Zeiss FE lenses with *any* 39Mpxl digital back?

[BradleyGibson]

For the nature/wildlife work I do, I'd love to get my hands on some of the large-aperture Zeiss FE glass. Is anyone aware of:

1) any way to use FE lenses with a high resolution digital back (any camera platform)?
2) doing so without stop-down metering (ie. not Contax 645 with MAM-1 adapter)
3) (for the win) and without sync cables?

Any tips, leads, crazy ideas??

Thanks,
Brad

 

[JimCollum]

i'm using a zeiss 110 2.0 planar and a 40 distagon on a mamiya 645 body with an aptus 75 back. it doesn't use any special cable.. but does fail your #2.. i still requires stop down metering. i don't know of any adapters that convert the electronics between different manuf. bodies and lenses

 

[BradleyGibson]

Thanks, Jim... I suspect you're right.

-Brad

 

[Asher Kelman]

i'm using a zeiss 110 2.0 planar and a 40 distagon on a mamiya 645 body with an aptus 75 back. it doesn't use any special cable.. but does fail your #2.. i still requires stop down metering. i don't know of any adapters that convert the electronics between different manuf. bodies and lenses

So Jim,

Is that automatic like on a Canon set to Av? Then why the problem with it?

Asher

 

[BradleyGibson]

On the Mamiya and the Contax use of Hasselblad FE lenses requires stop-down metering because the lens does not know when the exposure is taking place. The adapter doesn't do anything but hold the lens in the proper place in front of the imager, and not much else is happening. In stop-down mode, the aperture is always at the ready, and the camera's focal plane shutter can fire on-cue.

It's not a horrible thing to have to stop-down manually, but it's a few more steps in the picture-taking process. And as Jim points out, sometimes the results are worth it.

So with that in mind, it becomes clearer why automation features like aperture priority are out the window-- the lens would have to communicate the currently set aperture value back to the camera. While the FE lenses do have databus connections (at least the FE 50, 80, 110, 150, 250 and 350mm lenses do--I *think* that is all of the FE lenses), only the Hasselblad 200/2000-series (focal plane shutter) cameras ever talked to them, as far as I have been able to discover. And all digital backs on the 200-series camera have limitations which prevent them from working with FE lenses...

-Brad

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

For my bird photos, I'm usually pretty close to wide open anyway to get the maximum shutter speed, so I wouldn't see the need for stopped-down metering as a disadvantage in this case.

 

[Erie Patsellis]

Horseman DigiFlex, they show up used occaisionally, accept F mount lenses and take any Hasselblad mount back. I've seen a few badly described ones on ebay sell for far under $1000.


erie