RWR Loc: La Mesa, CA

Dug out some old notes - on 01/19/1979 I put an F mount on a friend’s 250 f/4.0 Sonnar Contarex preset lens. Had to machine 1.44mm off in order to maintain infinity focus. I was able to retain the rotating tripod mount, but could not use the six original lens flange screws. I have no idea what lens the F mount came off of. It might not be as easy to adapt your shorter lenses and achieve infinity focus.
I’ve adapted quite a number of Exakta and Leica (M39 and R) mount lenses for my Nikons - Kilfitt, Leica, Novoflex, Schacht, Schneider, Zeiss.

Elmo Loc: Texas

Thanks everyone for that interesting discussion. Since I posted my original query I learned from a Contax expert that there are NO, repeat NO adapters for Contarex lenses to Nikons, so my choices seem to be to acquire a digital body my old Zeiss glass will adapt to, or to just bite the bullet and acquire Nikon lenses. Of these, I think the latter will be most practical. (It just seems a shame to see that beautiful Zeiss technology just sitting there :).

Again, thanks for all the useful information!

Ricker Loc: Salt Lake City, Utah

Do it. The old ZEISS lenses are outstanding.
Best regards, Ricker

jackinkc Loc: Kansas City

I have used a number of M42 mount Zeiss Jena lenses, with proper adapters, on both Sony and Canon cameras. They worked, and still work, very well. I never had any of my Jena lenses re-lubed, even though I knew them to be from East Germany. The Soviet industrial system almost never provided proper oils and greases for camera systems - furnishing lubes that seemed to resemble adhesives as the years passed. I expect that if my older Jena lenses still work Contarex Zeiss lenses could be even better.

I have also used circa 1955 Zeiss Jena Exakta lenses in reverse mode for closeups with my old Pentax LX. Requiring only a reversal ring and older double cable release, for auto diaphragm operation, they made wonderful macro photos. I see no reason why they wouldn’t also work well with digital cameras. The only problem is that really good Exakta lenses might be pretty expensive in todays used lens market.

mharvey

My brother dug out all his old glass "classics" and mounts them on a SONY mirrorless. The results are outstanding. In fact they probably are superior to the performance they provided with film cameras years ago!

ORpilot Loc: Prineville, Or

I purchased a used Sony a6000 (the a6500 had not come out yet) just so I could use my old Zeiss Lenses. Adapters on eBay start at about $10. I'm guessing a used a7ll or a6500 (both have image stabilization) and the $10 adapters would cost you less than individually adapting to your Nikon. I get great results from my old lenses.

JPL

Ok, then you know where you stand. But I would not give up on the glass without a second thought. If you like the glass and know it is good you can get a used Sony A7 for probably $6-700 and Sony A7II used for around $1000 and a brand new one for $1300 right now. Then add a $50 or so for the adapter and you are all set to use your glass. Depending on your choice you would be ready with a good camera fit for your glass for $700-1350. You will not buy many Nikon quality lenses for that, even not used ones. So it still might be a good choice to get a camera body, not new lenses. Many of the experts here say good glass keeps it value forever or at least for very long but camera bodies come and go. So maybe better to focus on a body for the good glass you already have than buy a new lot of glass because you want to hang on to old Nikon body. That is my opinion.

And if you want to go this route I highly advise that you buy a Sony E mount full frame camera. Anything else you can buy to adapt those lenses will be crop sensor bodies and that will be a major change for you as the sensors will not capture the whole picture your lenses are projecting but cropping from the center of the projection. So due to a small sensor you will need to get new lenses also to cover your wide angle shots. And then you are soon spending a lot more money. But Sony full frame like the A7 have full frame sensor that is the same size as your film format so the lenses will deliver identical projection on your sensor as they did on your films. This is the main advantage of Sony full frame mirrorless over other mirrorless cameras when adapting old glass.

kymarto Loc: Portland OR and Milan Italy

There is no adapter available that will allow infinity focusing with Contarex lenses on a Nikon body. There may be adapters that have a corrective glass element, but they seriously degrade optical performance.

Dennis833 Loc: Australia

I have adapted many legacy lenses onto Sony FF mirrorless with great success. But I agree with others that it would be to expensive to convert your Contarex lenses for your Nikon D100.

Kuzano

Zeiss Trivia.

"Zeiss Trivia: A friend who visited Zeiss before the war explained that both Zeiss and Leica had three year photography training programs at their respective factories. Even more remarkable was the Zeiss glass works in Jena. It turns out the entire glass works was built on a barge in the middle of a lake to reduce vibration during glass pouring to reduce glass bubbles. Every day workers would hurry to work, BEFORE the draw bridge went up in the morning. Once up, the draw bridge did not come down again until the end of the work day."

This is an excerpt from Steven Gandy's Cameraquest classic camera site. Apparently this was to prevent vibration from land base movement of businesses and transportation vehicles from interrupting bubble release when glass is poured on the barge in the lake.

Here is the link to Cameraquest page on The Contax camera and Zeiss components.

https://www.cameraquest.com/zconrf2.htm