I am getting side tracked

[lawnpotter]

With the help of this board over the last couple of weeks, my aim is to buy Bessa r2a or r3a. So I am waiting to view a r3a when it arrives in the shop. So in my boredom, today I looked at a Contax g1 body for $250.00 and I looked on Flickr and the photos with the 45mm lens look quite nice, However if it breaks I am hooped arnt I ? Also I am very much into black and white espeacily people portrait shots. The G1 is supposed to be better for color. Does any one use a Bessa And a G camera? What are your thoughts? Is the Discontinued G1 too risky. Also my feelings are it is so sharp that it brings out to many details for portraits. Thanks

 

[wayneb]

I have a Contax G1 and the R3A (recently purchased on RFF). My gf has several M lenses and I recently purchased the Summicron 40/2 (for the Leica CLE). I have the 45mm and the 28mm for the Contax. The contax glass is awesome, it matches the hype. The Leica glass also is great, and just using the lenses is really a pleasure.

I'm mainly using e100 and kr64. In the portra 160 kodak negative films, yes with the contax it sometimes feels too sharp or contrasty. With the slide films out of direct light, thats not really a problem. Each family of lenses has it's own character and performance issues in different light. So you need to settle on a film stock that exploits the sweet spots.

I'm not that experienced with manual rangefinder focus, so the biggest difference comes down to the rangefinder - what you see. The contax g has a tiny little hole to look through. This is weakest aspect of the camera. The bessa has a large viewfinder that is brighter and is 1.1 to what you see. It's wonderful. I've done side by sides with my gf's M6 and the M6 has a nicer 'pop' to the image but the size is better in the r3a.

The other big difference is autofocus. As you've read, it sometimes craps the bed with the contax g - you press the button and it can't find a focus point and the shutter doesn't fire. That will never happen with the R3A. At the end of the day, you probably miss the same number of shots - autofocus doesn't work versus you not focusing quick or accurately enough. In one case you blame the camera, the other case you get to blame you know who.

The other difference is the sound. The contax makes a very impressive frame advance sound "yes! you took a shot!", but the auto focusing sound is sort of a grinding terrible thing, especially if you are picking out a focus point and its going back and forth.

So yeah, both are probably near the peak of film camera design in their own ways. The contax G1 is probably a better deal and gets you shooting without much thought. I have the body, two lenses and the flash and I'm set. Hope it doesn't break. I'd certainly pay to get it fixed or buy a new body.

Once you go down the Bessa road, you open yourself up to some 60 years of lenses and viewfinders to choose from.

 

[drewbarb]

Stay focused- don't get side-tracked.

 

[lawnpotter]

Wayneeb

Wayneeb

If your contax does break, who will repair it? Do you prefer the leica or Bessa look, (If there is such a thing) over the contax for B&w ? Thanks

 

[lawnpotter]

Drewbarb

Drewbarb

Thats good advice.

 

[wayneb]

I'm shooting 90% color (positive film), so I haven't really given it much thought. I'd bet the Leica lenses are better for b/w. That said, I've seen some nice b/w in the flickr group.
Like: http://www.flickr.com/photos/16891331@N07/tags/contaxg2/
or http://www.flickr.com/photos/20986380@N08/2258425410/
Or on in the contax g pages: http://contaxg.com/user.php?id=5042&page=user_images

Regarding repair, I've seen somebody mention using keh
http://rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21282&page=2
though I'd probably check on contaxg.com and the flickr group for suggestions.

 

[pfoto]

Look in the Contax forum for repair threads, or do a search through Google (not the search engine here).

http://tinyurl.com/32tybd here's a sample page from the list you get:

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26470

 

[sepiareverb]

Go for the G2 over the G1 any day- better AF, better layout of dials- the focus dial of the G1 is in a terrible spot- I always knocked it out of AF by mistake.

 

[lawnpotter]

Thanks for the replies

Thanks for the replies

I think im on track again.

 

[drewbarb]

Honestly, this nonsense about one camera being better for color and another for black and white- it's silly. Zeiss lenses are known to be excellent- for color and black and white. So are Nikons and Canons, Leicas, Voigtlanders, Mamyias, Olymuses (Olympii?) Minoltas (well, maybe not Minoltas...) and Holgas and Dianas and pinhole cameras- it all depends upon what you want to do. I guess some folks think that because a camera has more automated features, it's "better for color". (And they may have a point, in that photographers who don't know what they are doing will generally get better color pictures from automated cameras than non.) Some other folks may think black and white is "arty", or "only for serious photographers", or "old skool". And mechanical cameras with no automation are old school- ergo, B&W must somehow be "better" in an old mechanical camera. (Read = Leica.) Sheesh. What a bunch of bunk.

Silly rant aside- I'm glad you feel back on track. Enjoy your photography.