guess its either my sensor or copy variation. Is yours Japanese made or Germany?

Hello, mine is from Germany. On a Sony A7 the lens is also usable at F1.4 IMO, but there is a lot of purplefringing wide open.

Here are two examples (jpg) directly from the camera.

A7 CZ 85mm F1.4 planar c/y @ 1.4

@ F2.0

Both are still in ARGB

Maybe you can try your 85mm on someones Sony and see if it's the lens or the sensor...

Edwin

Thank you for sharing. My F1.4's clarity is more like the old man's face, but I assume that photo the focusing point was on the horse. Yes its an good idea to try on a Sony.

Also thanks to other posters for the comments. Agree its logically that same lens would not perform the same on different camera/sensor. However, as for sharpness, I thought it should be similar. Understand every camera applies different sharpening algorithm but when comparing to native Fuji lenses the sharpness its not at the same level or even close, so I feel its more of the lens than the camera. Other things such as color or flare etc can vary between lenses, but just purely sharpness I do not see how a sharp lens (for example, if my copy is the same as Edwin's copy) can become not sharp due to sensor.

 

[David Kieltyka]

This thread prompted me to put my 85/1.4 on my A7rii and play a bit. Which reminded me of a couple things:

1) The lens is pretty darn sharp for an 85/1.4 when you get the focus dead on.

2) It's tricky to get the focus dead on because the transition from out-of-focus to in-focus is so gradual. Lots of times I kept racking back & forth to find just the right point where the image is ever-so-slightly snappier. Miss by just a hair and the focus is still okay but in comparison to a dead-on shot clearly not quite there. This is, I suspect, a drawback of using a high speed film-era lens on an electronic camera.

-Dave-

 

[ThomasB]

Also thanks to other posters for the comments. Agree its logically that same lens would not perform the same on different camera/sensor. However, as for sharpness, I thought it should be similar. Understand every camera applies different sharpening algorithm but when comparing to native Fuji lenses the sharpness its not at the same level or even close, so I feel its more of the lens than the camera. Other things such as color or flare etc can vary between lenses, but just purely sharpness I do not see how a sharp lens (for example, if my copy is the same as Edwin's copy) can become not sharp due to sensor.

A typical case where the sensor affects the sharpness is when you use certain wide angle range finder lenses designed for film on mirrorless digital cameras, particularly when the distance of the rear lens to the sensor is very short. This may lead to blurred, i.e. unsharp edges (and color shift as well). The Sony A7 series is the worst candidate for this but other APS-C cameras like yours might also be affected.

Therefore Ricoh designed a special sensor for their GXR-M camera to avoid this blurring edge and color shift syndrome with these lenses. To the best of my knowledge that's the only camera with sensor size APS-C (or above) which can handle such problematic film lenses without troubles. BTW, that's the reason why I like this camera that much. ;-)

 

[eddy1123]

Went out for a shooting session today and I have to say I got a much better result in real world usage of the lens. Below are shot at f1.4 or 2. Actually not bad at all, and I like the overall rendering.

 

[forest m]

If you look at the depth of field tables 1.4 85mm at one metre is unusable