For what it's worth, here are my thoughts regarding the so-called N Digital disaster or fiasco, depending on whom you listem to. I have owned the camera since July, buying it on the assumption that Carl Zeiss would never put their name on an inferior product. This, in spite of negative postings on internet forums, and a nearly complete brush-off by equipment reviewers. It certainly didn't help that it took almost two years for Contax to even get out of the starting blocks. One Dutch website has even profiled its potential users as "novice"--give me a break! Is it pertinent that Contax does little advertising? The preface to the instruction manual for the N Digital states that Contax builds "cameras for the creation of works of art". I don't think that a working professional, whose specialties include sports, weddings, fashion or documentary, would ever be happy with this camera. It wasn't designed for them--it's not a people camera. However, speaking for those of us who put art above commerce, I don't have a problem with it. To quote Dirty Harry, it works for me. I treat it more like a fine instrument rather than a tool. I don't need a lot of bells and whistles (I turn off most of them including autofocus). My preferred subjects are places and things, esecially close-up. The great outdoors is my studio, and a tripod is used more often than not. I consider photography to be a printmaking medium, in the same class as silkscreens, lithographs and woodblocks. In both film and digital, lens quality comes first for me--I've owned a Hasselblad since the 1960's, which is why I lean toward Oberkochen. Full frame 12 and 14 megapixel SLR's have just been announced at Photokina, but a 16 megapixel digital back for the 645 is already available from Kodak (next on my shopping list). It would appear that the N Digital has already become a stepping stone to my dream system. Nirvana for me will be an untethered full frame medium format back at 22 megapixels (Sinar?) which fits the 645 (reasonably priced, of couse). When the dust settles from this game of high resolution leapfrog, I'll still put my money on Contax. If there is a disaster or fiasco (or conspiracy) pertaing to the N Digital, it has to be Kyocera's invisible marketing department. Perhaps they lack the nerve or stomach to get in the ring with the Nikon/Canon tag team. I'd like to believe they will take on the role of refiner to that of innovator. To sum up after all this rambling, I'll say that the N Digital is not as bad as some people think, but it still needs a firmware upgrade (or even a recall) to keep up with the competition. Shoehorning a full frame CCD sensor into a 35mm SLR body may exceed the design parameters. Note that Canon and Kodak (and presumably Nikon) will be using CMOS sensors.
