Contax N-Digital - the ultimate Contax Fan-Test....

[Guest]

Micheal, It is not my intention to trash the camera
as much as to say that the follow up is quite poor.
You state that anyone who doesn't feel this is a great camera simply hasn't used it. To date, I've shot TV production stills by the hundreds, 4 weddings, a couple of events, a slew of portraits and some commercial jobs. I'm not a week -end casual shooter. It seems to me that perhaps you've not used another digital camera under pressure. You can change batteries in the D1-X in a matter of seconds, but to say that about the ND isn't realistic. 50 to 80 shots on a set of batteries? Is that with the LED review operating? I get 100 to 150 with D1-X with the LED in constant use. The new Kodak does 200+ @ 14 meg.. Yes, I like the camera, but it needs some simple help from the silent Contax people.
Like a better RAW processor and a solution to the battery problem, even if it's nothing more than offering spare battery carriages and a better charger.
And every image download I've seen mirrors my experience that even with the croma set on + the results are a bit dingy, which is a firmware issue.
Maybe you don't mind casually dropping upwards of 7 grand on a camera, but I do mind considering how difficult it is to make $7,000. profit these days.

 

[Guest]

> > > > I agreed. After switch to a different charger for the rechargeable cells I > continue to have 200-300 shots from one set of 4X1,700mAh AA cells, however, I > use almost MF exclusively but I keep the LCD on for preview, I think the > result from the picture is of no question that even with more cameras coming > out with higher specification that ND will still survive for quite some time. > > Regards, Kaisern > >

 

[Guest]

> Marc,

I'm not sure what the extra battery carriages costs, but will find out. The D1X is not in the class of the ND. My Canon G1 will get a couple of hundred shots off the battery pack, but it does not have the functionality of the ND. The Raw mode could be an issue for you ... but the way I shoot is not much of a problem. I know computers, and suddenly trying to review an 12 to 18 meg file would certainly present technical problems.

No, I have not been shooting my shots under pressure like you have, but it is hard for me to imagine that changing batteries would take more than a few seconds. Even a traditional film approach requires changing film every 36 exposures!

Yes, you can argue that the shots are "a bit dingy", but here again, just like in regular film processing, I have no problem with making some minor adjustments to the digital file before printing ... often "popping" the contrast a bit.

I would like to hear from some other actual users of their experiences. Thanks for letting me hear yours.

michael.

>

 

[Guest]

michael, where do you live? us?? i am also interested in getting extra battery carts for this sucker. in general this camera is alot slower in both processing and handling than a D1x but the pics speaks for themselves

 

[Guest]

>

> mehrad,

I'm north of Dallas, Texas. Will let the group now when I price accessories for the ND!

michael.

>

 

[Guest]

Michael, if you or anyone can find a source where I can secure 2 extra battery carriages, I will be eternally in their debt. Little stuff like this makes a big difference. Put yourself in my place and imagine this scenario... you're shooting a wedding, the bride interrupts an outdoor group session being shot with a C645 to say goodby to her "real" dad who is leaving early. You grab the ND with 85/1.4 to catch the emotional moment, it takes 5 seconds to warm up (okay, still enough time, barely). Going to focus, you discover the ND is suddenly dead. You start changing individual batteries just as a gust of wind catches her veil as she leans in to kiss his beaming face. If you had a 2nd charged carrage you might have got the shot instead of just standing there with a fist full of AA batteries. If you were shooting with a D1-X you would've got the shot. As it was, I did get this shot because I was using a Contax N-1 fitted with a 140/2.8 645 lens, (see attachment).

You are right, this camera is not in the same class as a D1-X or EOS 1D... it is considerably slower at almost every stage of shooting and processing. The image quality IS good. I'm not debating that. It's getting the image that needs help. Just a couple of darn battery carriges is all I ask to start with.

 

[Guest]

> Okay Marc,

Not to split hairs, but this debate is interesting. You say about the ND that "it is considerably slower at almost every stage of shooting and processing", yet for the shots I have been grabbing, I don't see the lag. Shooting in high JPG mode, I find no shutter delay. I spend more time waiting on my TLA 360 flash then the camera. I am not shooting bang bang bang bang, but click, see a shot, click, see a shot, click!

And that shot your referring to, if you had missed it, would have been due to poor planning. But like the expert you are, you had a back up camera at the wedding. The wedding should be started with a fresh set of batteries, and then after shooting about 50 shots, switch batteries at an opportune time. That is the beauty of the ND. If you are unable to "grab that shot", due to a dead battery, your N1, with the exact same feel, can be used as a backup!

While I have never shot with the D1X, I have handled one. And, as with most Nikons (and Canons), I think they have two major drawbacks:

1 - Handling (I don't find the controls easy to use!) 2 - The Glass. (In my opinion, CZ glass beats Nikkor or Canon glass) ... and unfortunately, we pay the price! Frankly, the first time I ever saw my prints that were produced with my first Contax (a G2), I was amazed at the quality!

I will find a source for the extra battery carriages and let you know!

Take care,

michael.



>

 

[Guest]

As I stated, there is no debate as to Contaxs' reputation for image quality. I've shot Contax for most of my career. (see a few recent shots on the gallery under people/street).
But I'm not totally convinced of the image quality
on this camera quite yet. The need to lift every image in PhotoShop so much concerns me because the more you have to screw around with digital images the more the danger of artifacts and degraded image. Also weak the blacks from this camera concern me a lot.

I say all this because I believe we must be objective as to the strengths and weaknesses of each system we use for our work. I do not want to mis-lead another professional or advanced amateur just to justify my purchase. This camera takes 4-5 seconds to boot-up, where the competition is measured in nano-seconds. The focus speed and low light focusing cannot be compared in any way with the Canon or Nikon. It takes a long time to delete a shot on this camera, where it is almost instantaneous (even with safe guards) on the other Pro Digitals. The exposure latitude of this camera is almost non-existant where it is huge on the D1-X and almost as great on the EOS 1D, and absolutely fabulous on the Kodak DCS Probacks. All of which I have uused extensively.

But I'm willing to put up with the short comings
if I can get the shot and it looks great. Which I am desperately trying to arrive at with this camera.

 

[Guest]

I can understand Mac's concern about missing a critical shoot due the the ND short battery life and slow warm up time. No matter how great the lens is, if you miss the shot, no picture is worse than getting the picture with the Nikkor and Cannon body and lens.

One of the reason that I bought my N1 system two years ago is because of the ND. As much as I love my N system, I am playing a wait and see game to see how the digital gears progress, especially I have seen how impressive the future EOS 1Ds spec in the Cannon web site.

My only main complain about the N1 is lack of polariod back. Any news regarding polariod back for the N1?

Al.

 

[Guest]

I played with my ND for long enough now not to be embarassed to share my experience with everybody.
First and foremost. After getting RAW Developer software and shooting 247 RAW images, I can unreservably say that this software, even though rough and pitifully designed, is an indispensable part of the system. There are two things that one cannot achieve shooting JPEG - black point compensation, which significantly reduces visual noise resulted from long and bulb exposures and an ability to assign Adobe RGB colour space to images before they are converted into TIFF format. If someone is interested why bother, I will gladly explain. One more useful (to my opinion) feature of shooting RAW is inability to preview the shots on a camera LCD. I ean, if you now what you are doing, you don't really need it,but if you are in doubt, just shoot a JPEG or TIFF test shot, much like a polaroid. Inability to preview each and every file leaves you without a temptation to look at the LCD after each shot, which ultimately saves you agreat deal of time and, more importantly, conserves power.
Secondly, all TTL flash problems that I have experienced myself and read about on this board are largely resulted from not reading the manual carefully enough. It clearly says in the TTL Flash Photography chapter that, in order to prevent overexposure on short distances, the camera ignores Av and Tv modes and sets aperture according to an included diagramm. You can, however, overide this by changing a custom function 19. It will enable use of TTL flash only in P mode leaving Av and Tv modes for autoflash. It the TTL mode you can fine tune ambient/flash balance by compensating either flash or camera exposure values, or both. I use Metz 54MZ with 3802 adaptor, which gives the same functionality as TLA360, and have enough pictures to prove that on distances over 1.5 meters TTL flash works just fine.