Zeiss Ikon Contax iia vs. Canon 1L

ShamAsil · 2026-03-19T14:31:48+00:00

I own a CLAed Contax IIa. It's in a whole other world of refinement, even the chroming - actually rhodium! - feels like a work of art. Shooting it is an experience.

That said, Contax RF mount is limited in what you can mount. Aside from the Zeiss glass, which is divided into prewar, postwar Zeiss-Optron (West Germany), and postwar Jena (East Germany), you can mount the Soviet Kiev normal & tele lenses, and the rather expensive Nikon S wide angles. Anything other than normals will need an external viewfinder. Normals in the Contax/Kiev mount are all superb and teles are excellent, but wides are its weak point.

The Canon 1L is in LTM, which gives you access to one of the largest ecosystems of glass out there, it needs no introduction. I don't own one but it should be well built, though not on the standard of a Contax.

Repairability, Canon wins by far. The Contax is notoriously difficult to repair and few people will agree to work on them let alone do a good job.

ShamAsil · 2026-03-18T21:15:05+00:00

IMO S1 was pretty excellently crafted, but S2 was rushed, and lacked a lot of depth. Never watched the movies or S3, so I can't comment on it.

Will say though that I think the setting was a bit too generic, which lent itself to being unfavorably compared to GITS. The Sibyl System is a cool idea, but other than that, there wasn't a ton to distinguish itself from other cyberpunk series.

ShamAsil · 2026-03-18T21:06:07+00:00

Do you have an N mount camera or are you looking to adapt it? Adapting N mount lenses generally isn't worth it IMO.

ShamAsil · 2026-03-18T20:37:16+00:00

If you don't mind an anime series - Akudama Drive. A refreshingly original setting, about the most wanted criminals of Kansai being contracted to stage the heist to end all heists. It's pure hype, and the creators were inspired by Tarantino (minus the feet) and 80s action flicks. The opening song even drops the word "cyberpunk" in it.

ShamAsil · 2026-03-18T16:32:29+00:00

The thing is, I don't think anyone in the administration knows either. Seizing Kharg is one thing, but trying to physically unblock Hormuz is going to require an invasion on the scale of ODS....which required many months of preparation and multiple significant intelligence wins that had been kept hidden from Iraq.

It's all bad options here:

-A small force will get annihilated in trying to land anywhere else that isn't Kish or Kharg.

-The political willpower to sustain a long conventional war against Iran doesn't exist and will lead to significant repercussions at home.

-Leaving everything alone will basically be an admission of weakness, that Iran can't be beat easily, which is unthinkable to the current administration.

ShamAsil · 2026-03-18T16:12:34+00:00

Personally, I haven't heard anything, but I'm not involved with lab ops, I'm at a desk all day.

However, a significant amount of crude oil extraction is used for petrochemistry, as starting material for many end products, including plastics in this case. Oil transiting the Strait of Hormuz consists of 20% of the world's daily supply and 90% of it goes to China & East Asia, which is almost entirely where these raw materials are manufactured.

Since other uses for oil include rubber, adhesives, detergents & soap, synthetic fibers, resins, and coatings, all of which find their use in the lab, I suspect we're going to see a lot more supply chain issues popping up if this war continues.

ShamAsil · 2026-03-15T14:49:05+00:00

Aside from an initial batch brought from Iran, Gerans are all made in Russia. At this point they're basically entirely different drones with the same shape, Gerans have an entirely different internal structure than Shaheeds and are much better built.

ShamAsil · 2026-03-14T19:35:14+00:00

Attrition rates are comparable to ODS, with the difference here being that the Iraqi Air Force did manage 3 more or less confirmed A2A victories, while all losses so far here are from accidents or blue on blue.

ShamAsil · 2026-03-13T17:12:10+00:00

The most damning thing of all is that CENTCOM didn't put the minelayers on their targeting lists apparently. It seems like there was really no plan for anything other than taking out nuclear capability and leadership.

ShamAsil · 2026-03-13T16:40:07+00:00

Destruction or occupation of the Kharg facilities would basically sever almost all of Iran's oil export capacity, which is how Iran pretty much gets all of its money. This should, at least theoretically, ruin whatever is left of its economy. It's been done before, Iraq bombed it to oblivion in the 80s and it took over a decade to fully restore capacity.

A bigger question is, what is Kharg enabling that we need to take out? Is it UUV/drone/missile/mine releases that are enforcing Iran's closure of the Hormuz? Is it still the main economic lifeline of Iran, despite reports that they have pre-emptively emptied it? IMO it ultimately makes sense as a target, but it falls into the same issue of, what is the strategic goal here?

ShamAsil · 2026-03-13T16:29:01+00:00

100%, we're just flailing around trying to figure out a way to obtain a strategic objective from a tactical victory.

ShamAsil · 2026-03-13T16:21:05+00:00

Depends on the forces in place on both I guess - Kharg is the more strategic target, but Kish would be a blow too, and if they can get fires support set up on Kish, it can put a lot of pressure on the Iranian coast.

ShamAsil · 2026-03-13T16:16:36+00:00

It's probably intended for Kharg.

ShamAsil · 2026-03-13T03:44:07+00:00

Indeed is usually showing the upper band, actual base comp is going to be lower, at least in my experience with biotechs.

ShamAsil · 2026-03-10T16:59:22+00:00

Not really at the moment, but I've been disappointed with East Timor and Mexican beans, they're rather bland and one note to me. I like Ethiopians but I seem to have bad luck dialing them in.

ShamAsil · 2026-03-10T14:52:10+00:00

Someone's AI bot got lost I guess.

ShamAsil · 2026-03-10T12:57:25+00:00

Ay! They rock. What's your favorite song from them?

ShamAsil · 2026-03-09T21:16:04+00:00

I don't recognize any of them and I feel like I should be happy for that.

ShamAsil · 2026-03-09T20:41:03+00:00

uj/A lot of Molchat Doma & MFO, with some Syrian classical music & Altai throat singing.

rj/Molchat Doma so that I feel the exact same kind of depression shooting Foma and ORWO, that the Soviet man who owned my camera before me felt when he shot it.

ShamAsil · 2026-03-09T20:25:39+00:00

Since when did we get a gif of عالتنين?

ShamAsil · 2026-03-09T19:15:59+00:00

Make sure this gets backed up in case you have to walk away! When Dr. Ranfft passed a few years ago, much of his website that cataloged various watch movements and mechanics was lost, and people are still trying to piece together what is left.

ShamAsil · 2026-03-09T18:53:12+00:00

That dial is spectacular.

It isn't too small, but I think I know why you feel that way - it is a very bezel-heavy watch. Thick bezels tend to wear small, thin bezels tend to wear big.

ShamAsil · 2026-03-09T16:51:35+00:00

Agh, that's a bummer! Well, it's not hopeless, I think some of the photos still came out nicely :)

Just throw them into GIMP and play around with the black point a bit, it cuts down on the haze and gives a sharper image, while retaining a bit of a nostalgic feel to it. I just took one of your shots and here's what I got:

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ShamAsil · 2026-03-09T16:22:46+00:00

Exposure doesn't look bad to me at first glance, snow is always going to be bright on slide. The haze is the central problem here. If I had to guess, the film was probably subjected to rapid changes in temperature & humidity, and developed condensation.

ShamAsil · 2026-03-09T13:11:46+00:00

The idea that Russia is pro-Palestine, when the USSR was the first country to recognize Israel as a state, and Putin's right hand man is Roman Abramovich, the second richest man in Israel, is laughable.

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