andrey_letov1

Guys, just my two cents...

I checked the links - sorry, but pictures are just terrible.

Liked it a lot too! I think that it would be great if you

could mix more street (Havana) shots since you already have

many and many people shots there...

Bruno, what B&W film do you find does the best work for you?

Dave,

I was also thinking whether I should get 21mm or 28mm....Here is more

business / practical perspective. 21mm will run you for around $1,200

and 28mm MM you can buy for $200 on ebay. I never used either of them

but for landscapes/architecture for example you can use 28mm with contax body on the tripod (vertical position) and take several pictures, stitching them and getting much wider then 21mm. Also 21mm is a huge lens and I bet more people would have gotten it if it wasn't so big for its focal length. Also if you are not satisfied with 28mm take a look at Tamron first.

I got their 300mm 2.8f lens and it gives fantastic quality plus adaptall converter for Contax is super solid and supports AP mode. There is also 17mm lens from Tamron and people give it some good reviews.

Guys, what is Aria-D???

If only these dudes had listened to the people they're making

their cameras for, they would be swimming in gold.

-Make new AF mount compatible with old T mount and many people

would buy your new lenses with aspher. lenses inside.

-Gradually make Aria-like cameras more metal, AF and digital + add

mirror lockup and more speed to flash sync. and

you are golden.

They probably thinking that it's too expensive to add mirror lockup

and flash sync up to 250/c - people will pay you additional $100-200

just for that and small size body with a smile!

I got N1 yesterday... Great camera, but heavy like hell, the noise

from the shutter as if you're shooting kalashnikov, and size ... oh..

I'll give it back to the store in a couple of days. They claim that

the weight and size make it more stable and that's true, but gosh,

you can add a battery holder to aria or other small camera if you're

off the cart and your hands are shaking.

I'm in finance and what happens with contax resembles market crash of

1901 or 1987, when while some stocks shot to the sky others were

totally wiped out. What i mean to say is that contax's position b/c

of totally foolish decisions is very indefinite and what happens here

is that not only Canon and Nikon are getting new customers, Contax

is not keeping theirs, loosing them to N/C. It means contax depreciates while canon/nikon appreciate. It's

like two elevators goings in different directions and one is directly

connected to another.

Sorry got into this stupid debate. Even poor leica nowadays has some

kind of path. If you guys have some other 'cool' news about contax - share!

Thank you.

Found this thread and have a question to Contax users...

Excuse me guys, but lately I just feel like Contax is in complete

vacuum. Cameras discontinued, no professional lineup of

digital SLRs using new N and old T mount lenses. If any of you

know what is going on or has some rumors please share.

NB: Even Leica now looks much more confident on the market; and

I'm sure that many of us who use RTS, Aria, ST etc. want to know

if we will have a digital body for our T mount lenses in the

future. To my understanding if you cannot produce pro

quality digital bodies youself, you simply outsource it or

partner with somebody to make it happen; neither can be seen

from Contax...

Mark, I never used Leicas and currently use Contax and thier glass

and really like pictures that I get. Also I went to your portfolio

and simply loved B&W pictures you have there (wedding ones).

I already in love with Leica glass which I never used, but I guess

I'm convinced, but Leica bodies simply suck. I'm totally sure that if not for the glass, you would never have bought leica body. It indeed built super, all metal parts, but the weight and 'features'...I was holding leica with 35mm lens at B&H store here in NYC - this combination is very

compact lens looks like a diamond, but it would tear down your whole shirt if you'd put it

into thy pocket.

My question is that

in your portfolio there are some color fotos and I also saw some

color photos of other members using Leica, and these color fotos

look like they were taken with plastic disposable cameras.

Can't you work with color guys, which in many situations is more tricky

then with B&W. B&W photos with Leicas look lovely, but look at your

color ones... is it maybe the film you're using or maybe Leica glass

is magical for B&W and something happens when you shoot color.

Also, I noticed that with color, especially consumer films if you are

even slightly off with metering the grain becomes slightly more visible...

Again i'm not here to depress anybody or put down Leica or other

systems' users, I'm just trying to understand what happened to

the color photos and Leicas.

Peosonally I'm using Contax Aria body and very often shoot 1/8 and

1/15 seconds and get quite good results, unless people are moving or I'm jumping.

Also, I'm quite practical person...I like my contax body; I don't like

that it doesn't have mirror lockup for example. I totally think that

if contax is not supporting their T old mount lenses and producing

some quality digital/other bodies for them in the nearest future there are simply f-d (sorry for bad words).

I guess I put too many thoughts here, but accept Leica guys and girls

that using super cool Leica lenses almost all of you are using

very cool lens hoods on each of them to illiminate reflections and other majority of people by the way including this naughty guy who is

writing this quite often don't use them.

So again what's the deal with Leica and color photos? somebody please

get angry?!

Hello Andrew,

I owned Nikon F3 for several years and about a year ago I

switched to Contax Aria. I indeed was in the same situation

as you are trying to stick to Nikon because I liked it soo much.

Also I read comments and this discussion of - get cool stuff and

you think you'll be cool - gets slightly old.

If you have good taste and talent it's always with you and it doesn't

matter what you're using. Switch to Aria and you'll be more than happy with it.

Now why I switched to Aria....few reasons....

One of them is that if you're not taking pictures of drug dealers

in Peru and then trying to run from them throwing your camera

into your car standing 15 feet from it then you don't have to go

with Nikon F3. It's definitely the best camera for that kind of

heavy use.

So it means that Nikon F3 is heavy in comparison with Aria.

Aria is also slightly smaller in size.

The lenses you get for Aria are of the top quality Zeiss.

Also I was always annoyed by manual winding of the film in F3.

Sometimes you forget doing it and miss a shot.

Metering is more advanced on Aria, but for me it frankly doesn't matter as I always keep it on spot or centerweighted. Meter never

failed and was super accurate on F3 as well.

You know, I used Nikon f3 and loved it and was pround of using it,

but switched to Aria and never regret it.

In fact I'm using my Aria the same way I was using Nikon F3, but it's

lighter, has auto-winding, uses Zeiss that is not so expensive

to get on Ebay, plus you can use top of the line flashes on it.

Currently I have Contax Aria, Planar 85mm 1.4 and

Vario Sonnar 35-135 and love it.