Carl Zeiss Planar T 45mm f/2

Wonderlens for Sony Nex I Bought that lens to use it with a Sony Nex camera. It's a magnificent Piece of Art; Contax and Carl Zeiss wanted to make it the equal of a Leica M lens, and it is probably the best lens among of the G lenses. To mount it on a Sony Nex you have to buy an adapter ring first. The adapter ring is important not only because it is necessary to mount it on the camera, but it is also the only way to focus (the ring includes the focusing ring for the lens)...there is no focusing ring on the lens which was supposed to be use with an autofocus camera. Considering that point, you wear a very valuable lens on your camera, nice to look, nice to touch. What about the quality of the image? Very good wide open, excellent when you close just one aperture. Cristal clear high definition pictures. If you can do without autofocus, and if you are looking for a very good lens, don't miss the Carl Zeiss Planar T 45mm f 2... if you can find one.Read full review

If I am to take a lens to an island, it is this one. If I am to take a camera to an island, I would take a Contax G2, this Planar 45/2 lens, lots of film, and hope for a film processing service on that island. Over the last few years, this lens has been my main workhorse. It is ridiculously cheap on the used market, totally incommensurate with its optical achievements. Fits my lifestyle well - a small camera and a small lens in titanium colour and a bit retro-looking. It is cute, and people want to handle it when they see it. It has great charisma and great for shooting people. We "should" use a medium format camera in the studio, but after using a Fuji 645S and the G Planar 45/2 in the same shoot, we have pretty much given up on medium format (at least 645, even if not 67). Sure, medium format film wins on grain hands-down, but for shooting people a bit of grain is actually good.Read full review

Get one, if they are still available! Bitte sehen Sie den Review in Deutsch im 2. Teil! Why would anyone buy a 19 year old lens in 2013? The answer is simple: Because the 2/45mm G Zeiss is the sharpest Rangefinder lens ever. Period. Compare it to a 50mm Leica Summicron, it is a quarter of the price. It works with an adapter on modern mirrorless cameras and is widely used on SONY NEX and m4/3 with an adapter. It does NOT work on SAMSUNG, however you can change the SAMSUNG NX mount to a Leica M mount, the G-lenses from 1994 ff are available in Contax ZM mount, which is identical to a Leica M mount. Those contemporary Zeiss manual Rangefinder lenses cost about 3x as much as their Contax G Autofocus Rangefinder lenses from 1994++. As those G lenses were AF, you can experience the big disadvantage of the adapted G lens compared to an adapted Leica M or Voigtlander M or Zeiss ZM lens: All available adapters are very limited with quick, accurate focusing, the more obvious, the longer, I had a 90mm for that reason converted to a helicoid version to be able to focus accurately when I started to test them on my NEXes and m4/3rds 3 years ago. The results had been very encouraging on NEX3 and NEX5, however showed sometimes terrible purple cast on a NEX7 used with a G28. NEX7 Sensor and G28 just did not match, thus I gave up on this combo. The G28 transformes to a 43mm lens on NEX, to a 56mm lens in 35mm terms on the m4/3rds; both very useful as wide (NEX) and long (m4/3) "Normal" lens. The 45mm f/2 lens in 35mm terms isn't useful on either camera. However, I got to test a NEX Full Frame camera, that is, why I purchased this lens. I will test it thoroughly and update accordingly. My advice: If you intend to buy a NEX9, get one of those copies, as long, as they are still available. That is the Bang for the Buck, prices doubled since I bought my first G lenses 4 years ago. If you are a camera afficionado, get a G1/2 with a lens and keep it as a marker in the development of cameras. Few people know, why Leica or Zeiss RF lenses are considered that good: Besides the excellent manufacturing quality, a very simple reason: When a lens designer has to design a special lens, the design will come up with a certain, optimal distance between the last element and the film plane or sensor surface. This distance only can be realized in a rangefiner - or mirrorless- camera. For a SLR or DSLR, this designed optimal distance has to add the dimension of the mirror box, which adds length to the optimal distance per design. That is the reason, why for example Leica R lenses are far away from the properties of their RF counterparts! Deutsch: Warum wollte man ein 19 jaehriges Objektiv kaufen 2013? Ganz simpel, weil es hervorragend an alle spiegellosen Kameras - mit Ausnahme der Samsung NX Serie - zu adaptieren ist. Es gibt kein Objektiv mit besseren Eigenschaften als dieses, von vielen wird es auch ueber den Leica Counterpart angesiedelt! Ich habe die Objektive der G-Serie erfolgreich an spiegellosen wie m4/3 und SONY NEX3/5 seit deren Erscheinen getestet. Lediglich die NEX7 harmoniert nicht mit dem G28, das G45 ist hier effektiv eine - unattraktive - 68mm Brennweite. Das ganze kommt jedoch in eine neue Dimension mit Erscheinen der NEX9, wo es in seiner nativen Brennweite geschossen werden kann; ich werde das 45mm ausgiebig testen und diese Empfehlung dann anpassen! Kaufempfehlung: UNBEDINGT!Read full review