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Author Topic: The Waning Days of Contax?  (Read 3647 times)

Quentin

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The Waning Days of Contax?
« on: April 08, 2003, 05:47:41 pm »

Yes, but Contax is Kyocera, so no real chance of the brand dying, so long as the parent concern wants to keep it going.

And the Contax N1 debacle looks minor compared to Kodak and the 14n.

Such is the rate of change in digital at the moment, If Contax come out with a winning replacement for the N1 digital, they will be heroes again.

the whole point of Contax is that it is the luxury brand.  No point in going too downmarket with it.  I'm pretty sure that the next Contax DSLR will be up there with the best.

Quentin
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ganz196

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The Waning Days of Contax?
« Reply #1 on: April 08, 2003, 06:41:57 pm »

I think Contax, or Kyocera, did more mistakes than just releasing a flop digital camera. The way I see it, their biggest mistake was to disappoint the owners of Zeiss lenses for C/Y mount by releasing a new type of mount which is not compatible with the old lenses. The real strength of Contax has always been the lenses, and now they told us that the lenses we have expensively paid for are going to be "out" soon. Now, if this can be a good technical choice, it is surely not from a marketing point of view. They are also saying that they do not care that much of our investment.
Net result is that the owners of Contax lenses do not have much reason to wait for a Contax Digital. In any case, their expensive lenses will be useless, so why not switch to Canon or Nikon??
Not a wise strategy from Kyocera, IMHO.

Concerning the value of digital investments, I think we are now in a period of transition. Right now the bottleneck is represented by sensors, which have a terribly fast obsolescence rate. But in a not too far future, as the resolution of sensors continues to raise, I suppose Lenses will return to be (or will be more than ever) the decisive factor in photo qualiy. And good lenses are not going to lose value any soon...
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john van rosendaal

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The Waning Days of Contax?
« Reply #2 on: April 09, 2003, 08:11:47 pm »

I'm wondering too where Contax is heading, since I would love to have a Contax DSLR with Carl Zeiss lenses. I used to have the Contax N1 (the film-based one) and loved it for its intuitive setup. For my use, it had a better interface than any other AF SLR I've used and I've used many. That, plus the quality of the lenses, would pull me back to Contax if they came out with a relatively affordable DSLR that would actually work.

About the digital G rumor: I asked Kyocera via email a few monts ago. Their answer was that for marketing and technical reasons, there are no plans to develop a digital G. I found this really disappointing, since I would love to hold on to my two Contax G2s, but now might sell them to jump totally into digital.
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BJL

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The Waning Days of Contax?
« Reply #3 on: April 10, 2003, 11:12:46 am »

Quote
There were even rumors a while back that Contax would make a digital G1/2 camera, compatible with the current lenses. Probably indeed just a rumor.
and john van rosendaal said
"About the digital G rumor: I asked Kyocera via email a few months ago. Their answer was that for marketing and technical reasons, there are no plans to develop a digital G."


I would love to hear from optics experts about this, but meanwile this is what I have heard against a digital camera using Contax G or Leica M lenses:

The alleged problem of digital sensors performing poorly with light striking at a highly oblique angle has been shown to be not much of a problem with the Canon mount, but it has the lens a rather generous 54mm or so from the focal plane, whereas the more compact rangefinder designs have a far shorter lens to focal plane distance, and so light hits the corners of the image area at a far more oblique angle; so in particular, wide angle RF lenses might have real problems with digital sensors of anything close to 35mm frame size. High end RF without wide angle would not be much fun; nor would be buying several new very expensive shorter focal length reduced image circle lenses for a smaller sensor size!

I have heard it claimed that Leica has ruled out a digital M for exactly this reason, and now Kyocera/Contax, usually for more open to innovation, seems to be equally pessimistic, so there might well be something to this.
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Adri

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The Waning Days of Contax?
« Reply #4 on: April 08, 2003, 04:13:19 pm »

The Contax Digital SLR was a flop; it must have hit Contax right in the stomach where it hurts very much. It would have been better if that cameras had never seen the light of day. Now they come out with a Contax TVS digital. Looks nice, well built, titanium body, Zeiss lens, and the Contax name.

Bottom line: do they have a winner? Certainly not. This is another camera that is going to hurt Contax. They had a chance to redeem themselves with the TVS Digital, but they blew it. Can they come back into the game?

It is time for Contax to let go of the Rolls Royce snobbish attitude. Who cares about posh when it comes to digital? Digital cameras go down in value so fast since new and better and lower priced ones come out nearly every day. Digital cameras are NOT collector items, like gold-plated Leicas or Hasselblads.

A manufacturer can no longer rely on just its name. For Contax to break through it has to come out with a killer product: a new concept that will be very competitive and nearly sells itself. Not sure Contax is poised to do that.

The company that is capitalizing on Zeiss lens and digital cameras is not a name brand known in the past for film cameras, but they do a great job at extracting the maximum performance out of the Zeiss lenses: and that company's name is Sony.

Where will Contax go in the face of digital? Their medium format camera has been successful, and this step beyond 35mm was a step in the right direction and was very well executed. They need to pull another trick out of their hat. Old companies may not die easily, but they are surely fading away fast: even Hasselblad was on terribly shaky ground and one wonders what Leica’s or Linhof’s future, for that matter, will hold.
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JJP

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The Waning Days of Contax?
« Reply #5 on: April 08, 2003, 06:30:39 pm »

I've never hand held or seen a Contax N Dig on a store shelf.  Only read a couple reviews in photo mags, one of which was a British publication called Professional Photographer (August 2002 issue).  They concluded (using my own words) that the N Dig when used in a studio setting with plenty of strobes at modest ISO settings, obtained excellent results.  However, they did not recommended the camera for those who did not already own some Contax/Carl Zeiss lenses.  If I could afford the N Dig and if I already had some C.Z. lenses, I would have purchased one.
All things considered, IMO, the N Dig was a success.  It was their first digital camera to go into production & is still the only ff dslr with a CCD sensor.  Not bad considering that Nikon & Canon have both paired with Kodak for their first digital cameras, some years ago.
Just my 2C
Jules
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JJ

adri

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The Waning Days of Contax?
« Reply #6 on: April 09, 2003, 07:26:59 am »

If Pentax can make a DSLR compatible with the old lenses, Contax could have too?!?!?!? Only drawback with the Pentax is that that the sensor is not full 35mm size.

There were even rumors a while back that Contax would make a digital G1/2 camera, compatible with the current lenses. Probably indeed just a rumor.

But all things said, they should have made a kilelr TVS digital, which they didn't.

Look, the new Yashica T4-Zoom is better than the old T4; so they have the ability to make things better in the film camera department. Let them do their homework in the Digital department as well.
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Marshal

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The Waning Days of Contax?
« Reply #7 on: April 10, 2003, 04:27:54 am »

The Contax N Digital has for the most part died a quick and quiet death. How many people actually bought that camera and/or kept it?

As for the 14n, well Kodak made people wait 4-6 months longer than expected, but that's not even half as long as Contax made people wait for the N Digital, which is about $2K more expensive. The 14n, after several, albeit inconvenient firmware upgrades might finally reach it's full potential perhaps several months later.  ???

One big advantage of the 14n over the Contax is that Nikon owners can continue to use their Nikon lenses without having to buy a whole new camera & lens system. If you're a current Nikon shooter, that's a big plus.

But no, I won't be getting the 14n. I don't want to give up 3fps frame rate and 1/500 flash sync of the D1X. Lower noise with the 1X too. Whatever Nikon comes out with next, whenever that will be is what I'm waiting for. A Nikon Europe rep supposedly said recently, that there are no plans for a full-frame sensor, but that's not written in stone. I can afford to wait.
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Dave Gurtcheff

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The Waning Days of Contax?
« Reply #8 on: April 10, 2003, 11:46:14 am »

 I actually went through the thought process, and just sold a ton of Contax N1/Zeiss lenses on eBay because of a lack of a viable DSLR body. I switched to a Canon film body and a 10D, and "L" glass. I thought the N1 controls were more intuitive to someone that grew up with manual cameras with f stops and shutter speeds. I am really pixxxx-off at Contax....I had a fortune invested in the very lovely Zeiss lenses, but I let them go at a loss to switch to Canon. I also own a G2, with 21, 28, 45, and 90 lenses, hoods, filters, flash, system case, etc. For the time being, I plan on keeping this system, as it is a nice "travel" system, and the lenses are jewels. However, if I really get into the Canon system, and feel the need for more "stuff" (stuff is good), I may sell.
Regards, and sorrows to Contax owners.
Dave
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sergio

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The Waning Days of Contax?
« Reply #9 on: April 10, 2003, 04:50:52 pm »

A very similar issue with Nikon owners wanting a pro body.
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