Advice - Wide lenses for Contax SLR?

[syd]

<p>Greetings all,</p>

<p>Please give me your thoughts on the best wide manual focus lenses for a Contax SLR please? I am predominantly looking for primes and I already have a stunning Yashica 24mm ML that has been my mainstay for many years. What I want is something that covers the super wide end ... perhaps 16mm or thereabouts. I am not a averse to 3rd party brands as long as the lens is superb ... what would you suggest for my requirements?</p>

<p>I shoot Landscapes and some Architecture ...</p>

<p>Best, Simon.</p>

[john_shriver]

<p>Hard to imagine anything would be better than the 15mm or 18mm Zeiss Distagon. The 18mm is under $1000, the 15mm is most likely over $2000.<br>

Or, be cheap, and use the well-kwown 17mm Tamron SP Adaptall-2 lens.</p>

 

[syd]

<p>The 15mm would be closer to my requirements than the 18mm ... I have seen the 18mm F4? Distagon for sale recently, they certainly hold their value. I have no experience or knowledge of the qualities of the Tamron 17mm SP ... what about Yashica, anything in the ML line that is in the super wide ranks?</p>

<p>Cheers, Simon.</p>

[fred_c1]

<p>The 21/3.5 is the widest Yashica ML rectilinear lens. http://www.faqs.org/faqs/rec-photo/yashica-slr-faq/</p>

[syd]

<p>Fred, thanks for that .... sadly 21mm is way too close to 24mm and would barely show a difference for me at this stage. I am open to 3rd party stuff too ...</p>

[k5083]

<p>You might find some useful stuff in M42 which adapts easily to Contax mount. I use a Zeiss Jena 20mm f4 Flektogon mostly. There are Tamron and Tokina 17mm in M42, also a Takumar 15mm rectilinear if you can find it. You'll be limited to stop-down viewing of course.</p>

[fred_c1]

<p>Or you could save yourself the time and hassle by getting a Voigtlander 15/4.5 in Leica screw mount and mate it to a Bessa L/R2, a smaller package with less distortion than an equivalent SLR.</p>

[syd]

<p>I am not familiar with M42 ... I am assuming this is a type of mount for other camera's? I know the reputation of the Tamron 17mm is that it is a bit soft but perhaps I can live with it and use it as a starting point for experimentation at this focal length and then move into something like the 18mm Distagon at a later date.<br>

Alternatively ... can you mate Canon lenses to a Contax with the right adapter?</p>

<p>Best, Simon.</p>

 

[darin_cozine]

<p>No, canon cameras have a shorter mount than most others.. so they are good for mounting other lenses onto canons, but not canon lenses onto other mounts.</p>

[syd]

<p>David,</p>

<p>Thanks for the heads up ... I've decided to plump for a Tamron SP 17mm f3.5 - found an old photography mag from 1995 where they did a wide angle round up that had the Zeiss 18mm f4 Distagon up against the Tamron and in terms of overall value the Tamron won. The Zeiss is certainly a little sharper and is more contrasty ( something I like in a lens myself ) but unless you cropped and enlarged by 100% you couldn't tell the difference. The Zeiss was also reported to have some other small issues that the Tamron did not. Tamron it is then ...</p>

<p>Best, Simon.</p>