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Contax Digital in YC Mount

John,

I say ixnay the digital back concept...

It's unlikely that Leica has enough money to recast an R body into digital form (their financial situation is precarious). The R digital back is being developed by Imacon and Kodak who, I'm sure, will shoulder the financial burden. In short, clever branding by Leica lets them conserve cash.

Leica's approach isn't compelling economically to the user, and makes no sense ergonomically. Contax can afford to underwrite a digital C/Y body with battery, sensor and electronics compactly housed. Those components comprise the major cost of a DSLR or digital back. Yes, you pay for another body, but it's just a metal envelop and, unlike the Leica approach, there is no space wasted for vestigial film storage and transport mechanism. (That R film advance lever is a riot!)

About sensor crops...

Between the incident-angle problem and sensor cost, I could imagine Contax imposing a crop factor. For wide-angle fiends like me, this obviously hurts. But it hurts tele users, too, because we then carry the size and weight of 135-class optics without enjoying the full image circle. Plus, CZ glass is too good to crop!

A smaller sensor makes ergonomic sense if the camera and lens image circle are reduced proportionately. Oly has the right idea with the 4/3 system (e.g. 300/2.8). Nikon is clearly trying to compete with the surprisingly light D2H and new DX lenses. Owners of old Nikon lenses are left lugging their underutilized glass. Are we C/Y users trapped on Nikon's Highway to Hell? (You can see I don't like APS-sized sensors!)

BTW, I started my C/Y system to get away from wide-angle trauma courtesy the D30 - talk about regression!
 
I think Contax could at least do the same thing as Nikon did: Producing a digital body with the MF-mount and, say, a 1,5 to 1,7 crop. Then Zeiss could come up with a 12-35mm Zoom lens to cover the wide-angle range - specially designed for the digital sensor with a smaller image circle, thus not as large (and expensive) a lens as the N-series ones. I think, they could sell a lot of these lenses and bodies to all of us C/Y users...
 
> Marc C. Schurr on Friday, July 25, 2003 - 11:00 am: > > I think Contax could at least do the same thing as Nikon did: > Producing a digital body with the MF-mount and, say, a 1,5 to 1,7 > crop. Then Zeiss could come up with a 12-35mm Zoom lens to cover the > wide-angle range - specially designed for the digital sensor with a > smaller image circle, thus not as large (and expensive) a lens as > the N-series ones.

It would be nice, but I doubt if Zeiss were to make anything, bodies, lenses, that they would be price-competitive with Nikon or others. A physically smaller lens may cost somewhat less to produce, but again, development costs and the smaller sales volume of Zeiss products will probably keep the cost high.
 
I don't why, but it makes lot's of sense, at least for me, that the now digital Contax body should be built upon the AX. It will be far more easier to move the digital sensor than moving the entire film plan and winding mechanism. So let's keep hoping for a new Contax DX.
 
I've just bought a Canon 10D, I've stuck a couple of Sigma f2.8 zooms on front because I believe you don't need the resolving power of expensive glass on a digi camera, and there is NO WAY I'm paying 5 grand for the COntax N Digital. Also, the body, either Cx or Canon, will be out of date next year, and 5 years from now it'll be a novelty. I refuse to get rid of my Zeiss Lenses for my Contax's , so, yes, a digital back, which is trade-in upgradeable as the years go by would be ideal. Of course this would mean Kyocera re-releasing a few MF body's, ie. RTS3,( or perhaps 4 ), AX etc..

Surely this would not be beyond the experise of Kyocera????

If only we could live without bean counters, we'd all be happy.
 
Don't worry: You may use your ZEISS lenses in MF mode and without automatic aperture setting on your CANON. Theres an adapter which fits. See the thread about "Zeiss lenses for other bodies" or so. matthias
 
But do you have to "stop-down" with the adapter.
So , focus wide open and then stop down before you press the shutter?
This sounds a little cumbersome ?
 
i just had the idea that kyocera would offer a cheap digital camera for the old ae or mm-lenses plus eventually and adapter-lens to correct the known digitalcamera-nondigitalcamera-lens-divergences. the new olympus/kodak-system has solved this. body to cost 2000 euro. camera to be offered in september 03.this could be the end of the contax n-system. why not, if there could not enough money be generated. pentax is on the way to think like this. all lenses, even m42 will work on the new istdigital.
 
My own opinion for what it is worth is that Kyocera will not produce a C/Y mount digital SLR.

Getting us C/Y mount owners to upgrade to the N mount is where the profits can be maximised to offset the huge development costs involved in keeping pace with the digital revolution.

If the next ND is to be soon announced at the price indicated in the digital thread (sub $2,000) then it would not be financially feasible to launch a C/Y mount digital body at the 4/3 ratio or similar in my humble opinion.

I can however hope that a digital G3 will be a possibility using the exisiting G mount once the retrofocus issue has been resolved.

As for the digital back option; A company actually patented a universal digital conversion for any 35mm camera, but it has come to nothing yet. I still feel that there is mileage in that idea.

Clive
 
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