CONTAX 50mm F1.7 PLANAR
Adapter and fit feedback
www.pebbleplace.com/Personal/Contax_db.html

This thread is for ongoing discussions and experiences regarding the 50mm F1.7 Planar on the Canon dSLRs such as the 40D, 1D Mark III, 1Ds Mark III, Digital Rebels and all other Canon dSLRs. If adding an entry about a lens & adapter, please include:

1) Whether the lens is a AE or MM
2) Whether the lens is made in Germany or Japan
3) Which adapter you are using
4) If the lens works properly at its minimum focus distance and at infinity

NOTE - THIS THREAD IS FOR THE F1.7 VERSION - NOT THE F1.2 OR F1.4.


You may also which to consider the New Zeiss 50mm F2 Makro-Planar ZF. I purchased this lens in April 2008 and have been using it with a Canon 1Ds Mark III. The lens is proving to be quite nice. The review is here: http://www.pebbleplace.com/Personal/Zeiss_ZF_50mm_Macro.html

Canon 5D + AF-Confirm High Quality Adapter + Contax Carl Zeiss Planar 1,7 50mm T* green f/16


Seller: eBay seller ( http://stores.ebay.fr/oneoscom)
Cost: 71,68€ with shipment to france
Shipment: the seller ship in 48h00 but the Royal Mail take 5 (five!!) weeks to France from China
Why: this adapter have to work out of the box on a 5D

Pic of the 50mm on the adaptor (warning: 1,5 MO):
:

First impression:

good:
_ no mirror hit (ouf!)
_ well made
_ black color
_ allow to use the superb well made contax lens


bad:


_ hard to focus:

I switch the Focusing Screen from EF-S to EE-D and it's seems to be way more easy to have a good focus.


good deal or not ?: It's hard to have a perfect focus but the feeling of the manual lens is lovely. I plan to buy a canon EF 50mm 1.4 who is a better choice on a 5D with his tiny viewfinder (compared to my Nikon FE2, the 5D viefinder is a crap).

I will update my review will pictures, focus test charts, etc...

Thx for reading.


UPDATE:

I buy a cheap adapter on eBay (there the same with af-confirm):

http://cgi.ebay.fr/CONTAX-or-YASHICA-C-Y-LENS-to-all-CANON-EOS-EF-UK_W0QQitemZ290275325242QQihZ019QQcategoryZ30059QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1742.m153.l1262

The good:
-no mirror lock-up
-very quick shipping
-cheap


The Bad:
-impossible to have a perfect focus ....

UPDATE2:

I buy a Canon Ef 50mm 1.4 and it work great... Perhaps I will make a contest ... or not



PS: I do my best to write in inglish (sorry)

---

www.decept.org

PoseB - regarding that metal spring tab, you can always bend it slightly with a pliers. For example -



I wonder who makes that adapter in your pictures...?... It's not the typical chinese silver (usually they are silver plated).

Sean, there is not guaranteed best solution when it comes to adapters. There are variances in adapter production runs and there are variances in the Canon 5D production runs. And the Contax 50mm F1.7 aren't spring chickens either. Some of these lenses are 20 years old. It's a crappy situation, no doubt. Some people get lucky and find a combo that works without any hassle. Other people need to try several adapters to get the best match. Some of this also depends on your criteria too. If you want a nicely milled adapter that looks and feels of high quality, then the cheap Chinese made adapters are not going win a beauty contest.

And now the field options has changed a bit too. With the Zeiss 50mm F1.4 Planar ZE (Canon EF Mount), now you can avoid ALL these adapter issues. And the Zeiss ZE support focus confirmation and FULL EXIF data - which means showing the actually aperture set for the image. It's a newer lens too, so potentially some optical improvements. I think the US price is ~$670. It's not nearly as cheap as the 50/1.7 + adapter. The 50mm isn't available yet, but the 85mm's have already made it into the field - Fred Miranda thread.

I'd also like to mention, Mark Hama has been getting positive reports on some user forums for Contax lens repairs (Mark Hama's Website), so if you've got a 50mm F1.7 in need of attention, Mark may be able to help you out. I have a 28mm f2 Distagon that I need to send to Mark for a CLA.

I have this CZ Contax 50mm f1.7 Planar lens which I use with af-confirmed adapter. I had to do some little modifications: take off a "fin" and shorten the carbonfibre/plastic tube around the back lens with the hand emery. The operation was easy and took only some 5 minutes. Now the lens can be used both with canon 40D and 5D. With 5d it is especially nice all around lens: very light, and wonderfully sharp in all apertures. It is said that if you don´t need 1.4 aperture, even better option is to take 1.7 because of it´s better resolution. On the other hand the bokeh maybe is not as good as in 1.4. (But in that need I use Olympus 55mm 1.2 or Canon 135 f2) Planar 1.7 is also very cheap lens, I got my for 70 pounds in e-bay uk. That new Canon mounted Planar 1.4 ZE -option is so interesting, that that´s why I did not want to take a used Planar 1.4 with adapter. I would prefer to buy a new Planar 1.4 with canon mount.

I bought last spring CZ Planar 50mm 1.4 ze lens for my 1Ds Mk II -body partly because have been very pleased with Contax 50mm 1.7 and Contax 60mm f2.8 S-Planar macro lenses. Macro is too heavy for all around use and 1.7 aperture misses the creamy bokeh which 1.4 gives. So I have tested these three lenses together with old Leica R 50mm Summicron.
The result is that 60mm s-planar macro is the best, 50mm ze 1.4 and Leica f2 Summicron are equal in sharpness. Bokeh and contrast is better in Zeiss, but colours of Leica are a little more to my taste. Planar 1.7 comes very close to all the three lenses. If I had to take only one lens, it would be Contax 60mm S-Macro although it is heavy . But heavy is also the new 50mm f2 ze macro, which also seems to be a very good lens.