On Thu, 22 Oct 1998 19:50:33 -0800, dotcalm@ix.netcom.com (Mitchell Halpern) wrote:

>I've always had a glimmer in the back of my mind about how nice it would
>be to own a system based on Zeiss optics, but the glimmer could never be
>acted upon due to financial limitations.

Ah, the power of "image" and advertising...;-)

>Well, I have reached a point in my life/career where‹if I really wanted
>to‹I could splurge and at least start to put together a Contax/Zeiss SLR
>system. However, before I do, I would appreciate some feedback as to the
>relative performance of Zeiss optics with Nikon optics. I don't want to go
>out and spend a whole bunch of money if there is going to be little or no
>improvement in terms of resolution, contrast, and color rendition.

Both make good lenses, with individual cases of one a bit better than the other - but the Nikkor line is VERY broad... Choose well in the Nikon line, and you can probably outdo the similar selection of
lenses in the Contax line, since there are fewer lens alternatives...
If you value edge/corner performance, you may prefer Nikkors;
if you value central sharpness at the expense of the edges/corners,
you may prefer Zeiss (at least for the shorter lenses...).

>Has anyone actually looked at this issue before?

This has come up often in the past - and started brand wars...
(There has been peace, recently...;-)

>For the record, I shoot
>mostly color transparency film for macro, scenic, and abstract shots.

I doubt that you will see much but subtle differences, and those
could go either way, depending on your preferences...