Just bought this lens to use on my Sony A7ii with Fotasy adapter. Love its small size and amazing sharpness and contrast. Lens hasn't even arrived yet from Japan. Will post more when it does! Best, Angus

From what I have read there don't seem to be any.

Size, weight, optical quality, build quality.

Close focusing--the lens cannot focus closer than approx. 2 feet (as compared to the typical 1.5 feet of many standard lenses). However, I have gotten around this by carrying around a medium strength close-up filter with me and it works very well for close-ups of flowers, still life compositions, etc. In fact, with the contrasty quality of the 45mm Tessar behind the close-up filter, it seems that the results are usually superior to those other standard lenses that can focus at closer distances. I'd like to see Contax bundle a compact hood for this lens similar to the one that comes with Nikon's 45mm P lens.

I'm in love with this lens. It's very sharp and contrasty and has a focal length that is appropriate for a wide variety of situations. The lens particularly impresses me with its sharpness at all apertures. I got this lens with a Contax Aria and they make a first-rate combination for travel. This little 45mm Tessar has produced so many "keepers" for me that I feel like it is becoming indispensable. I have bigger zooms that cover the 45mm range, but the color rendition, contrast and sharpness of the Contax 45mm Tessar seem to be the most satisfying.

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Nikon 45mm (also very nice and a winner for people shots, but doesn't seem to be quite as contrasty or sharp as the Contax (Zeiss).

Sharp, great color rendition(the Best of all???) nice and small.

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This is a gem of a lens. It is great for street photography and I think this baby renders colors even better than my other CZ lenses. It is called a pancake with good reason and with the Aria or the Yashica FX 3 Super 2000 it makes you almost inconspicuous on the street.

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1. Ultra-portable and really really tiny 2. Very high definition at all apertures 3. Sharp and contrasty at all the mid- range apertures.

1. You might already have a 50mm lens, and have to sell it on the market, or keep it and rarely bring it out.

This is my live-in lens for a Contax S2b. The combination works a treat. Shrapnel comes to mind. This lens splits hairs in images of 16x 12in. Very powerful performance, in such a tiny lens. I work at mostly f4-f11 and the results are impeccable. The advantages of a 50mm f1.7 just aren't there for me (this is my main travel camera combination). Thoroughly recommended for any manual C/Y SLR users.

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Never needed (Carl Zeiss)

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Carl Zeiss 50mm f1.7, 50mm f1.4, G series 45mm lens

Small in size, light weight, easy to operate.

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Bought this "pancake" lens used (flat, just 18mm long), however performance is as expected with any Zeiss optics. Lenses of Tesser design always fascinate me and this one is yet another great performer with expected sharpness and color saturation level typical of Zeiss lenses. The one feature I like most is the "snap setting" on this lens - you line up the green arrow on the focusing ring with the green f/8 number on the aperture ring click away in AE mode. 95% of pictures with objects inside the 2 to 10 meter (6 to 30 feet) range will show up crisp and sharp! Overall, a great fun lens for general and serious photography.

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Carl Zeiss 28 f2.8, Nikon 50 f1.4

Very sharp. Very contrasty. No distortion. Extremely small and light.

Small size means it only focuses to about 2 feet and takes 49mm filters which is non-standard for Contax SLR lenses.

Almost as good as the Zeiss 1.4/50mm. Slightly wider anlgel of view is nice. Great for traveling or anytime you want to travel really light. Finish is very nice. Focus ring and apreture ring made of a type of synthetic resin not metal. Does not affect operation. Inside components are metal where glass is mounted. Nice lens if you don't mind small size and modest maximum aperture.

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Nikon, Leica. Only products truly similar are the Leica M 50mm 2.8 and the OM 40mm 2.0. Have not used either. For those

Very Fast
Very Light

No problems whatsoever

I got this as my standard lens on my Contax 139 Quartz about 15 years ago and it has been taking perfect photos ever since. If the camera and lens had auto focus, it would be more perfect.

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Never had a problem

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Small, light, sharp and contrasty.

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I bought this lens to go with a Contax 167MT. I took a lot of shots, mainly portraits of a beautiful woman and her daughter. Later, I upgraded to the 28-85 Vario Sonnar zoom and then an Aria body. I loved the zoom and the Aria. Then one day, I reviewed some of the older photos in my portfolio and was moved emotionally by the quality of the pics that were taken with the Tessar. So I put the Tessar on the Aria body and immediately fell in love with that combination. It looks so good and feels so good in the hand. And then, lo and behold, I shot a roll of film and found the Tessar to be noticably sharper than the 28-85 zoom. Now I leave the zoom at home. The Aria with the 45mm Tessar and the TLA200 flash are an unbeatable combination for super quality in a compact, easily portable package.
I carry a Mutar 2x converter when I need a 90mm focal length for a great close-up portrait. The results are beautiful. This 45mm Tessar is my favourite lens.

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Not needed

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Minolta Rokkor 50/2.0