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

Hello everyone,
I am brand new to your forum. I have shot with contax on and off for many years ( RX, AX with many legendary Zeiss lenses such as the 85/1.2) I currently own a N1 with 24-85, 50/1.4, 70-300, and all my 645 lenses via the Nam-1 adapter.

I'm on the verge of investing in a N-Digital for professional work (primarily weddings) to work in concert with the 645 with a Kodak digital 645C ProBack. I currenty shoot with a D1-X to great success ( I recently dumped all my Canon gear because Nikon was clearly ahead in the digital race). But I would like to avoid 2 different lens systems...thus the Contax D consideration. With it I would only carry the 50/1.4 & 85/1.4 for low light work using the 645 lenses for other needs. (I tested 2 different 17-35s when it first came out and found both lacking and sent them back ).
The images I've seen posted from the Contax Digital look awful, which concerns me a great deal given the price of this puppy. What is the experience in terms of the images from this camera? i can live with the slower AF performance compared to the D1X, but not if the images are inferior.
 
Hi,
The British Journal Of photography is doing a thorough test of the N digital at the moment. The 3rd section is due to appear in this weeks issue.
They seem to like it!!!
Phil.
 
> > Hi, > The British Journal Of photography is doing a thorough test of the N > digital at the moment. The 3rd section is due to appear in this weeks > issue. > They seem to like it!!! > Phil.

Phil

Could you please provide a summary of the findings of the BJP review of the N Digital? I'm sure that many of us from distant shores who have no access to that magazine would be very interested. As far as I know, the BJP is the first and only review available.

Brian
 
Hi,
Web site for BJ is www.bjphoto.co.uk. They haven't put the N test on their site yet. You may have to register to see current articles. BUT it could be worth it as BJ is changing for the better and deserves subscribers. I am not associated with it.
Phil.
 
Hi folks.

I found a user comment about the Contax N-Digital at the site of dpreview.com.

The author is not at all happy with its Contax N-Digital. But I think also bad experiences should be discussed here, so I copied his report below.

Maybe some other Contax N-Digital users can comment with their experience. It is always risky just to have only one comment on bad behaviour of a camera.

Images you will find here: http://users.ids.net/~chrisat/s&les.html

"Agreed - all digital cameras are an exercise in complex engineering. And each has it's own set of problems. But some have more problems than others, and this is why Contax has been silent.

I owned the N Digital for 5 days. During that time I shot over 400 images. Then I returned it to the shop and got my money back.

I found:

- Batteries lasted roughly 40 shots before requiring a recharge.
- Consistent noise problem in tones below mid level, regardless of exposure.

- The camera mangled my images when I switched from jpeg to RAW and to TIFF. (It crashed and all subsequent shots were equally mangled. Clearing camera and reformatting recovered CF. The images were mostly black with a single ~100 pixel high strip of off-color image at the top.)

- With consecutive shots, the color dropped off considerably. Flesh tones started looking pale green and overall exposure dropped off by a stop.

- Noise levels above ISO 160 were totally unacceptable.

- Set exposure compensation to the green mark (command dial). Dial in compensation - shows positive on the top LCD and negative in the viewfinder or vice versa.

- Noise was horrible when tonal curve was softened even at ISO 100.

- Developer software was crude/simple and didn't work properly. Developed images were visibly dithered. (As in poor conversion from 16 bit images to 8 bit images)

- I hand metered with a Sekonic Flashmaster, set manual mode, speed and aperture. Although the internal meter matched, the images were roughly 2 stops under-exposed.

At first the dealer didn't believe me that the camera was that bad. When I sat down and showed them all the problems, they couldn't believe Contax would release a camera with that many problems, but the Contax reps have been quiet with my dealer as well!

Last Friday the dealer received another N Digital. Apparently they are going to run this second one through their own internal tests to see what happens, but there is no doubt the first N digital was unusable from a professional standpoint.

I'm still surprised that more than a month later, I'm one of the few people in the world with enough guts to post images from the camera.

So Contax's silence is understandable - after several years in development and numerous delays they find they still don't have something that's even worth selling in my eyes.

Enough for now - I'm going back to work using my Nikon D1x, and maybe one day, I'll add the Kodak 645C to my Contax 645 system.

Chris "
 
Chris, Thanks for the heads up on this. I now will wait and let Contax work out the bugs if they are a consistant thing camera to camera.
I also tried the Canon 1D and returned the camera due to a total faliure of the rear selection wheel. Which was fortunate for me, as I found the camera to be a navigational nightmare to operate compared to the Nikon D1X, with less impressive image quality. As for the Contax 645 and the Kodak back...? Fantastic! Everything a digital should be and then some. The camera has it all when you slap that back on it. Here's a s&le but it's a web image so you'll have to take my word that the back is fab with the Contax 645 and lenses.
board-post.cgi
 
I hav had the N Digital to test for a week. Using the 17-35 mm/2.8 and 24-85 mm 3.5-4.5, I have found a few differences. While the 17-35 performs admirably on the N Digital, the 24-85 shows severe problems in the corners at 24 mm and large apertures. I can shoot C with this camera, though a problem with exposure compensation persists. I would have to use more time investigating the pictures before I can conclude or post pictures, but so far it seems to be an awesome pice of quality (at a cost) needing software finishing and refinemint to show its best.
 
I have had the N Digital to test for a week. Using the 17-35 mm/2.8 and 24-85 mm 3.5-4.5, I have found a few differences. While the 17-35 performs admirably on the N Digital, the 24-85 shows severe problems in the corners at 24 mm and large apertures. I can shoot C with this camera, though a problem with exposure compensation persists. I would have to use more time investigating the pictures before I can conclude or post pictures, but so far it seems to be an awesome pice of quality (at a cost) needing software finishing and refinemint to show its best.
 
Well, after my posting that I'd wait and see about the N Digital, I ignored my own council.
Today I picked up one AND the 85/1.4 !!!!!!!!
Now I do have to get use to it after using a D1x for a year. But I walked out into my yard and popped off a few shots in Tiff then directly down loaded them to my desk top via a card reader, opened them in Photoshop, made some adjustments and printed them on a P400 dye sub at 7X10. There is nothing wrong that I can see yet. the prints were amazingly crisp and with a little boost from Saturation in PS were very snappy in color. I have to go off to a shoot in AM so I won't be able to tell more as I learn more. Until then...
 
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