DPR Forum

Welcome to the Friendly Aisles!
DPRF is a photography forum with people from all over the world freely sharing their knowledge and love of photography. Everybody is welcome, from beginners to the experienced professional. Whether it is Medium Format, fullframe, APS-C, MFT or smaller formats. Digital or film. DPRF is a forum for everybody and for every format.
Enjoy this modern, easy to use software. Look also at our Reviews & Gallery!

Review Contax T3

Thanks to everyone for this informative and helpful forum. After an internal tug of war with myself I finally decided to take a chance on a T3. It replaces my Hexar Silver which I found bulkier than what I wanted as travel/pocket/purse camera. I have read the posts relating to the autofocus problem and have put mine to the test at home,followed by 10 rolls in Maine which sold me on it. Yes, the focus area does have a bias to the right side of the brackets if I use the regular method of auto focus (depressing shutter halfway). I tried the AFL system and that works very accurately for subjects at all distances. The bias to the right when using the normal focus method makes me think, as someone else mentioned, that is has something to do with the parallax lines---possibly another instance of dumb proofing it against forgetting to mentally recompose a little for closeup. I think Contax underestimated the typical buyer if this camera. I wish the AFL button was just a little bigger.

Now I know what Dirk meant in his review when he said the lens protector is "unconvincing" . Because of my worry that I will mush it with my fingers and scratch the lens I have decided to get the filter adaptor and a filter and cap for the extra protection.
I would like to know if anyone has used ND filters or color filters for b&w on their T3s, and if so, which ones. Because you can't set the film speed manually, and the exposure compensation goes only to 2 stops, this limits the filter use to 4x. Of course I keep forgetting that this is a point and shoot!! All in all I'm very happy with the T3.
 
Jan -- how do the T3 and the Hexar Silver compare in terms of image = quality, saturation, contrast, sharpness etc.? =20

Regards,

Kirk
 
Jan,

can you tell me if there is a possibility to do not only mid-roll = rewind but also reLOAD of partial exposed film? Can you manually set = aperture AND exposure?
 
Guys,
I have seen a lot of discussion about the filter adapter for the T3. I feel oddly naked when I don't have a protective filter on my lenses. Has anyone actually used this contraption and does it remain in place when the camera is switched off? I see that it bayonets to the front, but how sturfy is this? I would love to use this adapter if it works well. Finally, on an unrelated topic, I have not yet used Velvia in my T3 since I can't do the ISO 40 setting manually. Since we're talking an 20% ISO change or a fraction of a stop, it shouldn't make a huge difference. Anyone tried it at ISO 50 and, if so, what were the results? I've been using Kodak 100 VS instead (great film if you like color!). By the way, I recently retired from the Navy and am trying to decide between job offers at present. That's why I've been so annoyingly omnipresent lately. I'll go away soon
happy.gif


Regards,
Chuck
 
Filter adapter works great -- I keep it and a UV filter on at all times, = and it doesn't interfere with the closing mechanism at all. I can (just = barely) squeeze the T3 plus filter and adapter into the supplied case, = although it's a bit tight. DeltaInternational.com has decent prices for = the 30.5mm filter stuff, the adapter shows up on eBay all the time, and I = think Heliopan has a range of 30.5mm colored filters. Re rating Velvia at = 40 -- I don't think that's necessary, but if you want to do it, you can = get the same effect by using the exposure compensation feature.
 
I've been experimenting with the flash feature of the T3. I think the "fill in flash" mode should just be called "flash mode" because I believe that it fires the flash to provide all of the illumination for the subject. I'm quite happy with the exposure of the flash system, and it gets it exactly right in all the situations on my test roll.

The effect that I would like to achieve, however, is real "fill in flash" where the exposure is the normal one, and the flash provides a -1 stop fill in. Does anyone know how to achieve this with only the built in flash?
 
Kirk,

The Hexar Silver (35mm/2.0) compares well to the T3 in sharpness, contrast, and saturation. It's a neat camera, but not a compact p&s. I used it as one, but found it was too big to go in a pocket or belt case, and if I'm going to tote a camera bag, might as well put my SLR in it. A problem with the Hexar is its fastest shutter speed is 1/250, but it does have many useful features, including moving (motorized) parallax lines that serve to confirm focus. For more information,see the excellent review at photo.net/equipment/35mm/
 
Till,

I don't know how to shoot a roll of partially exposed film in the T3 without re-exposing the exposed frames. Maybe someone knows a tricky way to get around this. I take my partially exposed rolls from the T3 and finish them on my SLR.

Jan
 
Bruce Fichelson said, "I spoke to Kyocera USA and they can adjust the autofocus point if your camera appears to have a problem... If your camera is still under warranty, it will be covered. Just go to the Kyocera North America website and then go to the Contax division, dealers & support. "
------------------------------------------------------------------------I'm glad to hear that, Bruce. Good work.
I emailed Contax about the issue from that site, and got a reply that my message would be forwarded to Japan, then a response came from Germany asking me what country I was in... I think it might be helpful if you could list the phone # and contact person you spoke with, for those who need the AF adjusted.

Did they mention turnaround time?
Thanks.
 
Hey, anyone know where to order for best price on a T3 (black preferred) from a legit Contax dealer in the US?
 
Back
Top