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Is a new ND around the corner

Hi John,

I can tell you, if you are used to Contax quality in body design and material, you will be disappointed with the new Olympus E-300.

The viewfinder is not bad, but comes not close to an N1, Rx et alii. It is designed for the massmarket, similar to Canon 300D and Nikon D70. Therefore there is obviously a compromise between price and the rest of what matters so much to Contax users
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I handled the E-300 at pk04, found it to be a piece of plastic junk. The E-1 is brilliant, but the E-300 really is disappointing. The Zeiss Ikon _will_ be digital at some point, according to the hasselblad eh Zeiss people.. the optics are already optimised for digital, they want us to believe.. The R-1D is quite heavy due to the Voigtlaender Bessa body, feels really robust, but I have reservations about the gimmicky handling (yes, shutter cock is a nice thing to have but the analog dials are nothing more than gimmicks. I'd prefer a clear LCD display with detailed info).
 
Dirk, even the most conservative, slow to innovate, tight lipped camera makers like Leica have changed their dealings with the consumers. Leica announced their intentions concerning the upcoming R Digital way in advance. This is just good marketing to keep loyal Leica followers out of the market until they have enough time to develop their digital offering. They subsequently announced their intention to bring forth a M digital also. This is even further off in the future, but good news for Leica M owners.
 
Hi Dirk,
just to quote you
"You have to be aware, that normally Kyocera only disclose news, if the product is available a few weeks later."

This is the problem at the moment!
It takes time to get a good quality product, ok, but users now think that no product pipeline exist!
and vaporware could be better than nothing...

Just my 0.02Eu...
Paolo
 
Hi Marc & Paolo,

I could not have expressed it better. This is exactly the "message" we gave them many times.

But for some decision makers it seems to be difficult to accept this obvious reality both of you were describing above.

Maybe it is a mixture of cultural differences and the ND1 history. But we do not give up to convince them, I can assure you
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One thing is for sure. At the end of the day only sales numbers are important and every decision maker will be measured by those numbers.
 
Thanks for comments everyone; shame about the E-300. It doesn't sound as though it would suit at all. I found the E1 too big and the viewfinder lacking and I believe there were problems with the focusing.
Kyocera will have to come up with something soon with everyone else steaming ahead. Canon currently looks like the most likely port of call for a DSLR. Having said that, I suppose that I am lucky in a way in that I can continue to hang on and stay with C/Y and film and tedious scanning. I love my C/Y equipment and am in a position to do that but if I was in a different sort of business, no doubt I would have to go digital, in which case it would likely be Canon.
I can't believe that Kyocera are relying on people like me hanging on to keep them going. they should be chasing people like Marc and Irakly and DJ and aiming to keep their custom. Perhaps they hope that when they do produce their super product and I'm sure it will come, it will be good enough to entice people back- but changing systems is so expensive that many people will be prevented from doing that. Also once people have chosen a brand and gone through all the expense and hassle and got to know it and they like it, they are reluctant to relinquish their loyalty to it.
It's a pity, as some one else said, that the new Zeiss Ikon is not a Contax. Perhaps it could have met Leica head on.
I think that Kyocera could also seek market share in the "consumer" DSLR arena. Nearly all the other manufacturers have now done so. It wouldn't have to be a Contax but could be a Yashica as it would have been in the past.Yashica is not dead but could perhaps do with resucitating. At one time it was in the forefront of things.
After all, Zeiss Icon has been revived and so have Voigtlander.
Thanks for listening,
John
 
Contax / Yashica had an excellent symbiotic relationship - Contax serviced the discerning professional and inspired the amateur, and Yashica brought in the consumer bacon, allowing them painless progressive upgrades to the Contax level. Kyocera broke that marketing model, and did nothing to replace it. I don't think Contax was all that financially self-supporting without the Yashica mass market, which is what made the marketing model unique. Of course I could easily be mistaken - I speak strictly from conjecture.

OK, Dirk, MAYBE Kyocera has some Contax ND2 "several weeks away" - I really, really hope so! Tell them they have until the 1Ds Mk II comes out before their market share REALLY shrinks
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. I can guarantee you I'm not the only Contax user watching that date, but you know that already. OTOH, I am really in pain about giving up the Zeiss optics.

Is there a photography god we can pray to? Hmmm, Zeiss sounds a lot like Zeus ...

DJ
"It ain't over 'til it's over ..." (Yogi Berra?)
 
As a Canon 1DII user, I have switched to C/Y Zeiss MM lenses below 70mm! I do still treasure the Canon 50mm Macro and the 351.4 is on my lust list. Contax could sell a bundle of MM lenses with an Eos mount. If sigma can do it, so could they! after all they have made lenses for Leica in the past!

They just seem too distant from the market. Landscapers would grab a good Contax DSLR and choose it in preference to the Canon offerings because of the lenses.

I'd like a Contax 21mm Distagon for my 1DII. Want to sell your to finance your 1DII or 1DSII?

Asher >
 
The ND was announcedThe ND was announced a year before it was actually available to the market. If Kyocera has not announce any new development of dSLR today, I would guess there is nothing come out in 2005. I hope I am wrong. But I already give up my hope and slowly looking for alternative. As Marc pointed out, it takes time to master a tool, and build up a system in my case. This Saturday I will shoot a wedding with my new Canon gear for the first time. I will bring the ND as a backup.

I was wondering, if Zeiss only license Kyocera for their AF lenses, and Kyocera is not making any new development in SLR. dSLR or 645, how would Zeiss sell their lenses?
 
Asher,

At some point sensor tech, or film tech if you will, can evolve to the extent that not being able to use that new technology with your lenses becomes more of a liability than using superior optics on older sensor / film tech. For me, the 1Ds Mk II + Canon optics has reached that point over the ND + Zeiss optics.

Does anybody know if ND development was started before or after the Kyocera acquisition of Yashica / Contax? Just curious ...

DJ
 
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