Introduction to Contax Zeiss + Cine Tune-Up Guide

Introduction to Contax Zeiss + Cine Tune-Up Guide

    In my previous buyer’s guide I’ve shown you how to build a Zeiss Jena “Mini-Cine” set for $1000, but if you have a bit more money to spend then Contax Zeiss is the way to go! I’m a big fan of these lenses and have been building my own set for the last few years,…

$1000 Carl Zeiss “Mini-Cine” Set | The Buyer’s Guide

$1000 Carl Zeiss “Mini-Cine” Set | The Buyer’s Guide

If you are getting into vintage lenses and want to build an affordable set that will be usable in every shooting environment, this guide is for you. I’ve been teasing about my “$1000 Zeiss Mini-Cine Set” on social networks a lot, but it’s finally the time to take an in-depth look at what has gone…

Carl Zeiss Jena Pancolar 50mm F1.8 “Zebra” | REVIEW

Carl Zeiss Jena Pancolar 50mm F1.8 “Zebra” | REVIEW

Carl Zeiss Jane Pancolar 50mm F1.8 is a bit of a cult classic. I have one in MC version as part of my “Jena” set and used to have a Zebra version also, but never got around to shooting any proper test footage with it, so I was quite excited to see Chema Mumford post…

35mm Battle at 6K |Zeiss Jena vs Rokinon DS vs Zeiss Super Speed

35mm Battle at 6K |Zeiss Jena vs Rokinon DS vs Zeiss Super Speed

  A few days ago a test video was posted to VLFV facebook group, which intrigued me so much I decided to make a post about it! The video above, filmed by a fellow vintage lens user Blaise Villars compares 3 very different 35mm lenses, with different mounts, speed, prices, age, type & status. These…

Carl Zeiss Super Speed S16 Cine Lenses | In-Depth Overview

Carl Zeiss Super Speed S16 Cine Lenses | In-Depth Overview

Ever since I got into video/filmmaking, I’ve been dreaming about owning a set of cine lenses, however as you’ll know, they are not exactly affordable, which is partially why I got into vintage lenses as I find them to share a lot of qualities found in cine lenses. Fortunately, the release of BMPCC allowed me…

Vintage 20mm Shootout

Vintage 20mm Shootout

This shootout has been long time coming! I’ve collected quite a few vintage 20mm lenses in the last few years with Canon FD being my latest addition. I just sold my Pentax-A 20mm F2.8 and I decided that I have to do this shootout before I send it out to its new owner. It would…

Carl Zeiss Superspeed (S16) MKI 16mm F1.2 / T1.3

Carl Zeiss Superspeed (S16) MKI 16mm F1.2 / T1.3

My closer look at the Carl Zeiss Superspeed Super16 Cine Lenses continues with the Distagon 16mm T1.3 (F1.2) MKI. You might have seen my previous post about the 9.5mm and 12mm. If so a lot of what I’ll say later in this post might be familiar to you. Compatibility: Like a said already, this is…

Carl Zeiss Superspeed (S16) MKI 9.5mm & 12mm T1.3

Carl Zeiss Superspeed (S16) MKI 9.5mm & 12mm T1.3

After spending quite a bit of money collecting and servicing a set of Carl Zeiss Superspeed MKI Super16 primes, I’m very pleased to share my thoughts and some footage I shot with them on my recent short film. In this blog post we’ll take a closer look at the 9.5mm and 12mm as these wider…

Using Zeiss Medium Format Lenses on Modern Cameras

Using Zeiss Medium Format Lenses on Modern Cameras

It’s great to see that there are a lot of like-minded filmmakers out there who also see the benefits of vintage glass and happily use it on their professional productions. Among these is a cinematographer Frank Glencairn, who a lot of you probably already know. But if you, don’t make sure to check out his…