Carsten -- You are now officially my bad influence Zeiss Muse, taking over from Lars!
Your thread and photos have influenced me to purchase the Contax/Zeiss 80-200/4, just ordered from KEH. I'm impressed with your images, and the low price of the lens. Hopefully I get something decent, although I'm not expecting to rival you or match the IQ of the ZE 21/2.8 or 35/2. I'll start with the consumer grade Fotodiox adapter to EOS, and a screw-in lens shade, and see how it goes.
Thanks to you and the rest of the FM Zeiss community for providing so much great info.
I saw some older comparisons on other forums with this 80-200 vs. the Canon 70-200/4L. Does anyone have these two lenses that could do an updated comparions of shots? The Zeiss seemed to do pretty well against the L lens.
Casual portraits of my friend's young son from this afternoon. A900 ZA 85 at f/2, directly converted via Sony's IDC raw converter Neutral style. No additional PP except resizing.
Nice shots, Edward. That lens has really nice rendering!
Congratulations Jim! I hope you bought two, to cash in on the flood of purchases and the rising price I hope it lives up to your expectations (and the high bar set by my copy). There is some copy variation, but so far it is well within reasonable limits, as far as I can tell. Yes, going with an adapter for a Canon is a lot cheaper, and good enough to get going. Later you might want to add a chip, if you really like it, and at that point, maybe a Leitax mount makes sense.
That is a pretty radical composition, Philipp Is he as tall as he appears? Very nice tones in the second shot.
C -- I love the convenience of the ZE glass. Nothing else comes close. I have several Nikon manual focus, and they are fine with just the simple adapter (although much more convenient on an appropriate Nikon DSLR!). I've found the Fotodiox consumer grade to be pretty good in flatness and flange mating.
I got mine as a LN- minus from KEH, without caps or pouch. I ordered a Bargain grade front cap, but will be replacing the rear anyway. The salesperson said the lens looks great, so now it's just a matter of how do the images look.
Your images with the lens are wonderful, so If mine is awful, I'll send it back. But I've had pretty good luck with KEH, who have been quite generous on grading previous equipment I've received. Fingers crossed! But how far wrong can I go for $254, plus cap, plus shipping?
Keep in mind that if you add a Leitax adapter with Dandelion chip, you are getting very close to the convenience of the ZE lenses. Only the auto-aperture sticks out for me, as well as the complete EXIF.
wfrank wrote:
Is it only me, or are Carstens images lost in cyberspace? I only get empty frames from some kind of throughthelensdarkly-dot-com references.
Not just you - I can't see them either. I can see a reference to imageshack as they pseudo-load but that's it.
wfrank -- I'm getting Carsten's pictures just fine.
Flypenfly -- Yes, I'd like to know too! I see they have a 24-70 and others. I'm curious if they are the same quality we are used to in the ZE/ZF types. If so, it could influence me someday to get a Sony body and lens.
Carsten -- Thanks again for the heads-up on this lens -- I received my Zeiss/Contax 80-200/4 from KEH today. Lovely looking lens, with not a mark on the glass or body. Even the mount looks unused. It came without caps (I bought a "Bargain-grade" front Contax cap from KEH), and I can see when fogging the front element with breath, that the surface has been wiped gently at some point. But no cleaning marks or scratches. The focus is stiff, but seems to be loosening up a bit -- I'd rather have it a bit stiff in a push/pull zoom. Zoom is stiff and not likely to creep. Aperture blades are a bit of a non-concentric pattern, but I'm sure that will be fine. $254 before shipping and cap costs, so a pretty good price (there are more there).
The lens uses 55mm filters, so that should give an idea how petite it is. But I wasn't completely prepared for its size and relative light weight -- very pleasant surprise. I've ordered an aftermarket screw-in hood with cap for short telephoto.
I'm waiting for my adapter, Fotodiox consumer-grade, so don't have a chance to take any photos yet. Perhaps it will come tomorrow.
Total cost for everything, including adapter and hood, is around $325.
If this works out, I'll take it on my Alaskan cruise this summer. Along with the Canon EF-S 15-85 it will give me 15-200 on the 60D.
! I probably read the first part too fast I suppose!! Should have checked the EXIF too 
I hope it lives up to your expectations (and the high bar set by my copy). There is some copy variation, but so far it is well within reasonable limits, as far as I can tell. Yes, going with an adapter for a Canon is a lot cheaper, and good enough to get going. Later you might want to add a chip, if you really like it, and at that point, maybe a Leitax mount makes sense.