What do you lot reckon?

Warspite

Warspite

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Just bought one of these Carl Zeiss 135mm f3.5 Jena S MC DDR lenses of the bay, M42 mount, full manual control for around £25.

Just a little experiment to make me play around with manual focus just for the hell of it, and to try and make me take more time about what I shoot.

Just having a quick play around and have to say Im pretty impressed, what I want to know is what do you think, sharpness I like although its the first time I've "had" to manually focus - and its as hard as I expected, also quite satisfied with the colour rendition, looks pretty good.

All straight out the camera resizing or cropping being the only adjustment - all taken between 3.5 and 4 @ 1/100 approx

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(y)
 
OT: but 42p for a can of juice? omg!

obviously been quite some time since I bought any :)

back on topic.

Is it completly manual? u need to set focus, aperture & shutter?
 
I bought them as a multi-pack;)

Only aperture and focus need to be manually adjusted, set the camera to Aperture Priority and it will get the shutter speed, although you could go completely manual - Im finding it difficult enough to focus using the 350Ds tiny viewfinder.
 
A Carl Zeiss lens for 25 quid - can't be bad! (y)

Manually focusing you should still get the green in - focus confirmation light?
 
I just ask coz I've bought an old zoom nikkor that's 100% manual and I can feel for ya :)

I find manual focus near impossible unless the subject is really big in the viewfinder.
 
The lens looks really good but you guys are kidding about focus struggles? .......... right?
 
I'm more of a Pepsi fan ;)
Looks fairly sharp from where I'm viewing it!
 
These lenses are supposed to be the dogs danglies when it comes to sharpness. Zeiss optics are brilliant and they made some fantastic M/f lenses. I've been looking at getting one for the Nikon, but can't find anywhere to get an adaptor.

And no sir, they're not joking about the manual focus!
 
And no sir, they're not joking about the manual focus!
Click to expand...

OMG!!

I hope this doesn't come across as sounding patronisng as it really isn't meat to.

I've worked with, for and seen work from lots of pro snappers (many with letters after their names) who don't really have a full understanding of the building blocks of photography or complete control of the camera. I've also seen alot of work from people on this site who have little or no training but HUUUUGE bags of natural talent.

Focusing the camera should be an instictive part of using it and relying on AF is obviously stopping people from getting a feel for it. If I'm working with a static (or at least predictable) subject I'll nearly always manual focus anyway as AF can sometimes pick the wrong focus box, take too long or just get it plain wrong and you can miss the moment. Is this because I'm a better snapper? Of course not, it's just what I'm used to doing.

I think everyone would benefit greatly from getting one of these manual lenses and allowing their range of skills to broaden and improve their craft.

Right, would anyone else like to borrow a soap box. ;)
 
Nearly had myself some zeiss lenses for the canon.
Supposed to be the sharpest lenses from edge to edge,
if you get the correct model.
There's big domand for these at the mo which is pushing
the prices up.

Zeiss are supposed to have introduced some lenses for Nikon.
So you may not need to get adaptors, but you will need a fat wallet.
 
I am quite happy to focus manually and find when taking birds it saves the auto hunting the background every time the subject moves. Where do you get the adapter for Canon EOS fit? I was tempted by a 50mm but lost out on bidding.
 
Got a couple from Ebay, M42 (Praktica mount) to EOS adaptor cost about £1 + P&P each.

Certainly takes some getting used to but that was the reason for giving it a go, to try and stop me from just snapping stuff, also a little curious about how some of this stuff compares.

Those Nikon mount lenses Matt mentions look amazing but as he pointed out they cost a fair price, believe they start at about €500 :(
 
Contax to eos adaptor is what your looking for.

Contax zeiss lenses.

You can also get them for nikon, and nikon to canon and vice-versa
 
Thanks lads for the info - have to spend a few pennies!
 
Re the manual focus thing - when I got my first SLR (EOS 500N) I made myself take the first four or five films through it on manual - didn't touch the autofocus at all - and am glad I did. Now I use AF most of the time but there are occasions (I occasionally help out our speedway supporters club by doing the shots of the young mascots with their fave riders / team etc) when I'm working in low light, with very limited time, when I simply don't trust the AF on the D30 to get it right first time - that is when MF comes in handy! I can appreciate the comments about it not being easy though - and frequently go on gut feeling over the focus rather than trying to look for the green light!
 
You young things! Age ten I was focusing on a glass screen at the back of a 1/4 plate of my father's and then he made me develop and contact print. First camera bought was a new Zeiss Nettar 2.5sq when distance guessed - still have it and works 52yrs later! moved on to rangefinder 35mm then first SLR was a Practica in '62 with a ground glass and pentaprism as extra! Moved through Nikon - semi auto to Canon AI - still a favourite and the Rolei TLR with 2.8 planar along the way. Still having 35mmEOS and now 350D coming to terms with auto everything but experimenting all the time which is super when you can see the results within minutes and have the Exif info to see what you did wrong!
 
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