But I feel that the Zeiss lenses are extraordinary alternatives at bargain basement prices. Were money no object, I would populate my lens quiver with Leica. I have seen the $7500 Summarit 120mm go for less than a third that price. The body Contax 645 AF body offers a unqiue mixture of. Contax 645 lenses are designed by Zeiss, feature the legendary Carl Zeiss T multi-coating, and produce images of exceptional color contrast and clarity. Its an AF (Autofocus) SLR camera designed to shoot incredible lenses on the 6x4.5cm format. Samples sell on Ebay for well under $2000. The Contax 645 is regarded as one of the best film medium format bodies ever created. A new Summarit S 70mm retails for approximately $4300.

True, you have to spend for the adapter, but they are regularly available for about $1k, and that admits you to a set of world class glass.Īnd the frugal part of me is also not blind to the considerable depreciation of Leica S lenses. Mine cost less than 25% than the Leica alternatives, and they were not the cheapest available. I am thrilled that Leica makes this family of lenses available. Īll in all, I am very pleased with the Zeiss lenses. In this respect, the haptics are similar to MF of my 70mm Summarit. Likewise, the 35mm focuses swiftly and accurately, though you do feel that you are moving more lens guts. But then, it is a manual lens, so there is no resistance from a motor. The 120mm focuses very quickly and easily, being neither too loose or stiff. In terms of haptics, I find the Zeiss lenses very agreeable to use. I also have the 70mm Summarit, my only Leica lens for this body.Frankly, I bought into the Zeiss family because of the extraordinary price differential between the Leica and Zeiss iterations.Īnticipating this purchase, I also bought the split focus screen which has made manual fine-tuning very easy - along with the briliant S view finder. Most of my lenses feel too loose and light, except the 45mm, which has a very resistant focus ring.Īlan, I have two Contax lenses for my recently acquired S (006). How do the Contax 645 lenses handle for manual focus? I don't much like the haptics of S lenses for MF.

Contax 645 photos