Contax 100/3.5, basically I use two settings: wide open (people) and f8 (landscapes). I like the skin tones from this lens better than any other I have. Travel lens - for me, they have got to be versatile. All lenses have a design brief (or at least I hope they do), a main purpose, but I look for ones that are very good at several things.
Unless it is a macro, I think 'old' Carl Zeiss (say pre-2010) made every short telephoto as a portrait lens, with rare exceptions like the ZM 85/4. This 100/3.5 gives that warm feeling when you know the image will be settled and almost right out of the camera, no matter what. That there is worth a lot to me. This lens has the highest hit rate of all mine so it's an unsung hero.
Magazine editor Mike Johnston rated the 35-70/3.4 very highly regarding its bokeh - and he popularized the term - at the same level as some fancied primes. Little to argue about, these are lovely. Here are two from the 100/3.5.
Michael Willmann - some call him pompously The Silesian Apelles, but I would rather call him Silesian Rubens or Rembrandt or Van Dyck.
Not just because he lived in the times close to those Dutch master painters, but above all,because his works were made under their expressive influence,plus his own,locally influenced genious,
He was born in Królewiec/ Königsberg in 1630 - at that time a part of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth,(just like my great-grandfather nearly two centuries later.Yay!).
His family was of poor's guild painter.This is probably why his education lasted so long.
At the age of twenty he went in Amsterdam to learn.
At about 1665 he appeared at the Habsburg court in Prague.
In 1660 he settled in Lubiąż /Leubus in Lower Silesia. He started cooperation with the Cistercian order, from which he took over most of his orders for the creation of works and where he founded a family,spend most of his life and died in 1706.
From about 1660ties he began to create his most beautiful works.I encourage all of you to visit Lubiąż/Leubus,Krzeszów/Grussau and Henryków/Heinrichau monastries in the Lower Silesia/Nietherschlesien to see most of his masterships and to feel the spirit of the country that must have influenced him. :-)
His paintings decorate many churches in Lower Silesia, but also in Poland Proper (outside The Lower/Upper Silesia).
Some of them can now be found also in Warsaw,where they have found themselves to replace older paintings destroyed or stolen or robbed during the WWII by the germans.
8 days ago I visited the church of St. Joseph in Krzeszów/Grussau in Lower Silesia/. The Willmann frescos decorate the whole church.
Willmann paintings embellish also the two side chapels of the huge basilica right next. I did not take pictures there, unfortunately (it was too dark), but take a look at the Saint Joseph Church in Krzeszów Decorated with his frescos.Just have a look at the pictures.And all you spectators,please,do not blame the painter for the shortcomings of the photographer.
This was The National Day of The Flag,The 2nd of May,so The Church of Saint Joseph and The Abbot's residence looked good enough,even for any nationalistic zealot
I love to drive my way through the villages in search of small, rural, Gothic churches here in Lower Silesia.They are almost in every village.
Picturesque, set among greenery and old trees.Surrounded by old walls made of field stone, in which tens of hundreds-year-old tombstones stand.Often on the hills.Sometimes in the places,where ancient Slavic tribes worshipped their indoeuropean gods.
Peaceful and quiet. A breathtaking peace of past centuries. Considered in remembering the events that they witnessed.
It is not seldom that I stumble on a beautifull piece of art and always I meet the great,living history face to face.Just like discovering new worlds.
Recently I visited one of them, built around 1220 by the Benedictines, who wanted to establish an abbey there. It did not work out, but the church remained.
Great pics, Peire. You really have the eye, and the scenery clicks perfectly. I'm also reminded why I never liked the CZ P50/1.4—even though I own two of them! The b/g bokeh really sets my teeth on edge. Of course, it's commendably small in that classic double-Gauss way, and has nice haptics like all Contax RTS lenses. The only Planar I like is the 100/2: overtaken by modern designs but a well-behaved optic with smooth b/g blur.
Oddly, the only C/Y I'm using at this moment is the Yashica 50/2 ML as mounted on a Z6. This makes a compact street shooter with powerhouse capability. Will post results to this thread in the coming days.
