kosmoskatten
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Favourites are:
Distagon 28/2.8
Distagon 25/2.8 (weak wide open but brilliant stopped down)
Makro Planar 60/2.8 AE 1:1 (60 C / MM is very compact and goes to 1:2)
Planar 50/1.4 (closer focusing than the 50/1.7)
Planar 85/1.4
Distagon 21/2.8 (though I didn't use it much at the time)
Planar 135/2 (a little soft wide open but great feel to it)
Distagon 35/2.8 deserves a mention as a brilliant and cheap performer in a small package. I have never liked the 35mm lenses but at least it is a good one.
Sonnar 85/2.8 great lens, compact too.
Planar (or is it Sonnar) 100/3.5 razorsharp and very compact. Too bad it's 3.5.
Good but not reaching the top spot:
Vario Sonnar 80-200/4
Sonnar 135/2.8 (compact and looks good on MTF but doesn't "pop" like the Planars)
Planar 200/3.5 AE (decent but heavy)
Planar 100/2 (I think the bokeh is ugly)
Disappointing:
Sonnar 200/4 (weak wide open, pretty good stopped down)
Sonnar 180/2.8 (lacklustre, much like the old Leica 180/2.8)
Sonnar 300/4 (even more lacklustre, across the aperture range)
Distagon 18/4
Vario Sonnar 28-70.
Of the above my most used lenses were:
Distagon 25/2.8
Planar 50/1.4
Makro Planar 60/2.8
Planar 135/2
Cameras used were Contax RXII, RTS II and RTS III - all brilliant cameras. The RTSII with a fenomenal viewfinder and quite small, but reassuringly heavy. The RTSIII is a tank, most confident inspiring camera of all times. RXII was the "best" for me, wish I had started out with it. Right size and weight, great viewfinder.
I had the ST briefly but it didn't feel right compared to the above three, the shutter had a whining sound and batteries were AAA with the configuration I had.
Contax S2 was good, light and felt flimsy but never failed. Expensive though.
159MM was pretty ok, but wasn't as endurable as the above cameras.
I also had the cameras to be avoided during the film days: 167MT (fell apart, all three I had, both mechanically and electronically) 137/139 (Q) with or without built in motor. In the early days I was on a session with one 159 and a 137/139 and they ALL failed. I managed to resuscitate one of them to save grace but imagine during the film days what a hassle it was to switch films between cameras.
After that I got the RXII and an RTSII and my problems were over for as long as I shot film. The RTS III entered in the last eight months of my shooting small format professionally, as did the D21mm. I am somewhat sorry I didn't get to shoot more with the latter two, but at the time I also had the Contax G2 w 21/28/45/90 lenses.
Contax Aria wasn't too shabby really but the viewfinder was grainy and much darker than the older cameras and it didn't feel inspiring, very plasticky.
Ahhh... ...remembering the film days...
I have failed to mention a few more Contax lenses I have had, I am sure but my memory draws a blank at the moment.
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