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Any tips for using a Contax T3 in the cold

Hi Jon,

There are currently two S2's on eBay - one in Germany at 600 Euros and one in the States at $565. So at those sort of prices you are looking at £400 Imperial.

Clive
 
Hello again..

After careful deliberation, I've just bought a Rollei 35S, should be with me tomorrow. By pure coincidence, there is a write up on the 35S in Amateur Photographer this month, though it's not a technical write up.

I'm still looking at the Contax S2 or S2B though... a few about, and they all seem to be around the £400-£600 mark.... maybe next month ;)

Thanks for you help,
Jon
 
Hi Jon,

Best of luck with the Rollei, though I'm sure that you will love it. Remember that you will need a none battery dependent meter for cold weather shooting as the battery in the 35S is located within the film chamber so you can't revert to 'Plan A'.

You can often pick them up on a car boot sale for a couple of pounds - Norvex or Weston ones seem OK.

(I've just bought the Missus a Leica Z2X for her holiday shots. I can't see her getting out of a warm sleeping bag at dawn though, no matter what the temperature outside!)

Best wishes,

Clive
 
Hi Clive,

I'm keeping an eye out for a bargain light meter, and a rangefinder will probably be useful too!

I read that I may have some problems getting the Px625 battery for the 35S, although there was some useful info on the following website:
http://www.bayarea.net/~ramarren/photostuff/batter ies.htm

A Leica for the missus... now that's flash
happy.gif


Cheers,
Jon
 
Hi, everybody!
My experiences with cold weather conditions are a little bit different. When it comes to the real low temperatures, the limited battery life is not the crucial factor, but mechanical stability!
I took my 139Q (with several CZ lenses) on a trip to Fairbanks, Alaska, in January. Temperatures were as low as -50°C (-58°F). The batteries gave up after a while, but I always had a replacement battery in my pocket and I kept changing. But what really concerned me was the increasingly sluggish behaviour of both, the camera and the lens. They literally froze! The film advance lever became pretty hard to move and I was always afraid to break something inside. The same went with the lenses, focus and aperture ring felt like they were glued to the lens body. Very unpleasant. The problem is, that at such low temperatures, many of the materials used in a camera become very brittle and are therefore likely to break.
So, I would advise that you operate the camera with a lot of "feeling" and carefully. I also heard that some camera manufacturers offer a special low temperature preparation for cameras and lenses, where they replace the greases and oils with more "fluid" ones, but I'm not sure if this is the case with Contax...
Best regards,
Thomas
 
Hi Thomas,

That IS cold!! I'm pretty sure I won't be subjecting my camera (or me!!) to that kind of punishment.

I presume that the 'stiffness' in the camera could be caused by the materials shrinking due to the cold. Maybe some of the rotating parts shrink and therefore tighten up??

From your experience it sounds as if the cameras and lenses will stand up to anything I'll be likely to encounter, so I'm happy!!

Best Regards,
Jon
 
What I forgot to mention is, that besides of the "stiff" feeling of camera and lens it still worked perfectly!!! A great proof for the overall build quality of Contax cameras...

Cheers,
Thomas
 
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