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Contax ND

I just returned from a test trip to NYC and downloaded my RAWs... and I'm not quite sure what's wrong: All shots are greyish and flat and I have a lot of noise in the shadows (regardless of noise reduction on or off in the developer).

After playing a little with the developer settings (exposure compensation, tone curve) color and contrast got better but the noise is still there.

Too stupid of me, that I didn't take reference shots in JPEG1 and TIFF - thought of it but decided not to since the lighting constantly changed...

I also noticed, that the edge emphasis is pretty much overdone... maybe the 1.08 firmware is not a lucky choice.

I'll have to meditate over this and try to set up a controlled test of modes and firmware (hope I can "downgrade") - as if I had nothing else to do...
 
Nx Digital. Likely ?

Hi,
Honestly, I cannot afford the N-Digital.
Been holding back my purchase on a prosumer digital camera. I bought into N1 & zooms, looking forward for a digital body, but... high prices, launch delays, bugs etc found in the N digital are disappointing.

So, any hope of a Nx digital 'soon' ? If so, at what price range? How many megapixels? Full size CCD? What features are you willing to sacrifice for a scaled down N digital?

Contax rep in Singapore says it will drop prices of N Digital. I doubt it can match Nikon's D100 ~ Canon's D60 prices. Emails to Contax regarding their future digital line were not replied.

Like to hear your comments.
 
Simon, I am pretty much at the same boat regarding trying to get my hand for a ND 12 month ago.

I am sure a lot of people will disagree with me… But I do not think you can compare the ND with the D60 or D100. They are 6 Meg but not full frame. And their bodies are based on a lesser model. For ex&le, the D100 is more like a N80, not F100. Besides, For the ND, being able to share Carl Zeiss lenses with the N1 and C645 is almost like “priceless”.

I have just checked B&H today and they are selling the U.S. model ND for $4999 (plus 10% factory rebate I believe). That is a pretty good price for what it is. If I had know three month ago, I might not have bought the C645. Since I have been building up my 645 system, I am totally enjoying it and the N1. Now I just wait for a even cheaper or better ND down the road.
 
Albert, hold onto your 645 and keep on loving it. For the price of an ND you are half way to a digital back for the 645. I'd hazard a guess that a reconditioned Kodak 645C ProBack will drop to below the original ND price of $7,000. with-in a year or two. 16 meg is a big and beautiful difference, one you will never need to replace for a long, long time. And it is totally portable. The Zeiss 645 lenses litterly sing with that back.
 
Marc wrote "hold onto your 645... reconditioned Kodak 645C ProBack will drop to below the original ND price of $7,000…”

Marc, thanks for you insight. I did check out the 645 ProBack from the Kodak web site last year. It sure is a very impressive gear.

What is your experience with Kodak reconditioned product, i.e. quality, reliability, service, condition, etc.?
 
Albert, it appears that when Kodak finishes a production cycle, the remaining backs become "reconditioned" units so the huge price reduction doesn't anger the initial buyers. The ProBack Plus units that fit Hasselblad 555ELDs were recently selling from Kodak on e-bay for $7.500. The first year production models sold for $20,000. new.! I bought mine for $15,000 just after that during the first price reduction. They then brought out the 645 units for Contax, Mamiya and now the Hasselblad H1. The same sensor in a totally portable back for $12,000. The next wave will be 22meg 645 units with full or near full frame sensors...and the square ones out now will drop in price like a stone.
 
Thanks Marc. Now I know how "reconditioned" works for Kodak. From what you described it is actually out-dated but brand new product. For a while I thought reconditioned means refurbished, returned, or demo stuff.

The 22 Meg full frame proBack seems attractive. Kodak probably won’t discount it for another 3 years. It will probably take me that long to save up the money. Who knows what will happen to the digital domain in the photography world in the next 3 years. Cheaper and better for sure.

BTW, I have just checked the price for the N1, the price still holds up very well. The US model is only $50 cheaper than I got mine two years ago.
 
> Christian, I've found the the 1.08 software to work very well at + chroma and 0 edge emphasis with ISO set at 50-100.....what was your ISO setting??? With this camera your shadow noise increases greatly after ISO 100, especially in flat low light. I always use a JPEG1 with histogram preview under different lighting conditions as a guide on highlights and shadows, then shoot in RAW mode with very good results!! There still is some work to do in Photoshop as with all digital cameras, but the gradient latitude of this camera is quite amazing!!! Sharpening should be the last thing you do when processing an image.... not in the
 
Bert, I had the ISO set to 100, chroma + and all other settings "Standard" (Tone Curve, Edge Emphasis).

Actually, the lighting was not exactly flat and definitely not low - I had shutter speeds around 1/60 - 1/250 with aperture around 8-11.

I'm also not complaining about having to overwork images in Photoshop - but I would not want to waste my time with correcting colors, contrast and the like for every image just to have a reasonable baseline. Photoshop is a tool to work the output, not the input (the "negative" if you will) unless you have to save something that really went south.

Did anyone of you notice, that ND TIFF shots have no embedded color profile...??? Am I missing something here?
 
As I have stated previoiusly, it has been my experience that the ND does take flat shots, but this is easily corrected with any photo correction software. Most packages have an auto adjust, which takes a couple of seconds. Just POP the contrast. It is not a big deal, and a strange advantage seems to be the ability to easily salvage shots that are underexposed with no loss of detail! Ok, you can argue that this should not be the case, but in all fairness to Contax, you are going from one image capture setup (the camera) to the PC which has its' own color calibration. I look at the process as just a simple step in the printing process. This process is also easily automated.

michael.
 
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