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Zeiss C/Y lenses on a digital body - help

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Lorraine86

New Member
I'm really wanting to be able to use my Zeiss lenses (C/Y mount) on a digital body. It's awfully hard to find any information on this from people who have actually done it. I shoot Nikon digital, but from the small amount of information I have found it seems that it's difficult to do with a Nikon system and you need an adapter which has a glass optic in it to correct the focus, which can affect quality.

I've read people using these lenses on canon digital bodies with an adapter that doesn't have glass in it. I'm about to buy a Canon 1000d to try this with, has anyone on here any experience of this who can give me any advice?

thanks
 
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Lorraine86

New Member
I've ended up buying a cheap Canon body to have a go with, as I don't want to start spending loads on Canon when I have loads of Nikon!

I have bought a fotodiox adapter. I didn't quite understand the ones with the confirmation chips, as my lenses are all manual focus anyway so I just got the ordinary one. will see how it goes when it arrives!
 
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allouis

Member
AF confirm ring is not very expensive. I tried a model without and one with af confirm; When the light is low af confirm is a useful help.
 
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MikeB03

Member
I use Contax c/y lenses via adapter on my Canon 5D MkII and Sony Nex 5N, adapters from the Bay, work great.
 
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ZEISSIG

Active Member
C/Y Zeiss lenses on Canon 5DMkII

Hello to ALL, I am new in this forum!

Because I wanted to use mainly my C/Y T* Distagon 3,5/15mm and the C/Y Distagon T* 4/18mm, some little changes had to be made on the rear part of these glasses. Furthermore, the mirror of my Canon 5DMkII needed to be cut-off a little bit, made by an camera/lens repair specialist. Furthermore, the Distagon 2/28mm, the Tessar 2.8/45mm, the Planar 1.4/50mm, and the MUTAR II required some little changes. All other of my C/Y Zeiss glasses work fine, these are the Distagon 2.8/25mm, the Distagon 1.4/35mm, the Planar 1.4/85mm, the Sonnar 2.8/180mm, the Vario-Sonnar 35-70mm, and finally, the Vario-Sonnar 28-85mm!

The cutted mirror disturbs very minor, and has to my knowledge, no influence to the light measurements.

Regards
 
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ZEISSIG

Active Member
I am using my eleven C/Y Zeiss glasses, and other lenses with C/Y mounts with an adapter perfectly on my SONY A7! Even my C/Y Distagon T* 3,5/15mm and 4/18mm working perfectly with this Sony camera! On my former Canon 5DMkII, I had to cut the mirror for the use of these excellent SWA glasses!
 
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robertj

Member
Using on a Sony nex7 various Rollei Zeiss lenses including the 18mm f4 also have the adapter Rollei to Nikon but it does contain a glass element results appear to be excellent however with no af confirmation though - on the Sony cameras there is focus peaking as an aid. I am tempted with a full frame sony A7 or A7r - Regards
 
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ZEISSIG

Active Member
I have sold my heavy CANON 5DMkII, and switched over 100% to mirrorless SONY! Since that time, I have cried not any tears after the Canon! The Sony E-Mount allows you to mount any lens on these cameras, which are not at 3 on top of an tree! All my C/Y Zeiss glasses working perfectly on my Sony A7 and Sony A6000! I enjoy ver much, working with my Sony cameras!
 
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nickdando

Well-Known Member
I've used my lenses on a Fujifilm X-Pro1 with a Novoflex adaptor. They work well and don't need any glass elements to be added. And, unlike on the Canon cameras, no surgery to the pins and levers is required.

Nick
 
biggles3

biggles3

CI-Supporter
I can confirm nickdando's comments about the suitability of the Fuji X-Pro for C/Y glass; I have both the X-Pro and X-T1 and have been using a Metabones Professional Adapter which comes with a detachable tripod mount - it's especially useful when shooting with the big telephotos and zooms. I've also been using my Zeiss 55mm Planar on the X-T1 and at last I can use it on a camera wide open in sunlight without the need for ND filters as the Fuji now has a top speed of 1:32,000 - magic!
 
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ZEISSIG

Active Member
I am using fairly cheap C/Y > E-mount adapters, all made in Hongkong sucessfully on my Sony A7 and A6000, without any problems with all my C/Y Zeiss glasses and foreign C/Y mount lenses! No sweat!
 
dirk

dirk

CI-Founder
Hi,

until now, I always used cheap adapters from HongKong to adapt my Contax/Yashica Zeiss lenses and they always worked fine. I did that with Olympus DSLRs, Fuji X Kameras, Canon DSLRs and Sony Nex/ Alpha cameras. Never had a problem.

But nowadays, I am getting lazy. Sold most of my Contax stuff except a 135/2.8, 80-200/F4 (both converted to M42 mount) and my beloved Yashica FX2000 Super with the Zeiss 50/1.7 :)

I love the handling of the Zeiss galsses, but AF is so easy nowadays and my eyes are not getting better...

If I would have start from new and would like to use Zeiss-Contax lenses, I would pick as a body a Sony A7 or Sony A6000 to match it with an adapter. I think the peak view woth Sony is currently the best on the market.

Best wishes
 
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