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Contax ND

The above review was conducted well in advance of the current alterations made by Kodak. As stated, it was a pre-production unit.

A recent visit to Kodak's site indicated certain program downloads are yet to be posted for application to the 14n.

Those post processing programs are being designed specifically for the 14n as opposed to ones currently designated for the DCS ProBack which were used in the pre-production test from the above link. I also noticed that the programs designed for the Contax and Mamiya DCS ProBacks aren't the same as the ones designated for the Hasselblad H1 ProBack.

As all Contax N Digital owners know, post processing programs can make all the difference in the world. So, we'll just have to wait and see just how good the new 14n really can be.
 
Marc,

DO you know if they have made / are making any design changes at the sensor / support circuitry level, or are they trying to address the current issues strictly at the software level? Hopefully the first.
 
To anyone:
I have learned this week that B&H Photo, Adorama and Ken Hansen, all in NYC, no longer carry the Contax ND. Does this mean that the company has stopped manufacturing it?

Larry Greenhill
 
Don't have it in stock, or don't sell them at all?

My local pro supplier stopped stocking any Contax gear because the company was so un-responsive, and the gear just sat on their shelves. But they'll order anything I want.

If it was a slow seller for them, then they'll stop stocking any. Could you "special order one"?

Maybe we're going to be part of a very exclusive club. And the camera will be a rarity.
Which is fine as long as Contax offers service support for a long time.
 
Oh, BTW, just took delivery of a Canon 10D to use as back-up to my 1Ds for wedding work.

So, when Irakly returns from Russia, we will do a very comprehensive test together, and post it on Dirks' new test site. Maybe by then the Kodak 14n will be available.

The first shock was that the New Adobe RAW developer doesn't support the 10D ! So, the ND isn't the only orphan. We'll see if Adobe does a upgrade for the Canon 10D.
 
Marc,

Word on DPReview is 10D RAW files can be decoded by Adobe after lightly patching the header. I decoded one file using Dave Coffin's utility, and ran it through my interpolator -- no problem. The independents (Bibble, etc) are already updating their customers. Eager to hear your grand comparison report!
 
I'd like to second Larry's concern, has Contax stopped manufacture of the ND?? Most camera makers announce a new model and slowly phase out the old one. This move is kind of out of no where, anyone have any idea what's up?
I know business is business but if they have just dropped it (3 weeks after I bought it)without any word, they can kiss my F'n A! That would be the final straw and I would not purchase another thing from Contax.
 
Larry, Roger,

Relax, guys! I just checked and found that e.g. Wolf/Ritz still lists the camera in the US. In Germany I found rather positive reviews in 'Profifoto's' and 'Photographie's' latest copies - and both magazines are definitely not known for testing discontinued cameras.

As it seems, there is something like a 'media-relaunch' in Europe or at least Germany and whoever provided the cameras made sure they were not comparared apples to apples or looked at as tools for a particular segment of photography.

I also followed through the reviews of the Kodak 14n on www.luminous-landscape.com, www.steves-digicam.com, and www.dpreview.com and it seems, that Kodak still has some major homework to do.

As I recall it, Dirk had a planned meeting with someone from Kyocera/Contax - are there any news out of this channel?

I also recall, that Irakly (or was it Marc?)wanted to write a review of the Adobe Camera RAW and it's lack of ND support - is this out already? Are there reactions from Adobe and/ or Contax?

Christian
 
Roger,

I was off line for a while (my ISP gave me a hard time) but I know IOU the RAW developer settings as promised some time ago.

The latest quirk I found in our most popular RAW developer is the saveable settings thing: I can save and load ('read') settings but it seems to have no effect. What works fine - if I 'read' it everytime - is the curve setting. The curve itself is no rocket science and works fine for product, architecture, landscape etc. For portraits I use a symmetrical S-curve that is less augmented in the highlights.

So what I do in my RAW workflow is:
- set all camera setting flat (chroma, curve, sharpen) in Firmware 1.07
- Shoot at +/-0 EV, try to stay below ISO160
- In dim/ flat light go for +1/3EV
- Copy the files to your PC (or Mac) on a fast CF reader (a PCMCIA adapter is the fastest)
- In RAW Developer I use the following settings for the bulk of shots:
- sRGB
- white balance at shooting
- Edge and Chroma 0
- Exposure at shooting
- set tone curve (see attachment)
- Noise reduction on
- size 3008x2008, Format 16Bit TIFF
- Preview OFF
Individual candidates may require slight variations for optimal results - as usual.

Then I kick the thing off with 'save all image' and go for lunch, dinner or whatever.
This produces a bunch of quite nice 16Bit TIFFs that have no EXIF data but an embedded sRGB.

Just converting sRGB to AdobeRGB in Photoshop is already reasonable but I go one step further: I have profiled the camera with Profile Prism and assign the custom profile to the image upon opening in PS with immediate conversion to AdobeRGB.

I started out with one generic profile but meanwhile developed profiles for 'bright', 'rainy day', and 'studio'. I likely will do another for 'flash'. Already with the generic profile I have very reasonable results that have reduced my PS adjustments significantly. The additional profiles are for series shot under certain conditions - makes life easier in PS.

For copyright reasons I can't attach any custom profile but if you have a Profile Prism license I can send you my profile via email.

Hope this helps,
Christian
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