Contax T2

<p>This forum has gotten little or no use. It was created to show the wonders of modern film cameras. There are plethora of cameras that could be exhibited, but sadly few have been posted. Today, I will post a modern classic the Contax T2. This camera is a little gem, if for nothing more than the lens.</p>

<p>The Contax T2 was Kyocera`s entry into the 1990s point and shoot camera wars. Kyocera`s competition included Minolta`s TC1, Ricoh`s GRV series, Fuji`s Tiara and Klasse, Konica`s Hexar AF and Nikon`s Ti series. All these cameras came in different shapes and sizes. The lenses varied in focal length and f-stops. In my opinion Nikon`s Ti series was and still is the most elegant design, closely followed by the Minolta TC1. The Nikon 28 Ti is especially attractive because it is black. All the cameras have their cult followers. Just check flickr to see the groups and sub-groups dedicated these little wonders. The ones I really want to try are the Minolta TC1 and Nikon 28 Ti. The only problem is money. Even today this cameras demand high prices on the used market in Japan. The average price is 40,000 yen or 500 USD. Yes, you read that correctly 500 USD. I have had Konica Hexar, Ricoh GRV1 and GVRs and Fuji Klasse and Tiara. All produced amazing photos. I am slowly wading through the P&S camera. I hope I am saving the best for last in trying the Minolta TC1 and Nikon 28 Ti.</p>

<p>So back to the Contax T2. This little gem is heavy for its size. The body is titanium, but do not let the light weight material fool you into believing it is light weight because it is not. The camera has smooth elegant lines. My camera is champagne color, but is also came in grey/black, black and gold. The pure black body demand hefty prices on the used market due to its is rarity. The lens is a retractable 38mm f2.8 Sonnar with 5 elements in 4 groups. The aperture ring control is mounted around the lens. When aperture is set to f2.8 the camera is fully auto-exposure. Shutter speeds range from 8 seconds to 1/500. Though only 1/30 to 1/500 are displayed in the viewfinder. You can adjust the shutter speed using the EV control to -2/+2. The camera is DX reading only, so the EV control is an important feature. Also, included on the aperture ring are two flash settings; built-in flash and red-eye flash.</p>

<p>Enough technical details. Here are the photos.</p>

<p>Mike</p><div></div>

<p>Photo 1</p><div></div>

<p>Photo 2</p><div></div>

<p>Photo 3</p><div></div>

photo 4<div></div>

<p>Photo 5</p><div></div>

<p>Photo 6</p><div></div>

<p>Photo 7</p><div></div>

<p>Photo 8</p><div></div>

Photo 9<div></div>

<p>Last One</p><div></div>

<p>The pictures are at your usual high standard. I love your eye for color, as always.</p>

<p>Both this and the Classic Manual forum have been a little down lately, but I notice that November is the month in which I (and I suspect many others) shoot the least number of pictures.</p>

<p>I'm going to make an effort to document the "Black Friday" sales on Friday, after our Thanksgiving is over (all the stores have sales to start off the Xmas season).</p>

<p>That's just a threat though, not a promise. ;)</p>

<p>Hey Mike, if I had a T2 I'd show it off here too! Su-weet little gem of a camera and your pics are just as sweet. </p>

<p>I had one and used it a lot, because it really is a pleasure to use. The finder is much better than the Leica equiv., it's quiet and lies just perfect in my hands. Only drawback is the heavy vignetting the lens suffers from. You can see it in your photos as well. Otherwise the lens is very sharp and contrasty, even wide open.</p>

<p>Cool, <strong>Mike</strong>. Great little camera, and some very fine images. I'd love to post more on this forum but, as usual, there just aren't enough hours in the day...Thanks for helping to keep things afloat!</p>

<p>I had one for quite a while. Great lens, wonderful image quality, but...horrible shutter lag. Actually, it was focus lag as I recall. When you pressed the shutter button, you had to wait for the lens to auto focus before the shot was taken.</p>

<p>One of the things that Michael did not mention was the focusing, you can manually focus it. The Dial on the left is the On/Off and focus dial. The picture shows the dial set to AF (auto focus) in green. The first click after auto focus is the focus is locked at ∞ (infinity), the next click is 5 meters were it will scroll all the way down to .7 meters. There is also focus confirmation in the view finder. I picked one of these up in a thrift store a few weeks back for $4. I should also mention that I found mine with the optional data back on it. It has been fun to shoot. Unfortunately my first roll was miss rolled, fault on my part. Since the T2 is DX only, I loaded what I thought was LegacyPro 100 into a Fuji Super HQ 100 ASA cassette. When I went to load it with another roll of LegacyPro 100, I noticed that the color was a tad bit different. When loading the cassette I had forgotten that the previous roll that I had wound up was the LegacyPro 400 for a friend and I had not put the loader away. The loader with the 100 had a paper or something on the top of it so I did not see it. Oops. I did contact Larry Dressler for help and it came out better than I had hoped for.<br>

The camera, very nice with nice features and a great lens. Controls for when you want them and automation for when you don't.<br>

Awesome pictures by the way Michael.</p>

<p>Mike,<br>

I've been playing around w/film again after the last 7 years or so with my 20D. I purchased a T2 locally pretty cheap and have been having some fun with it.<br>

OK, rookie question, but how do you scan your pictures? Do you do it yourself and on what? I'm just not too excited about buying a scanner. It seems the decent ones are not cheap.<br>

Thanks,<br>

John</p>

 

<p>Mike,<br>

I've been playing around w/film again after the last 7 years or so with my 20D. I purchased a T2 locally pretty cheap and have been having some fun with it.<br>

OK, rookie question, but how do you scan your pictures? Do you do it yourself and on what? I'm just not too excited about buying a scanner. It seems the decent ones are not cheap.<br>

Thanks,<br>

John</p>

 

<p>Mike,<br>

I've been playing around w/film again after the last 7 years or so with my 20D. I purchased a T2 locally pretty cheap and have been having some fun with it.<br>

OK, rookie question, but how do you scan your pictures? Do you do it yourself and on what? I'm just not too excited about buying a scanner. It seems the decent ones are not cheap.<br>

Thanks,<br>

John</p>

 

<p>Hi,</p>

<p>I scan my own film on an Epson printer. You can find new small compact film scanner for 100 USD or so. Check Amazon. You will have to do a search to get the name and reviews. Good luck.</p>

<p>Mike</p>

<p>Sorry about asking the same question 3 times. <br>

Which Epson? I tried a V500, but was not happy with the results so I returned it. Are you scanning negatives, slides or prints?<br>

Thanks for any advice. I'm really happy with the slides I'm taking and the colors in particular, but they just didn't seem to scan well. I figured maybe I needed to spend more money on a scanner.</p>

<p>I'm asking because I'm really impressed with your results.</p>

Budapest

Contax T2

CONTAX T2 BATTERY

 

PANASONIC 123A 3V LITHIUM BATTERY