Check it out! Looks like Contax beat Nikon and Canon to the combined film-digital punch!

Contax Page

-- Mark Erickson (maericks@netcom.com), July 18, 2000

Answers

Forget the N1, I want to hear more about the 6 megapixel digital camera they're planning for next spring. Somehow, though, I suspect Canon and Nikon are hard at work on a similar digital camera.

This N1 does have some intruiging aspects, such as the capability of using lenses from their 645. That could be a real money saver for people contemplating medium format and 35mm systems.

-- Darron Spohn (dspohn@photobitstream.com), July 18, 2000.

If only Pentax would do the same....

-- Mark Erickson (maericks@netcom.com), July 18, 2000.

OK folks, lets play the price is right. Any guesses what all this fancy new stuff is going to set those back that can't live without it? I bet $2000 plus for the body, and at least 150% of the cost of the manual focus lenses for the lenses.

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), July 18, 2000.

Suggested Retail Prices are on the Contax Page.

-- Mark Erickson (maericks@netcom.com), July 18, 2000.

"Looks like Contax beat Nikon and Canon to the combined film-digital punch! "

Huh? The N1 might have an optional external LCD finder, but that doesn't make it a digital camera.

Also, what is the 5 point diagonal AF sensor? 5 X shaped cross sensors?, 5 sensors arranged in X configuration? What is the rational for abandoning the traditional Contax/Yashica mount?

-- Chuck (chaohui@msn.com), July 18, 2000.

$2500 for the 100mm f2.8 macro. Wowser.

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), July 18, 2000.

$1790 for a 1.41 lb 24-85 f/3.5-4.5. Let's see, that's 3 dollars for every gram. What's the price for gold these days? P.S. OK, maybe that's unfair. I am sure Leica tests even higher on the aspiring to be precious metal scale.

-- Chuck (chaohui@msn.com), July 18, 2000.

The picture given in the contax page is small and doesn't have the best of resolution. But it appears to show LCD viewfinder as a separate unit, with a hot shoe attachement, than is connected by cable to what looks like a CCD camera attached to the view finder.

This suggests that 1. the LCD view finder needs its own batteries, 2. the CCD view finder unit can be adapted for use by earlier contax cameras as well as other brands of cameras. Not that this is a bad design, but since Contax announce a digital SLR, what I expected was a camera back that with a LCD viewer designed for the digital SLR, but would also fit on the N1 by replacing the standard back.

-- olenbeck (chaohui@msn.com), July 19, 2000.

I can't understand all this drooling adoration of yet another (yawn) 35mm SLR. No matter how many whistles, bells, or LCD "viewing aids" it has attached to it. Does the world really need another conventional film camera?

Like it or not, the future is digital, and to invest any sizeable sum in a new wet-process system at this point in time would be like buying a carriage and pair as the first model T rolled off the production line.

-- Pete Andrews (p.l.andrews@bham.ac.uk), July 19, 2000.

We will keep buying 35mm SLRs as long as their image quality remains superior to digital gear. If digital gear ever exceeds 35mm quality (at a reasonable price) then expect photographers to switch en masse.

The N1 system, with 645 lens interchangeability, sounds great for 645 photogs who want a backup body; but if Kyocera wants it to rank among the top 35mm systems, they will need to release more lenses than have yet been announced. You can't have a great 35mm system withot a tele longer than 85mm.

-- John Holcomb (jholcomb@one.net), July 19, 2000.

It seems to me that instead of building separate digital SLR like (Nikon F5 and D1, Canon EOS3 and D30, Contax N1 and N whatever), a rational designer would find a way to encapsulate the digital elements of a digital SLR into a camera back. This way one could switch between digital and film with a simple switch of camera back instead paying for duplicate AF, metering, view finding, shutter and other mechanism.

-- Chuck (chaohui@msn.com), July 19, 2000.

Digital technology to equal 35mm is here now. It's just that the silly sods that control the market won't let us have it. Instead they waste R&D time on hi-tech jewelry. Have a look at this CCD sensor that Kodak have developed. Full frame CCD

Makes the D1 look a bit sick, doesn't it?

Why isn't someone using these in a digital camera? If it's purely cost; the cost won't come down until the product is offered to the market. And if you want to use your 645 lenses with 35mm, get a 35mm back or insert, at 1/20th of the cost.

-- Pete Andrews (p.l.andrews@bham.ac.uk), July 20, 2000.

Pete,

Are still driving that '74 Vega waiting for the new rocket cars to come out? Yes, someday the whole world will be digital. Trust me (and others here) that day is a long way off. Digital will become a larger and larger part of the picture over the next few years, but it still has a way to go.

-- Ed Farmer (photography2k@hotmail.com), July 20, 2000.

Much as I like the design of Contax cameras (and they are beautiful machines), it seems like they are intent on finding solutions to nonexistent problems. I suspect the LCD viewfinder will turn out to be one of those expensive, but marginally useful features. Somewhat reminiscent of the vacuum back on the RTS.

-- Barry Schmetter (bschmett@my-deja.com), July 24, 2000.

I currently own a contax 645. I am really psyched about using my 645 lenses on a 35mm body and having a lighter weight companion to my 645! I'll bet that the Mamiya users will wish they'd bought into the contax system... Nonetheless, I can't wait to get my hands on one of these cameras.

-- Jeff Tiemann (jbtiemann@saipan.navy.mil), November 20, 2000.

Mamiya users are probably glad that they still have money leftover to buy a real 35mm AF system with lenses that make 35mm worthwhile.

-- Jennifer Orlebeke (Jenny@juno.com), November 20, 2000.

On occasion I've had the opportunity to play with a Hasselblad with the waist level finder. I'm thinking of the LCD viewfinder that will soon become available for the N1 as just that, a waist level finder. In my limited experience with the Hasselblad, having the ability to compose a scene with binocular vision, has proven to be a world apart from the one eyed experience I am used to as a 35mm photographer. The N1 is tempting because of this LCD viewfinder that will encourage composition with both eyes open and focusing together in/on the field of view. I found binocular composition added to my pleasure and my ability. I would encourage any photographer who has not had the two eyed experience to find a medium format camera with WLF and simply experiment with looking down at the world on the ground glass. Advance or retreat from your subject, raise and lower the camera as you move about and discover a whole new photographic experience. I think this is what that new LCD is about.

-- Peter Van Dyken (bluekorn@chartermi.net), April 19, 2001.