User:Biggles3
My principal interest since 1977 has been the use of Contax/Yashica SLR cameras and Zeiss lenses along with occasional Yashica, Kiron, Tamron SP, and Sigma glassware. I have owned every Contax 35mm C/Y SLR produced since 1975 and every Zeiss lens except the 210mm N-Mirotar and 1000mm f5.6 Mirotar: I was even lucky enough to have the 600 f4 Tele-ApoTessar.
Today I still use my Contax 35mm equipment, including my original 1977 gymnastics photography kit of the RTS, PMD, 250 Back and Zeiss 35 f1.4, 28 f2, 50 f1.4, 85 f1.4, 100 f2 and 135 f2 lenses without which I could not have completed my books and my work with Olympic gymnast Nadia Comaneci and at Sports School No.2, Bucharest between 1978 and 1985. I have been able to add some of the more exotic lenses such as the very fast f1.2 Planars (wish I'd had them back in my gymnastics photography days!) and have expanded into the Contax 645, Contax G-series and the digital delights of the i4R, SL300RT and TVS-Digital, along with the TVSIII. Today,I also use many of my C/Y lenses, plus the superb Contax swing/tilt bellows, on FourThirds and Micro FourThirds bodies too - great for macro and telephoto work but useless for wide-angles due to the 2x crop factor.
In the last few years, I have returned to my other photographic passion: medium format. The Contax 645 replaced my Mamiya 645 and in this format I also use the superb, light Fuji GA645Zi. For 6x7 I have a Mamiya RZ67 ProII wth a wide array of lenses and am always amazed at the versatilty of the system (love the rotating back!). I have also started to use the giant Fuji GX680III and this is a real treat as it offers swing, tilt and shift for almost all its lenses, a rotating back like the Mamiya RZ67, and can be used in 6x4.5, 6x6, 6x7 as well as its native 6x8. Using it handheld is a challenge but the image quality it can produce combined with lens movements makes it a must for architectural work, so heavy hauling is the order of the day... And the 100-200mm zoom is an amazing piece of glass, if potentially hernia-inducing. The 50mm produces images as sharp edge-to-edge as the Carl Zeiss 21mm f2.8 for the Contax SLR or the Carl Zeiss 35mm f3.5 for the Contax 645 - but again, it is a huge piece of glass.
Failing health has reduced my ability to get out and about with the cameras but every one is fired up each month and the lenses are put through their paces too. These days, I am trying to scan thousands of slides taken over 30 years and providing encouragement and advice to fellow fans of the Contax Real Time System.
