Congratulations! You had the 6th Tele-Apotessar 400/4 converted to EF mount in the world. I am very confident that you will be very happy with the results.

Cheers Bo Ming,

The weather here is very over cast at the moment but hopefully the rain should hold off so I can get some samples.

A few very quick grabs and 100% crops. 5DMKII ISO 400 on a monopod. 1/400 horse and 1/800 dog. Very dull day indeed.

holly smokes!!! damn, you guys are going to drive me to crime just so I can get one of these.... I mean I've had the zf 100/2 and I have the converted 24-85N but man, this is just a whole different beast.... man I wish I could swing one of these ... congrats you've got something special indeed!

coincidentally... anyone know when Zeiss can resume their contax line? I remember that they couldn't keep producing it b/c of shared rights with kyocera but I remember that those were supposed to expire sometime soon and Zeiss has stated in the past that they were committed to the contax brand sooooo.... could we see fresh production of AF zeiss lenses outside of Sony (which is a bit limited at the moment)?

morpheus2891 wrote:
coincidentally... anyone know when Zeiss can resume their contax line? I remember that they couldn't keep producing it b/c of shared rights with kyocera but I remember that those were supposed to expire sometime soon and Zeiss has stated in the past that they were committed to the contax brand sooooo.... could we see fresh production of AF zeiss lenses outside of Sony (which is a bit limited at the moment)?


My understanding is that Zeiss can use the Contax name now anytime they like. Kyocera had licensed the trademarked name from Zeiss. The license has since been terminated with Kyocera's withdrawal from the market and the right to use the name has finally legally reverted back to Zeiss, it's owner.

There is some speculation that Zeiss might use the Contax name for their rumored digital rangefinder.

Look at that dog pic!!! Is there any end to the hair upon hair upon hair resolution?!

Must be my lucky day. Just scored one, brand new in the box with brand new hood and new contax 112mm UV filter, from a sterling-reputation dealer, under $3K.

On the way to Canada next week!

The 17-35 has started a dangerous trend. Now have a 100 Makro in hand and a 24-85 on the way, both for conversion.

Lotusm50 wrote:

There is some speculation that Zeiss might use the Contax name for their rumored digital rangefinder.




Oooohhh.... can you feel it now... a Digital Contax G3 or G - 18MP with AF performance from the G lineup - Leica will really understand what competition means


As for the converted Contax 400mm f4.0....Very impressive shots.

Has anyone compared the Zeiss N to a Canon 400mm f4 DO or even a Canon or Nikon 400mm f2.8 - would it fall in the same category as far as performance is concerned or is this another "In a class of it's own with superior Zeissness" lens ?

Hi all,

I forgot to mention that the shots are all wide open. The upload to flickr seems to have stolen some of the resolution though, or it could be just this monitor here isn't as good as the one at home.

I'll be in a position to shoot it off against a Canon 400 f2.8 within a month and hopefully a Canon 400 f5.6 too. I also have a friend with a Nikon 400 f2.8 too but no converter to shoot it on the same camera.
I'm finding it hard to track anyone local down with a 400 f4 DO though, it seems to be the forgotten 400 in Canon's line up.

Anyway, fingers crossed that I'll have more results soon.

pascal03 wrote:
The Alternative image board ends up being very pricey in the long run

Yep. Bad for marriage as well.

Happy shooting,
Yakim.

I still need to deal with a slight front focus issue, but here's a couple more.
Canon 50D @ ISO 400 1/500 ƒ5.6

The second one is great.

Happy shooting,
Yakim.

Cheers Yakim,

I prefer the first one myself. Specifically the puff of breath.

Ronan O Keeffe wrote:
Cheers Yakim,

I prefer the first one myself. Specifically the puff of breath.

+1

Looks like the bird has been smoking

pascal03 wrote:
The Alternative image board ends up being very pricey in the long run

+10 That may be the understatement of the year.

Gee, there's a brand new one on Ebay for a mere $4300 BIN. Yikes!

Ronan, wonderful shots!

Well done !, Ronan !

Shot a hockey match with the Contax 400mm f4 N on Saturday just gone.
Canon 5DMKII ISO 200 ƒ4. Various shutter speeds.
I thought the AF was fast until I switched to the 70-200 on the 50D for the more close up stuff. Now there's speed!
I've never shot sports before and it's certainly a lot tougher than it looks.

Tough girls!
The compositions are a bit tight perhaps, but the 400N certainly gives a nice rendering.