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Contax ND

Christian,

I do hope you were exagerating about "greyish crap I have to work on heavily in Photoshop". The most I do in Photoshop to get gorgeous images is tweak the contrast and saturation. I prefer the 1.07 firmware over the 1.08 because I get a better tonal range and more forgiveness in over / under exposure, at the expense of less "out of the box" snap.

I also would like to add that, in our interactions with Contax, we hopefully maintain a positive and cooperative attitude in expounding out frustrations. I have found in life that when both a positive and negative approach are available, the positive tends to get better results. Just my 2 cents <font color="ff0000">•<font color="ff0000">•<font color="ff0000">•<font color="ff0000">•<font color="ff0000">•<font color="ff0000">•<font color="ff0000">•

DJ
 
DJ the entire effort with contax should be positive process so both parties get what they want. a better ND!!
 
DJ,
sometimes it's just as bad as that. Particularly when I shoot in overcast weather, the picture tends to tint to a yellowish grey.
I tried the 1.08 firmware and uninstalled it after developing my shots of an afternoon in NYC: too steep and overpronounced for my taste (while I still had to correct the grey haze).

I spent hours in fiddling with the RAW Converter settings, trying dozens of variations, tweaking them with a custom profile generator (Profile Prism - highly recommendable!) and finally think I have consistent environment as a basis for PS.

This still has to be validated in the studio since I am 'on assignment' but still I don't feel I have a 'bullet proof' setup.

The bad part is, that I have to re-check all settings in RAW Converter, if this thing really uses, what I want it to use (especially the custom curves and the exposure compensation I sometimes apply).

All this does not save me from the Levels or even Curves dialog in PS (I find contrast and saturation to be too coarse - like working with an axe when you need a scalpel).

Christian
 
Hello everyone. Irakly and and I spent the whole afternoon shooting test images with the ND (he brought his RAW updater with him), the Canon 1Ds in RAW mode, and even my 16 meg Kodak ProBack on the Contax 645.
Very interesting results that I am going to let Irakly share with you. Again the Contax did pretty darn good.

The one myth I can explode is that the Canon 1Ds spells the death of Medium Format digital capture. It does not. The Kodak back beat it by a mile IMO.

Also, I can say that the Canon will focus without assistance in light so low you'd wouldn't even consider trying with most other AF cameras. The Canon did it in a New York nano second.

But I'll leave the rest to Irakly, so you can get another POV.
 
Marc, thanks again for all your insights. I know it is hard to judge from those Jpegs but it seems that the ND mid crop vs Canon mid crop, the ND has richer tonalities and the Canon a bit more hard. Is that a fair comment? We are all looking forward to Irakly's report. Thanks again.
 
I was just looking for an N lense on e-bay when I noticed an N digital camera for sale with the bidding at about $1775. Upon reading the specs, I noticed that it did not include the CCD parameter disc or software. Would this be indicative of an illegitimate source ? I thought every camera came with the ccd parameter disk.

John
 
Christian,

Didn't realize you were using RAW mode. That would do it, given the current raw state of the RAW developer. I'm glad my situation let's me go straight to JPEG. Hopefully this will improve, and should.

DJ
 
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I cannot wait to share our test results with you, but I have a deadline for a Contax N Digital reviewset for tomorrow morning. I promise to upload photos and write an extensive explanation tomorrow. Mark has not mantioned that the fourth camera in the test lineup was Canon G3, and let me tell you something... You will be amazed.
 
Hi Marc,

please leave the images with Canon 1ds vs. Contax ND in the gallery. I think it is very useful for all of us to see this side by side. Thank you for this effort.

If you do not mind, I would like to post the exact same pics additionnally in the Canon gallery, since these guys are obviously also interested in this comparison.

The Canon 1Ds and the Contax ND are the only cameras currently available with full size chip, so this is an important question if somebody wants to decide which way to go.

For me personnally I am surprised that the Canon does not outperform the Contax in picture quality even stronger. It has 11Mb and the Contax only 6. But maybe your real life shooting will show there bigger differences. Feel free to post more ex&les about it.

Thanks again for your efforts. Many members can save a lot of money by reading all these reviews and and have less sleeples nights about their buying decision
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Dirk
 
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