For me, it's love at first sight. I love its rendering. I don't shoot Canon, but Sony does have a 35/1.4 as well. That lens is dreamier than the Contax but it doesn't have the special pop. And definitely this thread is the decisive factor for me to eventually get the Contax. Thank you all for all the great pictures. I'm looking forward to posting more photo.
Z250SA wrote:
Beautiful! Like pouring lukewarm cream on the brain!
hiepphotog, it took a while for me to "find the beauty" in this lens. Very special, very delicate. This thread opened my eyes and then the 35/1.4 wide open. That day, my 35L was dead to me!
i had sold my 35L as well. not that it was a bad lens, very nice lens it was but only thing it did greater than this one is AF.
Hi everyone. I couldn't resist any longer because of this thread so I went and picked one of these up recently. However upon further inspection I found something odd with the lens. The HFT marking is in white instead of the usual red. I've tried searching what this means but have not been able to dig anything up. Does anyone happen to know what this means? Should I return the lens? Here's a picture of it.
rstovalljr, that is the first one I have seen in all white. I'd try to find a pic of another one with a similar (or a litlle bit earlier) serial number. The serial numbers follow dates of manufacture.
Capt Jack has a bunch of old Rollei HFT lenses on his website with 55xxxx-58xxxx serial numbers and they all have the red color. I notice there are two holes in your ring, for a spanner wrench. I don't think those are normal either. They are not on mine, and I can't see them on the Jack's lens either (although the pic is small). It could just be that the ring was replaced, or modified, at some point.
I do see them on his 18/4 with a 56xxxx serial number:
Hi everyone. I couldn't resist any longer because of this thread so I went and picked one of these up recently. However upon further inspection I found something odd with the lens. The HFT marking is in white instead of the usual red. I've tried searching what this means but have not been able to dig anything up. Does anyone happen to know what this means? Should I return the lens? Here's a picture of it.
If I had to guess - someone "opened" that lens and possibly filled the HFT text with white paint as part of a cosmetic touch-up - it's very easy to do. If everything is functioning and images are good shouldn't be something to worry about.
That day, my 35L was dead to me!
