Contax Vario-Sonnar T* 28-85mm f/3.3-4 user reviews

This is my main lens on my Contax RTS II with an 82mm filter size. Its a large and heavy lens but even drug store prints are substantially better than Nikon images compared side by side. But truth be known you probably wouldn't walk around the city just to shoot scenary - though I have in the past. But for important shots - I shoot models - I love this lens. Soon I'll be buying another one of eBay.
The push-pull zoom tends to loosen. I've had mine adjusted at the factory once. And because the entire front barrel turns when you focus a circular polarizer has to be used - I much prefer the old style.
I haven't found myself interested in digital until recently.
Black and White film yields much better results than B&W digital to my eye. Like...worlds better.

very heavy stuff ..............
prefer sonnar zoom 35-70mm at f3.4 constant zoom yield good results, and much better results at 70mm end with detailed reproduction under dim lights

To my opinion, this is the planets best zoom for 24x36mm in this range! Being developed in the late 80ies, Zeiss and Leica cooperated when designing this lens. The result is uncomparable and has not been surpassed until today. Even the rather new Leica Vario-Elmar 2.8/4.5 28-90mm doesnot perform better in terms of MTF, exept for distortion in the utmost edges of field, due to its aspherical elements. The Sonnar shows a less wide spread aperture difference from wide to tele, especially with a more usable f4 at 85mm compared to the f4.5 of the Elmar. Weight and dimensions are nearly the same, the Sonnars barrel beeing a little more slim except of the front lens range. I also like the push-pull handling for its responsiveness and the fantastic mechanical operation at all, which reminds to precision scientific optical gear. The closest focus is 0.6m throughout the range, which makes nice portraits at 85mm where the non-Macro Zeiss primes start at only 1m.

The optical quality is simply amazing! Exept for a little more distortion at the wide end, slides even under 15x magnification don't show significant less quality than my Zeiss Primes. My Planar 1.4/50mm is even a tad behind! I even did an unfair comparision with my brothers Leica-M Summilux 1.4/35 aspherical (first version) and his Elmarit 2.8/90mm at f/4 on the same Kodachrome 25 filmstrip. If you compare the pictures near each other with a loupe magnifier, the decision is between perhaps a tad more contrast and saturation for the Sonnar vs. a slight edge in resolution for the Summilux. The Elmarit is a little more ahead, but at a glance I would prefer the Sonnar pictures, cause contrast and colour are more important to visual impression than resolution. But all in all, the differences are really hard to notice.

I bought the lens several years ago rather cheap due to a 3cm long scratch near the edge on the front lens-element. The scratch has never affected any picture. Small mechanical defects of front lens elements and little amounts of dust particles inside the lens are vastly overrated concering picture quality, which will be influenced much more by damaged coatings due to intensive, or wrong, or too often performed cleaning.

If you are looking for an affordable single lens solution in the standard zoom range, with the highest optical quality available, this is the way.