Colorful autumn caught with Contax glass

Autumn is the best season for hikers. It's not too warm anymore, so you won't suffer a heat stroke nor will you have to carry several liters of water uphill, to compensate for the loss of body fluids. Also it's the colorful season, which makes it even more appealing to all those that love to...

Finest Fifties at Night

As much as I am happy that spring is finally here, albeit still not with as much warmth as I'd like, I'm also sad that the time of Christmas lighting is over. Sadly I only shot with 8 lenses back then and I feel unable to repeat the same thing now with all ten lenses....

Finest Fifties – Rendering – Crocus Cream

In this part I want to show more of the rendering qualities of each lens. It's still about how they render up close. This time color will play a big part, also how the rendering creates a painterly quality. Speaking of which, in this part of the review I added the RE Auto Topcor 1.4/58,...

Finest Fifties – Rendering – Book & Bokeh

I've decided to split this part up into several chapters, providing and analyzing one batch of images in each chapter. This batch "Book & Bokeh" is meaningful in several ways. It will show you the close up performance of each lens at the important apertures and how it makes your subject stand out. Since each...

Finest fifties – Sharpness

From my own point of view, this part of the review is for you. I don't care too much about the sharpness of the lenses at each and every aperture setting. For portraiture or for shooting moods or details it's not important, because they're all sharp enough in the center. For landscape or architecture however...

Winter cinematic through the Zeiss 100-300

This will complete the circle of the first year of living with Corona and making the best of it. I started it in spring 2020 and it ends with the winter of 2021. In my case, making the best of it under Corona conditions, means going out there, on my own, to shoot the beautiful...

Cinematic Autumn reloaded

I really enjoyed compiling the images for my 2020 cinematic acticle. In fact it was so much fun that I continued working on my recent images in the same way, particularly the ones from my trips to a mountain close to where I live. Going there allowed me to scratch one item of my long...

A Zeiss legend and its viceroy

Contax Vario-Sonnar 4.5-5.6/100-300 vs. Contax Vario-Sonnar 4/80-200 I've been searching for a long lens for while now. I have already tested some primes around 200mm and was never really satisfied - too big, too bulky, too heavy, too much aberration, not enough contrast for my spoiled taste. I was for some time thinking about saving...

What’s the best vintage lens?

In the forums on the net this is a very common question nowadays. I'll tell you right now: It isn't one that I can answer. I even think it is one that everyone has to answer on his own. What drives me to attend to the question is that I believe that many people have...

A trinity of Zeiss lenses for 60 Euros or Dollars – The Contaflex Pro Tessars

About a year ago I saw images of an adapted Zeiss Contaflex Pro Tessar 4/115, a lens that I instantly loved for its beauty. While that may be the only reason for some collectors to get their lenses, I want to use mine on a camera (still: I don't mind if they are marvellous to...