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Join date: April 2014
Status: Long, long time Contax and Yashica user; glad to be here and hope to contribute.
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on Mar 30, 2015 4:57:04 GMT
Posted: Mar 30, 2015 4:57:04 GMT
I had quite forgotten that many years ago, I acquired a few Zeiss lenses with special finishes - gold, platinum and white. While looking for a Yashica Copy Stand II, I found another small stash of cameras and lenses - a military version of the Contax 137MA among other items - and this lens.
It is a very late version of the standard 28mm f2.8 Distagon, in MM mount, but not a standard colour as you can see. I found a 50mm f1.7 Planar in the same finish, a platinum 85mm f2.8 Sonnar and a white MM 300mm f4, the last two being made in Germany. Slightly weird is that they are all MM types but none has the green f-stop.
The gold lenses were evidently not made to match the limited edition Gold RTS + gold f1.4 Planars as those used a butterscotch-coloured lizard skin for the aperture and focusing rings and I can't remember what the guys from Kyocera told me about the reason for the special finishes; I fear the years are catching up with me.... Anyhow, I attach a piccie of the Distagon and also one of my gold RTS' to show the lizard skin (probably now a banned substance).
 
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Join date: March 2015
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on Mar 30, 2015 6:00:59 GMT
Posted: Mar 30, 2015 6:00:59 GMT
Congrats for this beautiful and rare collectible item!
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on Mar 31, 2015 3:45:37 GMT
Posted: Mar 31, 2015 3:45:37 GMT
I think I'd have to get me a large box of the museum curator white gloves, cause I'd be handling that rig a lot.  Or maybe just once a year when I'd visit it in the bank vault. I'm wondering what you mean by MM mount? PF |
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Group: Moderator
Post: 2,040 (563 liked)
Join date: April 2014
Status: Long, long time Contax and Yashica user; glad to be here and hope to contribute.
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on Mar 31, 2015 14:07:24 GMT
Posted: Mar 31, 2015 14:07:24 GMT
I think I'd have to get me a large box of the museum curator white gloves, cause I'd be handling that rig a lot. Or maybe just once a year when I'd visit it in the bank vault. I'm wondering what you mean by MM mount? PF Using any of the gold RTS' makes me nervous but I like to fire them up once a month to check that the shutter and metering is OK - but they do get an immediate rub down with the special Contax cloth that forms part of the kit. I've only ever used them indoors; it would only take one little scratch..... Interestingly, these are the only Contax cameras from 30+ years ago that have not needed to have their light seals or mirror dampers changed.
You ask about the MM mount: when Contax introduced the 159MM, it ushered in a new system they called MultiMode metering with the creation of 3 Program modes - Normal, High Speed and Low Speed - in which the camera can decide the optimum settings according to mode. This was made possible by altering the Zeiss lens mounts to include a new coupling pin that connects with a lug on the outside rim of the camera mount to inform the camera's system that Program modes are enabled. Several independent lens makers adopted the revised mount, Sigma being the first, and although not very common, Tamron also made an MM Adaptall 2 mount; Yashica did not modify their mounts. Also, some of the Zeiss lenses only ever came with the original AE mount - 15mm, 16mm, 35mm PC-shift, 60mm S-Planar, 100mm Makro-Planar, 300mm f2.8, 500mm f8 and all the Mutars along with the Bellows unit and lens. Despite what the Contax Vol.2 Systems Brochure says, the 40-80mm and 70-210 never came with MM mounts.
Co-incident with the introduction of the revised mounts, there was a slight change to the T* coatings which produced a warmer tone (this preceded the final change to T* coatings prompted by the banning of lead in the EU). Although higher prices are generally paid for MM lenses, many aficionados prefer the earlier AE types with their more robust mount and neutral colours - and big bonus - they're usually less expensive!
Hope that helps.
Graham
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on Apr 1, 2015 1:14:05 GMT
Posted: Apr 1, 2015 1:14:05 GMT
Cleared it right up for me, Graham. I don't peruse the Contax cameras much because they're usually priced out of my range, so I hadn't seen MM mentioned before. I do recall seeing an Adaptall-2 mount with MM on it.
PF
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Or maybe just once a year when I'd visit it in the bank vault.