Hi
I think the question whether to stay with or to enter into the Contax N-System or to switch to Canon with an adapter or to Nikon et alii is discussed too often only from the perspective of image quality of the output.
IMO image quality is nowadays with all modern DSLRs already so good, that it will fullfill the needs of most amateur photographers up to 20cmx30cm prints. Since technology will improve so much over the next 2-10 years, it does not make sense to focus too much on the question: "is this model now better than that model".
This will change constantly. With Canon every 6-12 months, with Nikon, Olympus, Pentax and Minolta I guess also in the future every 12-24 months.
What is not that often talked about, but IMO very important, is the convenience and "feel" factor with a camera body and the whole system.
I do think that with amateur photographers, the decision whether you will use a camera long term or just leave it at home and use another one depends on this "feeling" when using a system.
If someone goes for a Canon or Olympus with Contax adapter solution, and is an amateur photographer, I doubt that he will use this combo very often.
Who REALLY likes to use stop down metering? Who REALLY wants to do this all the time - for each single shot? Would that be at all possible for most of your kind of shootings? These are the questions everybody has to ask himself.
I do believe that it is better to use a Canon with Canon lenses, a Nikon with Nikon lenses and a Olympus with Zuiko lenses just because of this convenience factor. Otherwise you "betray" yourself, arguing yourself into a camera system becuse you intend to use it with Zeiss lenses, but in reality, you will not use it that way over the long run.
There is no perfect camera system. Some are better with the lenses, some are better or cheaper with the sensor, but I have not seen yet a system, which is very good in both areas. It is always a compromise. Like Marc mentioned, Contax had the option with the N-System in the past to offer really a homerun. A "best of" solution for lenses and Camera. But they decided otherwise.
So every body who is in a buying decision should really think very long about this convenience factor. To stay with Contax and have all lenses in a cupboard does not make sense. Then it is better to by a cheap entry level DSLR system, and to use Zeiss glass for film only.
If you have N glasses, you have another option and this is the Contax ND. I have not made yet enough shots and testing and learning with my ND to make a real judgement. But in this forum are many ND owners and all what they say is that it is fine up to ISO 200/250 as long as you are willing to learn to use the strenght of the ND and avoid the weaknesses.
Since everything else is also a compromise, I am willing to invest time into the ND and learn to use it properly. If I realize in 6 months, that it will run me crazy and I can not live with its weaknesses, I will use my N-system for film only and buy any kind of then "best of" DSLR system at that time.
2 points regarding future developments:
1. I doubt that there will be a DSLR on the manual focus Contax line. As far as I heard it, no manufacturer is willing to invest so much money into a DSLR, if the manual focus market is shrinking that much. This is also the reason why I do not believe, that there will be any digital solution for the new Zeiss Ikon system.
IMO if Contax will have a revival at all, it will be with the N-system, since it is autofocus and optimized to be used for digital photography.
It is big and heavy I know, but the size of the chip and the newly designed N-lenses is the only way for Contax to compete against Canon et alii to be able to sell small but big enough amount of cameras and lenses to be profitable. This will be obviously a niche market, but Contax was always a niche player.
I do not believe that there will come a third Contax System with another lens mount. This would make so many Contax users angry, that it would kill the start immediatly and make it a flop. The only exception would be, if they would offer an adapter for ths N-lenses somhow.
But again, there is no sign yet at the horizont, that we will ever see a new Contax again. IMO Zeiss seems to earn more money with the license fees Kyocera has to pay them currently, than in finding a new partner and starting new again. It is not always the fault of Kyocera if you know what I mean.
I can understand this attitude partially. 12 months ago, it looked like that most of the manufactureres (except Canon and Nikon) will not survive at all in the photo-industry. Now with all the new joint ventures announced, this is a different story.
At the same time, innovation cycles in DSLR market are so fast that R&D kills you as a newbe. So why not wait 1 or 2 years until you see who survived and sensor prices are much cheaper and image quality a lot better?
I do think the same "wait and see" attitude would be beneficial for most of the Contax users too.
As long as it is only your hobby, you do not have to buy an expensive DSLR. You can by either a scanner or you invest only a small amount of money in an entry level system so you get already used to the pro and cons of DSLRs. IMO it will take months until you have really reached the limitations of the newest 6MP/8MP DSLRs and raw files - if at all. No matter whether it is a Nikon, Canon, Minolta, Olympus et alii.
2. Chip design will change so much, that we can not be sure, whether we really need in the future full-size chips. Read here:
http://www.rochester.edu/news/show.php?id=2367
I do think the bottle neck will be more the lens design with wide angles. The smaller the chip, the harder to make really good wide angle lenses. But we will definitely see big changes also over the next 10 years.
A DSLR is nothing to stick with for a longer period of time like it used to be with analogue cameras. And value goes always south and always fast south. So be careful how much you invest in it