Nikon lens for Contax?

[argosy3]

Noticed a Nikkor wide lens at that famous online auction site that is supposed to fit the Contax. Has anyone tried one? Is the legendary Nikkor a good shooter? Maybe I should snipe it at the appropriate moment or ?

Originally Posted by argosy3

Noticed a Nikkor wide lens at that famous online auction site that is supposed to fit the Contax. Has anyone tried one? Is the legendary Nikkor a good shooter? Maybe I should snipe it at the appropriate moment or ?

Might want to search the site. This query, in one form or another, comes up frequently. Think last thread was about four days ago.

[Stanton]

There have been several threads which deal with this issue in more detail than I can. Suffice to say that the Nikon lenses are extremely highly regarded. However, while the lens mounts on the "S" series of rangefinders and the Contaxes are the same, the lenses for each are not the same. There is a difference in focusing between the Nikon "S's" and the Contaxs. Nikon made some lenses for the Contax, but most for the Nikons. The wide angle lenses and in my experience the "normal" 50mm lenses have been satisfatory on both my Contax IIa and my Nikon S2 and SP, and, for that matter on my Kiev 4a and 4am. The longer lenses are supposed to exhibit the focusing difference, so that a Nikon lens built for a Nikon will not focus correctly on the Contax or Kiev, and visa versa. Again, I don't see a problem when I use my 85mm Jupiter, designed for a Contax, on my Nikon, but the general wisdon is that I should. Perhaps I am not particular enough. In any case, as the focal length of the lens increasing, the focusing problems also increase. For a fuller and better technical discusion of the point, see Steve Gandy's "Cameraquest" site. Dave

[Brian Sweeney]

The wide angle lenses should be fine on both the Contax and Nikon cameras. The depth of field will cover the error on both.

The first two shots are with a Zeiss-Opton 50mm F1.5 Sonnar on an unadjusted S2. The shots are wide-open and close-up. The focus is slightly behind what the camera indicates. In the "Spider-web" shot, the RF is set to the spider, the focus is behind it. The last picture is taken with a Contax-Mount 13.5cm F3.5 lens on an "adjusted" Nikon S2. It is close-up and wide-open. I changed the shims on the camera mount, brought it out about 0.5mm.