Review Contax Aria

[Guest]

The focussing past infinity thing is probably a feature. It certainly is with my VS 100-300.

Zeiss said they did it, because under very low temperatures (less then -10 Deg Celcius) the Focussing point on the lens moves. They took account by simply allowing to focus beyond infinity.

If you live in Russia, Norway or Alaska you are probably very happy that Zeiss was so clever )

Mike

 

[Guest]

But if you bang the focus all the way over for a quick shot, you'll be very unhappy, especially at smaller apetures and longer focal lengths. Bah. It was very tough adapting. Image quality is very nice once you've got the focus squared away, tho...


~ Matt Gabriel

 

[Guest]

Regarding comments about focussing beyond infinity,
I notice my 35-70 /f3.4 does the same thing, noticeable mainly at the long end. I wonder if anybody else has this lense with the same quirk?
My zoom is used on the RX.
William

 

[Guest]

1. AEL
2. Dark Viewfinders
3. Infinity and beyond


Thanks Craig - I was fooling around with my words, a bit like the AEL lock, so please excuse my churlishness. I wasn't joking about being laid over with pneumonia - it's not pleasant. I could have wrapped up warmer, but why bother when I can have pneumonia instead!


AEL is amazing.....I think I've discovered its application. I tried some of the suggestions, and I was amazed at how fast it speeds up shooting time. Okay, okay...I didn't discover...I was told how to use it, and in which contexts. A bolt out of the blue, just like a streptococcus.

Dark f2.8 and f4.0s on the Aria. I'd asked about this, since the 300mm f4.0 really gets dark. I've tried using a -2 dioptre correction on the standard split-screen focus screen. For some reason, this doesn't work significantly for me. The -2 makes the split-image collar more differentiated, however a clever optician might say that's because my optical prescription is out-of-date.

Alternatively, the FU-4 has made its impression on me (the gridded matt screen). This is my favourite screen for several reasons: the peripheral field looks 'cleaner' without the groundglass effect - hazy grey field to me and you. Also, being a Copernician as opposed to a Aristotelian, I sometimes like to focus using the peripheral field of the screen (which is difficult with a standard split collar microspot) rather than being limited by the centre-spot. The matt-gridded screen looks brighter to me and maybe I am inclined to feel less subjective on this point; others who have looked through the screen also find it looks brighter and 'cleaner'.

On one occasion I've used the RTSIII with the same 300mm F4.0 lens for a brief period and the 100% screen, larger pentaprism feels better. Now with a Beattie Intenscreen of the same matt-gridded variety, this could be marvellous, however, then the 3mm spot-meter gets lost.

--------------------------------------------------
On a separate note about infinity: I can focus on 10 metres. When I try to focus on infinity, I feel in awe of it. Focussing beyond infinity is transcendental. That leaves me in utter awe at Carl Zeiss!

 

[Guest]

I too will be getting that FU-4 screen. I got its equivalent for my RTS, thinking I would just use it for wide angle and copy work, and have never taken it out.

--Rick

 

[Guest]

My experience with the Aria has been that the meter (in any mode) tends to underexpose (i.e. suggest a smaller aperture than is actually appropriate) by around a 1/2 to 1 stop. As a result I generally have to use the exposure comp dial or rate my film as slower than I otherwise would.

I'm beginning to wonder if I need to have the meter recalibrated, and I'd be curious to hear of other people's experiences with Aria metering, in spot, center-weighted or matrix modes.

Regards,

Kirk

 

[Guest]

Hi Kirk, my Aria under-exposes by 1/2 stop in all metering modes on the 28mm/2.8 lense, but remains pretty close to being correct with the 50/1.4. I used a Gossen digital meter to check calibration. William

 

[Guest]

Ironically, my Aria tends to over-expose 1/2 to 1 stop, compared to my RX which seems to be right most of the time (All compared to a Gossen hand-held meter). In the end, right exposure also depends on the film you are using (I mainly shoot Kodachrome slides, which are very sensitive to wrong exposure) and perhaps you should test your favourite material and dial in the appropriate exposure compensation to what you feel as looking "right".

 

[Guest]

Mr. Schurr, both of my Aria bodies over-expose slide film by a small amount. I get correct exposure by rating ISO 100 slide film at ISO 125; ISO 64 at ISO 80, etc. I was told by a Contax technician that the segmented meter mode was designed to prevent underexposure on color print film in backlit situations; I imagine the other modes, center-weighted averaging and spot, are similarly weighted, because the over-exposure on slide film occurs when I use them if I don't change the ISO setting (I never use the segmented meter mode any more except with color print film).

 

[Guest]

>...was designed to prevent underexposure on color print film...<
That's what I thought, too. In the end, it's not a real problem to me since the camera seems to always behave in the same way. So dialing in an exposure-correction or rating the ISO Number higher, as you suggested, seems to be a good remedy, and for many users the original setting of the camera might be completely satisfying.