Do the Vivitar/Tamron have less vignetting and less of the cat's eye/swirl effect? That may explain why the Contax is quite compact and why the Vivitar/Tamron are bulky.
Note that this one needed a bit of RedGreen CA correction, but not the usual negative correction, it needed positive. A first for me..
Congratulations with your first one.
Otherwise it's not a big deal. Transverse chromatic aberration has properties in common with curvilinear distortion. Retrofocus wideangle designs, generally characterized by barrel distortion, require what you call a negative CA correction. Telephoto constructions, characterized by pincushion distortion, a positive CA correction. In a lens like the VS 4/80-200, both distortion and lateral color flip sign as you zoom from 80 to 200 mm. (Unfortunately the full story is more complex and there is no setting where all aberrations are absent )
I finally got to try mine upon returning from work out of town. So far, I am pretty happy with it. In fact, I would have a hard time believing the lens I received from KEH has ever been used... Other than a tiny bit of internal dust, it is completely mint. I wish the light was better yesterday, but I got out and tested it anyway.
Thanks.
The last one was pretty close to MFD, in fact close enough that I had to bump down the aperture a notch so I would have adequate DOF. It is larger than I expected, not near the girth of my 70-200/2.8L IS but only an inch shorter. But since it is on the skinny side it fits in my Domke F6 just fine, and gives quite a bit more versatility.
Today is looking sunnier so I am heading out with my 5D2, Rokkor 58/1.2, Samyang 85/1.4 and both of my Vario-Sonnars... A fairly complete kit IMO. Hopefully I will have some more sample shots by the end of the day.
I am interested in adding a medium tele zoom to my Nikon D3 kit, but I only see Canon users in this thread, and Leitax doesn't have it listed. Has anyone here tried to convert this lens to Nikon?
carstenw wrote:
I am interested in adding a medium tele zoom to my Nikon D3 kit, but I only see Canon users in this thread, and Leitax doesn't have it listed. Has anyone here tried to convert this lens to Nikon?
I have asked David Llado and he said: Regarding the 80-200/4 MM lens, it is fully compatible with all our (for Pentax,Sony,Nikon and Canon (narrow)) Contax mounts.
So, for Canon, all you need is a simple adapter and it works fine with regard to FF and clearance. Fine on the 1Ds2 without any internal levers or anything interfering (or am I thinking of the original 1Ds?) ? Does the dandelion chip tell the focus assist and also the aperture?
Yes, like most Contax lenses the Vario-Sonnar 80-200/4 works with a simple adapter on Canon. Mirror clearance usually only poses a problem with lenses of 50mm or shorter FL.
Focus confirm chips don't tell the aperture. There is no communication between the aperture mechanism and the chip, so the chip only reports the maximum aperture that it's programmed with. There was a recent thread (multiple ones actually) where the use of adapters for Canon were discussed in quite some detail.
I don't know what the situation is on Canon. Maybe someone else can chip in. I replaced the mount with a Leitax mount, and this works well on my Nikon. The Dandelion chip gives me focus assist and EXIF (not accurate aperture and distance, etc., just the lens on the camera), but again, I don't know how this works on Canon.
I have the Tokina version, which is pretty impressive.