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Contax ND

I was setting up the Contax to win a shoot out.

The Canon zooms are just one reason why I eventually dumped my entire Canon system.
The old 17-35 had barrel distortion worthy of a fisheye...just terrible. The 16-35 was a bit better, but neither were worth taking serious pictures with IMO due to contrast problems. I hated them. I ran a test of their 16-35 at the 35 end against a 35/1.4L, and sold the zoom the next day.

I just processed my first wedding pictures done with the ND and N 17-35/2.8. Typical WA distortion but I haven't seen barrel distortion in any of them yet, and a lot less pull at the edges when set to 17mm compared to lenses like the Canon. And the colors are way better than Canons'...but I always hated the Canon pastel look anyway.

An intresting side note, I found the ND to be the best digital I've encountered for B&W conversions. Very tone rich.
 
I second the BW observation. Admittedly, I more and more frequently find myself shooting Contax ND with BW in mind.
 
Irakly,

I should have thought the lense situation through more carefully prior to renting the 1ds, but now I would have to spend an additional $200 to try the test again and I'm not that motivated to do so.

John
 
Hi, I've just purchased an N Digital and I'm having a terrible time connecting it to my computer.

I use a laptop and had to install a PCMCIA card to allow a firewall connection. I installed all the software that came with the camera but the only message I get is "camera not connected".

The instruction manual is no help at all and I would very much appreciate a few words of advice.

Many thanks

Mo Jafar
 
Hi Guys,

I have had no Internet connection since Feb 5, and am posting from work, something I don't like doing. Dealing with Verizon is, well, dealing with Verizon. But I had to catch up ...

The MACBibble possibility is exciting - count me in for anything we can do.


Mo,
----

I'm guessing by firewall you mean Firewire. This is only for capturing directly from camera to PC. You don't need that to get your pictures.

Get a Compact Flash to PCMCIA adapter (about $5 if you don't already have one). Take the Compact Flash card out of the camera and insert it in the CF adapter, and you can read the folders and images in File Explorer just like any other disk drive (I'm assuming Windows, but do the equivalent if a Mac). Then use Explorer to copy the images to your hard drive.

Easy as pie!

Cheers,

DJ
 
DJ, Irakly,

Many thanks for your advice, I used the Flash Card adapter and all went well.

However, I am still battling with the direct capture issue and I have tried everything I could think of, to no avail. I do set the camera to PC mode when attempting to connect.

I might have a faulty card--I'll replace it and see.

Every good wish,

Mo
 
I am considering buying a Contax ND and was wondering if anyone has had any luck in printing images frome this camera at large sizes, say 11x14 and larger? What is the optimal print size for this camera?
I need digital but the Kodak 645C is still pricey for not being a full size 645 chip as I understand it (square format & 1.4 lens conversion factor). I would go for the Kodak 14n but I am locked into Contax and don't want to buy all new lenses and flash, etc. Anyone know a good source for a used contax N digital?
 
Roger, I printed 12x18" for one of my shows, and nobody believed that it was digital. 11x14 prints are as good as film even for my eye.

A used Contax ND is very hard to come by for obvious reasons. I saw one on eBay offered by some camera store for $3500 about a month ago, but nobody seemed to be interested.
 
Kyocera have some of my images for Focus 2003 http://www.focus-on-imaging.co.uk which is on next weekend in Birmingham, UK. For the Contax stand, they have enlarged at least one shot to 36inches by 24 inches, and I'm told (by the Contax rep) that it's "stunning".
I have not seen the finished result myself, as it was sent off to the printer on a CD-ROM. However, if it satisfies those at Contax, it must be OK.
I have printed several shots up to A3+ size on a Canon S9000 using Lyson ink and Lyson fine art paper, and you would not know it's digital.
The original shots are at 100 ISO and using the RAW format with a 24-85mm Vario Sonnar.
Those of you who are not happy with the Contax RAW developer will also not be happy that the new Adobe RAW developer plug in does not support the ND.
http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/cameraraw.html

It looks a good product, but let's hope they incorporate the ND soon, or maybe Contax will be doing improvements to their own software.
 
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