Those of you that have been here more than a year or so will recall my short
term ownership of a three lens Contax G2 outfit, and know that, in my
professional life, I shoot mainly Hasselblad, so I am familiar with both
"foreign and domestic" versions of zeiss glass. I got rid of the G2 outfit,
a good move, and replaced it with an Xpan, a good one that ironically gave
me Fuji glass, also very good. But I digress....
I did a generally direct comparison of the outfits while in Colorado. I did
not do scientific tests, I knew the Zeiss lenses would test better than the
zuikos, as a design twenty years newer certainly should. I wnated to do a
test under normal field conditions, as I intended to use the G2 in casual
and vacation settings. I already knew from my first experiences that the
zeiss lenses for the G2 are remarkable. I was surprised that, under all but
the most exacting examinations, the chromes were identical. There was no
apparent differnce in contrast (surprising), and no quantifiable difference
in color balance (equally surprising).
The Zuikos I own are almost all MC, and I used no SC lenses in the
comparison. I would expect the MC Zuikos to be better, not just because of
the coating, but because additional attention to the design would have
accompanied the coating changes. It was because of issues with the autofocus
system (not the 90mm problem, which I didn't have, but issues in general)
and not the quality of the lenses that caused me to sell the outfit.
If there is a noticable difference between the T4 and a Zuiko, I would
expect there is a specific lens question, and not a system question. If the
comparison is against a SC lens, I'm not surprised.
As an aside, I have blown up quite a few shots from the G2 to 16x20. From
originals on 400 Fuji! Grain is absolutely not a problem, in every case
where the negative is properly exposed (that is to say at least 1 half stop
over). I would never say that, without exception, 35mm cannot go past 11x14.
I have personally taken 35 negs to 20x24 without a grain problem, although I
certainly don't like to.
Bill Pearce
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