cl with contax/zeiss 45mm f2.0 planar via adapter

[gteague]

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hi guys! long time no hear from. haven't had much to post lately as i've been researching film cameras. haven't shot a frame of film since the late 80s, but i got a bug. also, i've always really really wanted the minolta cl and now i have some 'm' lenses, i can put one to use. i remember working at the camera store in the 60s and 70s when they came out and we got one in with all 3 of the lenses and i drooled all over it.

anyway, i found a really good copy which seems to function perfectly although i haven't film-tested it yet. found a similar 40/2 rokkor from another vendor. both came from japan. and the 40/2 is nearly exactly as sharp as my 50mm summicron on the cl body. indeed the minolta cl is what i wanted when i got the digital cl--a mini leica 'm', and the minolta fits the bill to a 't'. and, unlike my bad experiences with the 'm' camera rangefinder, i think i can deal with the one on the minolta even with the shorter 'throw'. 

i also got a minox 35 gt as i had one of those when they first came out and shot with it for a couple of years. loved it because it was about the size of a pack of cigarettes folded up. but it was doa and wouldn't even power up and by the time it got here after taking the scenic tour around america, i already had another camera i'd owned when they first came out and for some strange reason, didn't keep long. i have no idea why i traded it off and can't remember anything about the experience.

it's the contax g1 and back in the day i had all 3 of the original lenses, the 28, the 45, and the 90. but i got mine with the 45/2 and it's the green label model, so i found a zeiss 28/2.8 for a very attractive price and picked it up as well. and once i was going through the manual and making sure everything worked (it does--and that's critical in an all-auto camera which is like 30-40 years old) i wondered even more why i traded my first one off--it's a beautiful piece of engineering. i also considered the g2 and some of the 'tx' models and i actually liked how the g1 worked better than the rest. but that folding contax 't' is a beautiful piece of work and puts the minox to shame!

so i started reading reviews of the g lenses i got and many said the 45/2 planar was one of the sharpest lenses ever made and i knew i had to compare with my 50 summicron. but there were no g->m adapters at all (btw, the planar has no focusing ring), but i found a single g->l adapter made by kipon and ordered it from b&h. i got it in today and nearly sent it back immediately because i thought i was going to need a pipe wrench to turn the focus ring. but i decided to see if it would work better once it was on a body--the thing is super thin and it puts that very skinny focus ring right against the camera body.

i mounted the planar on it and them mounted the combo on my s1 and took a few casual test shots around the room and they were pretty bad. the focus ring was stiff and very hard to turn and the lens release lever is in the way. so i had the box out to send it back when i realized it would mount on my cl as well, so i decided to give it another shot on that body.

i realized that i only thought the m lenses were manual. this g lens is about as primitive as it gets once removed from the all-auto body it's made for. i realized you had to go to wide open aperture and focus there before moving to another f-stop. like the old exacta and similar slrs where you had to meter and focus, and then stop down to shoot.

but once i realized how to use it, turns out it's a very very good lens and approaches the 50 and the 40 m lenses in quality and indeed has some sort of old-timey look to it which i can't quantify or explain, but i like it in b&w for sure.

i've been having trouble finding an online lab, but there's a place in california called 'the darkroom' which seems to be one of the most popular, so now i need to shoot some rolls through the minolta cl and the contax g1 and see if they've held up after all these years.

/guy

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Edited September 24, 2020 by gteague

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