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Review Contax Aria

Colin, you have just reminded me of a negative with the AEL switch. On quite a few occasions I thought the camera was in the "OFF" (but it was not!), so I switched it "ON" (to AEL) and got the wrong exposure! This only happens in places where there is a lot of action going on and you are NOT looking at the controls or meter. William
 
Thanks for the advice Will, Craig and Colin.
I think it's making sense now. I come from a similar stable as the manual workhorses who didn't twig on to automated services and tellers
etc. Hence my frustration with buttons which 'put things on hold'. It's possible it'll become reflexive to use, however as I've never used anything other than Manual or Aperture/Shutter Priority combined with exposure compensation on an SLR, I do struggle a little.

Will, it's interesting to hear you prefer the Aria over a G2 as a travel companion. I used to carry a T2 with a Cokin filter mount, yellow/blue polariser, 85A/B and 82 series when travelling - all of this could fit inside a jacket pocket, however the extensive automation was a little crippling, even if convenient. The 167MT which I still use would tear a hole in anyone's jacket. Although I've grown up using a 167MT for 10 years, within a week of owning the Aria, the 167MT feels heavy and lumbersome. I suppose its weight and dimensions are similar to your RX. I haven't any experience with the 28mm on the Aria. I've tended to use the T2 compact for a travelling camera - its 38mm 2.8 has always impressed me,except when misfocused using the digital focus system, a bit akin to the RX's. The extra 7mm of the Tessar 45mm has yet to prove itself in action! Otherwise I tend to use a more bulky 25mm, as I never invested in a 28mm for SLR use.

I've just noticed too, that on aperture priority and shutter priority, the camera overrides whatever setting the reciprocal aperture or shutter speed is manually left at. That's really nifty! It's such a pleasant discovery to make on a tiny SLR.

That leaves the foray of Flash photography - which system do you use with the Aria?

Best wishes,

Joe
 
> A more common way, surely, is to use Manual mode. > Forget all this spot reading and AEL; just spot read in manual, or> take Grey Card reading in Manual. That way too, you'll never forget to> switch off the Lock. > How many of you have done that?

Yes , I agree 100% . I use manual pretty much exclusively - I've never understood why people want to mess around with AEL etc when it is much quicker and simpler to just shoot in manual . Steve
 
**** A more common way, surely, is to use Manual mode. ****

With all due respect, manual mode is not a common way to use the AEL switch, since manual mode doesn't require operation of the AEL switch at all.

Colin and Steve, I think you are describing a more common way to lock the exposure for a scene WITHOUT using AEL, whereas my explanation was about a common way to USE the AEL switch in direct reply to the original question.

Again, with all due respect, I doubt if manual mode is the MORE common method to lock exposure, because it doesn't make sense that every SLR in the Contax lineup, and every comparable SLR from other manufacturers all have an AEL switch or AEL button. Why include a feature that isn't commonly used by some sector of the user base?

Joe, regarding your statement ***** and hence I've not needed the AEL lock, which is inoperable with one's eye at the viewer. ****

I always operate the AEL switch with my right index finger, while I'm still looking through the viewfinder. I find it quite easy, although the Aria's AEL switch is a little stiff in operation when compared to more expensive cameras like the RX and AX.
 
I'm still learning the Aria, but note that there's an AEL signal in the viewfinder: the metering mode icon blinks.

I've used the lock feature a lot on my 139 and G2, and expect to do likewise with the Aria. As has been pointed out, it pairs very nicely with the spot metering mode (a "G3" feature I'd like to see).

So far I'm enjoying using the Aria very much; have yet to see any results back from the processors, however.

--Rick
 
> With all due respect, manual mode is not a common way to use the AEL> switch, since manual mode doesn't require operation of the AEL switch > at all.

Never said it was sport - all I was saying is why complicate things more than necessary by using AE and AEL in the first place? , thus giving the original poster another option to consider . To me any "feature" that sometimes has to be overridden is not a feature so much as a hindrance........... Steve
 
Joe, I tried to carry the G2 in my pocket but found it too big and too heavy (as many others have found, and you with your camera). So I decided to use a back-pack and use the Aria which is no heavier and not much bigger, but the main reason I use this for travel is for the "SLR" feature. Accurate framing is important to me because I like to use most if not all of the negative to take advantage of the Zeiss lense. For many scenes the framing accuracy is not so important, but I like to take photos of doorways, windows, archways etc. and these need to be balanced. There is also something very likeable about the Aria. However, I still like and use my G2 when this feature (SLR) is not important because I have found the clarity/sharpness of the rangefinder (G2/Ziess) the best I have ever seen in 35mm. So I use the G2 when there is a lot of detail in my scene. I might add something about the G2 when "framing" using the viewfinder. I find that if I make minor adjustments to my framing, then the automatic tracking (viewfinder) does not always make corrections. This servo system is great but needs to be improved with finer resolution (if you are fussy). As for a pocket camera, I have chosen the GR1v, which is a "Hi-tech" camera and in some ways similar to the T3 and has an extremely sharp lense with 5-position manual ranging, and is half the price of the T3. This camera is also smaller than the T3. There is a Lieca version of this 28mm lense (due to demand I guess). I do not use a flash with my contax gear, so I can't answer this one. William
 
I wonder if I'm struggling with the volume of contaxinfo.coms which come my way for a reason:
is there a digest version?

Will, I'm amazed at your camera collection! I've lived off a T2, 167MT and not much else (I still have the Zenith 12XP which I brought with 3 years pocket money......but there's clearly no pretention towards Carl Zeiss here... ahem). I'd dithered over the Aria for years, and only swooned to release my credit card when I wandered into a shop intending to find a flashgun. If the Aria had been marketed with a trombone zoom, I'd have already ignored it like the N1 and other plastic extrusions displayed in velvet display cases.
Still, the handling weight and the tactile quality and of the Aria left me marvelling at the engineered seduction of Contax's engineers. These clever people have clearly done their homework, and appreciated a market of travel photographers to small-fingered people (and women enthusiasts I hear, who particularly were targetted by Contax at some stage). It's like discovering Peggy's Cove on an empty lighthouse lit night all alone - serendipity in an urban wilderness. Well, maybe another metaphor will do. I rant not. The Contax' brochure for the Aria had really perturbed me for its feather lightweight portrayal of a little run of the mill camera, with flouncines prancing all over along with matrix metering (no offence to technophiles, however I still use incident light to shape my pictures). It'd left me holding onto my old 167MT even tighter (or was that the osteoporosis at work?). Anyway, the luxury of having such a choice of cameras like yours could mean an RX on Mondays, GR1V Tuesdays, G2 on Wednesdays and the Aria for the rest of the week, or perhaps along some other logical basis!

Actually, having trekked around in the micro-cold climates which we have in this bizarre part of the world to test out the Aria, (i.e. England), I think I'm just about to be laid over with pneumonia for the start of the year. Clearly the price of enthusiasm.

Well Craig, thanks for enlightening me about AEL and its conundrums too. Learning how to walk and chew gum with the Aria is more like a gentle smack on the lips at the moment for me. So once I get over (or on with) the wonders of, er, chewing the AEL lock with my middle lip whilst watching the viewfinder with my finger, I'll know I'll have mastered something to be proud of, even if at the moment I'm not quite sure what...it'll come to me and then I'm be squinting in the sun without overexposing.

Kind regards,

Joe Tweed
 
That was an entertaining read, Joe. You're a writer as well as a photographer.
 
With regard to the focus problem encountered by earlier posters: I have a problem with the 80-200 focussing past infinity. I dunno if this is the lens or the camera, but it's something to watch for, anyway.

BTW: does anyone know of a brightscreen for the Aria? The viewfinder is too dim for my taste with f/2.8 and f/4 lenses, to the point where I'm considering picking up an RX for the focus confirmation light...

Matt Gabriel
 
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