Carl Zeiss Planar T* 2/45 for Contax G

[Jan Anne]

The Contax G 2/45 Planar is an awesome lens, back in the time of it's introduction it was dubbed the Leica M killer as it supposedly bested anything Leica had at that time and reigned supreme for years as one of the sharpest lenses one could buy (so I'm a bit surprised of the OPs findings).
 
I use the Kiwi adapter which works nice but as both the adapter and the lens have a little play in their focus mechanism there's some play while focusing the lens, your overshooting both ways to nail the focus which isn't perfect but the IQ makes you forget this (non) issue very quickly. I think the much more expensive Metabones adapter works better, there's also an AF adapter available on eBay.
 
Here's a couple of images of the lens mounted on the a7R (taken with the iPhone 5):



https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3779/11072246366_d923fc3e91_b.jpg

And of course a couple of images taken with the 2/45 on that same a7R in Spain






And an OOC JPG in APS-C crop mode of my beloved Nikkor 50/1.2 Ai-S, another great lens

[Mike G]

Jan Anne, I had wondered where you had got to Now I know. many moons ago I used a Contax G2 with this lens and I concur a super lens as was the 28 & 90 still my favourite film camera. How do you focus it, I can't remember?

[Jan Anne]

Contax G lenses are screw driver AF lenses without a focus ring on the lens, the adapter rings counter this by having a focus rind built in the adapter which drives the AF mechanisme (see the metal coloured rind on my adapter). This causes it to nowhere as smooth as a regular manual focus lens but the adapters get the job done

[Mike G]

Thanks Jan Anne.