The Contax 645 with the Carl Zeiss 80mm f/2 is on the left in all of these. The Mamiya-Sekor "C" 80mm f/1.9 is on the right. This is a quick and dirty test, and I would like to do more testing in the next few weeks. Storm clouds rolled in about the time we started shooting, so it was quite a bit darker than I would have liked. That meant we couldn't go much beyond f/5.6 without things getting shaky. We shot Fuji 400H at EI 200, and I would have preferred for that to be EI 100 in this situation. I'd also like to be able to test the flare resistance of these two. For now, though, this should give you an idea of what these lenses look like side-by-side. For my taste, the Contax wins in color and contrast. The Mamiya seems to render colors a bit warmer than the Contax. The skin appears a bit softer with the Mamiya, but I have a feeling that has something to do with the better micro-contrast of the Zeiss. The Zeiss is also much easier to use, as the Mamiya gets darker on the 645AF as the lens is stopped down. That makes it a pain to use after about f/2.8. The Zeiss aperture settings snap into place much better, and I, for one, find that a huge plus, as I don't feel the need to double-check my aperture setting before each shot.
Check back soon for a continuation of this test.
Thanks to Ron Dressel for bringing his Contax and Maria for being a willing test subject.
Here are the results:
f/2 (f/1.9 on the Mamiya)
f/2.8
f/4
f/5.6
These were processed by
Pro Camera here in Charlottesville, VA and scanned on their Noritsu. I made no adjustments other than resizing them for the web.
Thank you for this review.
ReplyDeleteWhich is which? Is the Contax on the left?
ReplyDeleteThank you, very helpful, you can really feel the characteristic difference.
ReplyDelete