Does your lens mount conversion service work with all Contax lenses ?
Only autofocus lenses in Contax N mount and medium format lenses in Contax 645 mount are supported.We do not support and have no plans to support the manual focus Yashica/Contax mount, the rangefinder G mount or the original rangefinder screw mount.
What do you mean by N-mount ?
Contax introduced their last lens mount in 2000, called "N-mount". The N-mount is for 135 format (24mm x 36mm), and features a very wide mount throat, autofocus, and fully electronic communication with no mechanical linkages. There are 3 camera bodies and 9 lenses in the line-up, all discontinued. A chart showing N Series Auto Focus Lens Compatibility is published by Contax UK.The 9 N-mount lenses are:
| lens | hood | case | filter |
| Vario-Sonnar 2,8/17-35 | GB-103 | NCL-7 | 95 |
| Vario-Sonnar 3,5-4,5/24-85 | GB-81(incl.) | NCL-1 | 82 |
| Vario-Sonnar 3,5-5,6/28-80 | GB-51(incl.) | NCL-6 | 55 |
| Vario-Sonnar 3,5-4,5/70-200 | GB-77 | NCL-4 | 67 |
| Vario-Sonnar 4-5,6/70-300 | GB-75 | NCL-2 | 72 |
| Planar 1,4/50 | GB-76 | NCL-3 | 67 |
| Planar 1,4/85 | GB-82 | NCL-8 | 82 |
| Makro-Sonnar 2,8/100 | GB-73 | NCL-5 | 72 |
| Tele-Apotessar 4/400 | (incl.) | NCL-9 | 46(rear) |
How do I tell if I have a N-mount lens ?
Look at the rear end of your lens. A N-mount lens has 10 gold-plated electrical contacts. Also, since the N-mount was introduced in 2000, any lens older than that cannot possibly be N-mount.Ok, my Contax lens is manual focus, in Yashica/Contax mount. Do you have any plans to introduce a product which supports my lens?
Really, no. Sorry but we do not have any plans at all, even though we recognize that in terms of market size, the manual focus Y/C mount is orders of magnitude larger than the autofocus N-mount. For manual focus Y/C mount lenses you are referred to other vendors such as Bob Shell, Pham Minh Son or Stephen Gandy. (Although I have never tried any of them. I simply don't have any manual focus Contax lenses!)Can you convert lens X to mount on camera Y ?
We are narrowly focused on one combination (Contax N or 645 lens to Canon body) for the time being. We are not working on anything else.Can you adapt Nikon F-mount lenses to mount on a Canon camera ?
You will lose autofocus and auto aperture. We do not sell such an adapter but you may get one from- Novoflex, Cameraquest and others, if the Nikon F-mount lens has an aperture ring, or
- 16:9, if the Nikon lens is a G lens which does NOT have an aperture ring (such as the new 14-24/2.8G, 200-400/4G VR and the 105/2.8G VR Micro Nikkor).
Does your product work with all Canon cameras ?
Either ourselves or our customers have tested with the following EOS models and reported success (Y) or failure (N). We are removing support for D30, D60 and all film camera bodies in 2010.| camera | 645 | 85/1.4 | all others | |
| 60D | ? | ? | ? | |
| Rebel T2i | 550D | Y | ||
| 1D mark IV | ? | ? | ? | |
| 7D | Y | |||
| Rebel T1i | 500D | Y | ||
| 5D mark II | Y | Y | ||
| 50D | Y | |||
| Rebel XSi | 450D | |||
| 1Ds mark III | Y | Y | Y | |
| 40D | Y | Y | Y | |
| 1D mark III | ||||
| Digital Rebel XTi | 400D | Y | Y | Y |
| 30D | Y | |||
| 5D | Y | Y | ||
| 1D mark II N | Y | |||
| Digital Rebel XT | 350D | Y | ||
| 1Ds mark II | Y | Y | ||
| 20D | Y | |||
| Kodak DCS Pro SLR/c | Y | |||
| 1D mark II | ||||
| Digital Rebel | 300D | Y | Y | Y |
| 10D | Y | |||
| 1Ds | Y | Y | ||
| D60 | N | N | N | |
| 1D | Y | Y | Y | |
| D30 | N | N | N | |
| 1V | N | N | N | |
| Elan 7E | 30E | N | N | N |
| Rebel G | 500 | N | N | N |
| 1N | N | N | N | |
| A2E | 5 | N | N | N |
| 630 | 600 | N | N | N |
| 620 | N | N | N | |
| 650 | N | N | N | |
I have a camera which is not in the above list. Will you support it ?
It may or may not work. If we do not have the same camera as yours and there is a compatibility issue, we would try our best to fix it but we would ask you to send in your camera. If we don't even have the camera we would not be able to solve any compatibility problem. There is no guarantee that every problem is solvable but we would refund the purchase price minus shipping if it does not work out.If you are an existing customer and you have access to a camera not on the above list, please kindly try it and report to us if it works.
Do you license any technology from any OEM ?
We and our products are not licensed, approved or endorsed by Canon, Carl Zeiss, Contax, or Kyocera.Are there any known issues with your product?
| All Contax autofocus lenses | In LiveView mode, contast detect AF does not work. |
| Vario-Sonnar 2,8/17-35 | The plastic tab protruding from the rear shroud of the lens
has to be cut during installation. (The function of that protruding tab is to prevent you from sitting the lens pointing up without the rear lens cap and scratch the rear element.) There may be an underexpose problem of up to 1 stop. |
| Vario-Sonnar 3,5-4,5/24-85 | At the tele end, and the focal length recorded in EXIF is 86mm instead of 85mm. |
| Vario-Sonnar 3,5-5,6/28-80 | There may be an underexpose problem of up to 0.5 stop. |
| Vario-Sonnar 3,5-4,5/70-200 | - |
| Vario-Sonnar 4-5,6/70-300 | Autofocus performance is unsatisfactory above 200mm. On some camera bodies, it is not possible to use an aperture slower than f/32. IMPORTANT: if you are buying a used, unconverted 70-300, please specifically test autofocus at 300mm and make sure the AF turns smoothly and optically if it is sharp wide open. |
| Planar 1,4/50 | - |
| Planar 1,4/85 | The lens is rotated about 5 degrees off center. The aperture blades occasionally makes a click noise in preview mode, and when the camera turns off. The focal length recorded in EXIF is 86mm instead of 85mm. |
| Makro-Sonnar 2,8/100 | AF is the slowest and noisiest among all N-mount lenses. |
| Tele-Apotessar 4/400 | 2x teleconverter will fit, but not detected, if modified before 2010/07. 1.4x works. |
| 645 Vario-Sonnar 4,5/45-90 | You will not be able to store AF microadjustment values in a converted NAM-1 adapter for both the 45-90 zoom and the 45mm, 55mm and 80mm lenses, because their focal lengths overlap and a converted NAM-1 adapter will only remember one set of adjustment values per focal length. |
| 645 non-Contax lenses | Non-electronic lenses such as the Arsat 30/3.5 fisheye and the Hartblei 45/3.5 Super Rotator are not supported. The Canon camera will give an "Err 01" message when the shutter is fired. |
From time to time, more issues may be identified and posted on our technical support forum.
My 24-85 displays f/5.0 instead of f/4.5 at the tele end. Is it a problem?
No. You will always be really shooting wide open. The aperture display may be affected, but never the actual aperture.At the tele end, 85mm for the 24-85, the maximum aperture is exactly halfway between f/4 and f/5.6. Your camera has a custom function which selects whether the aperture is displayed in 1/2 stop steps or 1/3 stop steps. Not a problem if you select the former on your camera body. If you select the custom function to be 1/3 stop steps, should we round up or round down? It just so happens that the camera body rounds down and displays the nearest slower 1/3 stop.
This is all just some rounding taking place. It cannot be overemphazied that the maximum aperture remains the same. Did I say only the display of the maximum aperture is affected?
If this still bothers you, read this discussion thread about the f/5.0 "problem". You may send your lens back to us for a firmware update. Since firmware version 2.12 the camera displays f/4.5 at 85mm.
EXIF says the focal length is 86mm instead of 85mm. Is that a problem?
When a Vario-Sonnar 24-85 is zoomed to 85mm the focal length recorded in EXIF is 86mm instead of 85mm. This is NOT a problem because a Contax N-Digital camera body exhibits the same behaviour. The 1,4/85 Planar records 86mm in EXIF, too.Are there infinity focusing issues with a converted Contax N mount lens?
No. Like other autofocus lenses, Contax N lenses focus slightly beyond infinity. Refer to our detailed explanation of infinity focus.Are there mirror clearance problems with a converted Contax N-mount lens?
If the rear element does not protrude beyond the end of the lens mount, it is impossible for the mirror to hit the rear element of the lens. 7 out of the 9 lenses in the N-mount line-up satisfy this criteria.The 24-85 has a plastic rear shroud which protrudes by a negligible amount, and the Planar 1,4/50 has a rear element that protrudes by 0.4mm. They will still clear the mirrors of 5D and 5D mark II without any mirror intereference issues. However, the Planar 1,4/50 may not physically fit on a Kenko/Tamron 1.4x teleconverter because of this rear-element protrusion.