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

Daniel, I'm currently working with an N 1 Digital and The Kodak back on a Contax 645.

One is a 6 meg, the other is 16 meg. Not entirely unlike film of different formats, the results differ not just in resolution but also in tonal gradations, where bigger is indeed better. At 8X10 the difference is not as apparent. But like film, when enlarging, tonal gradations play an important role in over-all image quality. Just think film and you'll be able to figure the differences between the two. I have the N Digital for portability, in the same way I did with film cameras.
 
For the owners of the Contax digital. what setting do you use with the camera. Just got one and the results are mixed. every photo (jpeg1) needs some work in photoshop. my pics with the 24-85 at the 85 end is very underexposed and i think there is a huge shutter lag? What is the experience with batteries? does contax sell extra battery carts for quick exchange
 
Mehrdad, I own, or have owned, a Canon D-30, 2 Nikon D1-Xs, 2 Kodak ProBacks, and now the Contax N Digital. All of them need post processing work in Photoshop to achieve maximum results. Photoshop is an infinately more powerful program than ever could be included with a cameras' firmware.

You want the image information coming from the camera to be as complete as possible, then adjust it afterwards to meet your creative objectives. The best camera setting for this is RAW. However, there are drawbacks to processing RAW images after the fact: much slower download times to your computer using the manufacturers supplied conversion program; and in the case of the Contax N Digital, you lose some shooting features like a preview. For this reason I shoot the Contax on
the highest TIFF setting and use a card reader to download. I haven't even loaded the Contax supplied programs yet.

I shot and produced 4 gig worth of images recently, with 80% coming from the 24-85 lens. I noticed no difference in the images at different focal length settings. Your situation at the 85 end may be a feature of more isolated subject matter affecting the meter ( lighter subjects filling the frame will result in an underexposed image unless you compensate).

I found the shutter lag to be about the same as with all my other Pro level Digital cameras.
The Contax N and N Digital are slower to aquire focus than a Nikon or Canon pro camera, which may account for the impression of shutter lag you are experiencing.

A set of fully seasoned rechargables has been lasting me about 1 gig worth of TIFF captures (57 to 58 images). This is fairly close to what I get from a Nikon Battery Pack for my D1-X. By the way, there are better batteries than came with the Contax camera.

As of now there is not an option to purchase seperate battery carriers (so you could have a couple of spares ready to go). So, I ordered 2 extras from my dealer through the Contax Parts Department, which they do not have yet, and can't say when they will.
 
Marc thanks for the reply. I also shot with the D1X, Kodak Pro back (645), had a d30 & d60... so i guess i am following your path. Have u created any photoshop actions at all for the contax? Do you only get about 60 images with the contax d1x? That’s very low. I have had much better luck. Back on the contax digital. So you use any setting other than standard on the camera? any overexposure or any other setting
 
I have had my N Digital for about 6 weeks now and have found the biggest problem to be battery life. I got only 25 images from the first set and then 8 from the second set. I then found out that the charger supplied with the camera was not fully charging the batteries. When replaced with a charger/conditioner, I now get over 40 images from all sets of batteries. I then added a 30 watt battery and cable from digitalbattery.com and have yet to exhaust the battery in a single day. Over 300 images and counting! My images are great with just a hint of underexposure. I compensate and they look great. I agree with some of the other postings that the white balance is critical. I was not really pleased with the battery life, but the digital pack cured that.
 
John, Would you please tell me what cable and battery you bought and also the source (directly from digitalbattery.com) or a dealer? thanks
 
YES JOHN, please elaborate on your battery solution. Is this a seperate hip mounted battery tethered to the camera?

MEHRDAD, the battery live of the D1-X that I quoted is due to my heavy use of the LED screen during shooting. I do a lot of weddings and edit on the fly, or use the screen to check histograms, and zoom in to see if eyes are closed etc. It's actually closer to 80 to 90 full res TIFF files from each battery... so a gig and a half per battery.
 
On Ebay, a firm is selling New N digital camera bodies for $2050.00. They have no Ebay history. They claim they can supply any amount wanted at this price. The firm's name is Kodecks Inc. which is has their main offices in Valencia Spain. Frankly, this seems to good to be true. I personally am not interested in digital photograhy, I am a diehard RTSIII fan who loves the darkroom, printing both B&W and RA4 with a dry to dry processor. I only bring this Ebay item up since others may find it of interest. I am 61 years old and have found that when things are too good to be true they generally are baloney. I hope that those who have an interest in digital photography will find that this is a good deal and not a scam.
 
I just returned from a two-week trip to Russia. THe only camera I took wth me was N Digital with three lenses: 17-35, 24-85 and 70-300. I took about 1GB of images both in ideal and in less-than-ideal conditions. My main lens was 17-35 except in a studio, where I used 70-300. As expected, I achieved the best image quality in a studio, shooting tiffs at ISO 50. I also shot high-resolution JPEGs at ISO 160, and results were mostly excellent (except when 1.5-2 stops underexposed: in these instances noice and banding in shadows was quite noticeable) Shooting at ISO 400 was better than I expected, but the noice, without curing it in Photoshop, does not look pretty.

The most frustrating experience (setting aside battery life) was trying to use Metz 54MZ3 fitted with SCA3802 adapter as a fill flash in TTL mode. It just does not bloody do it! I had to play with compensation settings in Auto mode and use fully manual mode on the camera to get anything similar to how fill flash should look. I have to try TLA 360 to compare, but this thing is so iiotic compared to an elegand and stright forward fill fflash solution in Canon system.

Just tell me, where I can post ex&les of my pictures.
 
Yes, the digitalbattery.com pack is a separate hip or shoulder mounted pack with a coiled cable. The cable needed is the 6 volt cable (their description). This cable has the proper connector for the N Digital and 645.
 
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