Contax T2 and T3 lens differences

[Redseele]

I use my Leica bodies for almost all my photography but I'm currently in search of a good point and shoot to carry everywhere. I have an Olympus XA that I love (and will probably keep just for the sake of fun and my love for good industrial design), but I'm a little disappointed with the images it gets (and the tiny viewfinder with which the RF is difficult to focus). Of course, they are on up to the Leica or Zeiss standard, but that's to be expected.

That being said, I'm very surprised with the images I've seen from the Contax T3. Unfortunately, it is more expensive than I would want to spend on a point and shoot, so I decided to go for a T2 thinking that the lens was the same. Apparently they are not. There's something that I really love about the T3 images that the T2 apparently don't have. Can anyone illuminate me on are the differences in lenses? I thought they were both supposed to be 35mm Sonnars...

Thank you in advance for any help.

 

[Archlich]

Contax T2: 38/2.8 Sonnar, 5 elements in 4 groups, T* coating
Contax T3: 35/2.8 Sonnar, 6 elements in 4 groups, T* coating

That's all the specs available on paper.

 

[Ranchu]

http://www.marcocavina.com/articoli_fotografici/lenses_for_35mm_compact_cameras/00_pag.htm

 

[David Hughes]

Hi,

Fascinating article, thanks. I just wish (s) he'd write shorter sentences...

Regards, David

 

[Redseele]

I am aware of the fact that the two lenses are different (35 vs 38, 6 elements vs 5). But I was wondering if someone could tell me something about the visual characteristic differences. I see them, but I don't know how to describe them in words or explain them.

That article looks interesting indeed. Too bad I don't read Italian (and frankly, it sounds like information overload) 🙂

 

[David Hughes]

I have often wondered how the Contax T's and other luxury P&S's compare with (say) the Leica mini 3 or II.

Regards, David

 

[Archiver]

I can't tell you what the differences are because I do not have a T2, but I do know that the T3 has a unique rendering that I haven't seen anywhere else. The Contax T3 led me directly to Zeiss rangefinder lenses in the hope I would get a similar look. While Zeiss RF lenses are great, I still haven't found something with that exact look. Some quality of the bokeh, some aspect of its colour rendition, and very high sharpness and contrast.

As an aside, maybe someone will be able to take a dead Contax T3 and make a RF lens out of it one day. It could be worth doing if you are a keen fan of that rendering quality.

 

[Peter_S]

The T3 lens is unique, indeed. I own a Contax T (same lens as the T2) and Minilux. Both are great, but the T3 lens rendering stands out.
Neither the T3 or T2 have real Sonnars. The lens closest in design in the ZM line-up is the C Biogon 2.8/35mm, loved by many for similar reasons.

The T3 is the one camera I will always keep. The lens renders nicely for environmental portraits and landscape alike. It is the one camera I take along with a digital or MF film system on important photo projects.
The T2 is by no means bad neither.


Contax T3, Heliopan yellow filter and Ilford FP4+ (in ID-11). Hasselblad X1 scan

Contax T3 and Kodak Elite Chrome. Scanned with Hasselblad X1.

 

[Number 6]

I have often wondered how the Contax T's and other luxury P&S's compare with (say) the Leica mini 3 or II.

Regards, David

David, I have a Minolta Riva Mini (Freedom Escort), which is the Leica mini II. It has superb performance to go with the teeth-grinding noise it makes. 🙂 I feel, however, that it falls behind such modern kindred as the Olympus Stylus Epic, let alone the Contax T series.

 

[Number 6]

Ha, same here emraphoto. Maybe bergtatt afflicts us?

 

[A.S.]

Hi,
I just wish (s) he'd write shorter sentences...
Regards, David

That something I cannot yet define completely but the feeling comes when you write well and truly of something and know impersonally you have written in that way and those who are paid to read it and report on it do not like the subject so they say it is all a fake, yet you know its value absolutely; or when you do something which people do not consider a serious occupation and yet you know truly, that it is as important and has always been as important as all the things that are in fashion, and when, on the sea, you are alone with it and know that this Gulf Stream you are living with, knowing, learning about, and loving, has moved, as it moves, since before man, and that it has gone by the shoreline of that long, beautiful, unhappy island since before Columbus sighted it and that the things you find out about it, and those that have always lived in it are permanent and of value because that stream will flow, as it has flowed, after the Indians, after the Spaniards, after the British, after the Americans and after all the Cubans and all the systems of governments, the richness, the poverty, the martyrdom, the sacrifice and the venality and the cruelty are all gone as the high-piled scow of garbage, bright-colored, white-flecked, ill-smelling, now tilted on its side, spills off its load into the blue water, turning it a pale green to a depth of four or five fathoms as the load spreads across the surface, the sinkable part going down and the flotsam of palm fronds, corks, bottles, and used electric light globes, seasoned with an occasional condom or a deep floating corset, the torn leaves of a student’s exercise book, a well-inflated dog, the occasional rat, the no-longer-distinguished cat; all this well shepherded by the boats of the garbage pickers who pluck their prizes with long poles, as interested, as intelligent, and as accurate as historians; they have the viewpoint; the stream, with no visible flow, takes five loads of this a day when things are going well in La Habana and in ten miles along the coast it is as clear and blue and unimpressed as it was ever before the tug hauled out the scow; and the palm fronds of our victories, the worn light bulbs of our discoveries and the empty condoms of our great loves float with no significance against one single, lasting thing—the stream."

Me too... . .

 

[telenous]

Originally Posted by E. Hemingway
That something I cannot yet define completely but the feeling comes when you write well and truly of something and know impersonally you have written in that way and those who are paid to read it and report on it do not like the subject so they say it is all a fake, yet you know its value absolutely; or when you do something which people do not consider a serious occupation and yet you know truly, that it is as important and has always been as important as all the things that are in fashion, and when, on the sea, you are alone with it and know that this Gulf Stream you are living with, knowing, learning about, and loving, has moved, as it moves, since before man, and that it has gone by the shoreline of that long, beautiful, unhappy island since before Columbus sighted it and that the things you find out about it, and those that have always lived in it are permanent and of value because that stream will flow, as it has flowed, after the Indians, after the Spaniards, after the British, after the Americans and after all the Cubans and all the systems of governments, the richness, the poverty, the martyrdom, the sacrifice and the venality and the cruelty are all gone as the high-piled scow of garbage, bright-colored, white-flecked, ill-smelling, now tilted on its side, spills off its load into the blue water, turning it a pale green to a depth of four or five fathoms as the load spreads across the surface, the sinkable part going down and the flotsam of palm fronds, corks, bottles, and used electric light globes, seasoned with an occasional condom or a deep floating corset, the torn leaves of a student’s exercise book, a well-inflated dog, the occasional rat, the no-longer-distinguished cat; all this well shepherded by the boats of the garbage pickers who pluck their prizes with long poles, as interested, as intelligent, and as accurate as historians; they have the viewpoint; the stream, with no visible flow, takes five loads of this a day when things are going well in La Habana and in ten miles along the coast it is as clear and blue and unimpressed as it was ever before the tug hauled out the scow; and the palm fronds of our victories, the worn light bulbs of our discoveries and the empty condoms of our great loves float with no significance against one single, lasting thing—the stream."

🙂

Breviloquence is a virtue but, sometimes, more needs to be said.

.