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Addicted to Zeiss - not only for the gear

Hello,

my name is Hans von Draminski. I live in Bavaria, Germany nearly all 43 years of my life. Over the years there was hardly a modern Contax camera I didn't use, beginning with my brother's 139 over RX and ST up to AX and N1. When the digital era came I had to switch over to Nikon on behalf of my profession as a newspaper journalist and photographer. Recently I found the (analogue) way back to Contax and Zeiss buying two G bodies (G1 & G2) with lenses.
After all my interest in Zeiss is not completely concentrated in camera gear but also in the fascinating history of the Zeiss branch and its founder Ernst Abbe. One of the first employers worldwide to pay social wages for his employees and to allow them to have vacation time. In his living years he and his factory were avantgarde. Today Zeiss is still something very special not only regarding the quality of lenses and camera bodies...

Greetings to all,

Hans
 
Hallo Hans,

I ´m also German - and I don´t habe any gear from Contax. But about 2 years ago I bought 3 lenses from Zeiss. Zeiss ZF for my Nikon. And in meantime I´am very glad especially about the colour of my pictures, the new lenses give me. In meantime I switched nearly to Zeiss. And have now the lenses 21, 25, 35, 2/50 and 1,4/85 from it. In addition to 14, 5,6/400 etc. from Nikon.

I´m very happy that zeiss now offer these also to other gear, outside of Contax.

Greetings
Heinz
 
Hans,

I like the idea that quality and profit don't exclude social advancement and social equality.

You have given me another reason to love Zeiss.

All the best,

Max
 
i dont know german

You do not have to :)

It is just that Camera-info is the merger of a few famous forums i.e. Hasselbladinfo.com and Contaxinfo.com. The latter one was the biggest Contax/Zeiss forum worldwide, Hasselbladinfo.com was the same for Hasselblad Fans.

This is the reason why many Germans are also here. But we do talk here in English :z04_bier01:

Best wishes
 
Hello Hans,

are you still there? Hope you are well.

You are not alone, Zeiss history is quite interesting and Zeiss equipment is still my partner since the last 40 years. It was first Zeiss Jena glass, later Zeiss Obekochen glass on my Contax 139 while I studied in Nuernberg, than Zeiss glass on Leica M and Hasselblad which I still use on modern H bodies and on Leica S.

Regards from the Red Sea,
Udo
 
Hello Udo, still here - and again working with Zeiss glass, now attached to SONY mirrorless bodies. Sony-Zeiss as well as "real Zeiss" with the Batis name on it. Even the zooms are stellar and worth the money. Old loves never die ;-)

Greetings out of Franconia, Hans
 
Hello Hans,

good to see you're still around and happy shooting with your Sony-Zeiss combo.

Regards from the desert,
Udo
 
Zeiss quality saved the day for me once. As a conservation photographer working for community groups in Australia, I operate on a shoestring budget. I loved my Zeiss lenses for Hasselbad in film days, but when digital came along I couldn't afford anything better than a Kodak SLRn, which had a Nikon F mount. So I shot the aerials and landscapes with old Nikon wide angle lenses on the full frame digital Kodak, and the corners were terrible.
In fact, a major agent rejected my digital images made with the Nikon film wide angle lenses. I looked around for something with sharp corners. Knowing how good the Distagons had been on the Blad, I wanted to use old Contax Distagons on my digital. But they wouldn't focus on the Nikon registration distance.
I swapped the Kodak for a Canon 5D2 and bought an old 25mm Contax Distagon with adapter. Wow! Sharp corners at last! I gradually added 35mm and 18mm Contax Distagons, all with gloriously sharp corners even on digital. I built my digital career on those old lenses. Only fairly recently, with the advent of Canon's newish 16-35 f4 lens, have the old Contax Distagons fallen into less frequent use. But that old Zeiss quality sure got me out of a jam.
 
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