Glad you're enjoying the new toy. 🙂
While clearly members of the same family, the Contax T and T3 are remarkably dissimilar. As such, they can serve a complementary role in the same camera bag. The T3 is an all-rounder par excellence, but the old T puts a smile on my face. The T3 happens to be my desert-island choice above all cameras for reasons of utility. Here's a brief comparison:
Compactness. Unlike the T, the T3 is a true shirt-pocket camera. Part of the reason is the lack of a rubberized grip, the lower weight, the beveled edges, and the lack of any protrusions.
Handling. Qualities that make the T3 compact make it borderline slippery in the hand. The T feels secure, although one must navigate around the drawbridge to reach controls on the lens. I prefer the manual controls of the T over the menu and tiny pushbuttons of the T3.
Focus. The T has a true optical RF with center patch. Aperture is set on the barrel, and there is a hyperfocal DOF engraving. The T3 features AF: decent in usage and super accurate. This AF will fire a red LED "flash" when needed: focus can be achieved discreetly at 10m in complete darkness. Amazing! The T3 allows focus lock and focus by scale, although the latter is impossibly awkward.
AE. The T has full-time aperture-priority AE, with limited EC. The T3 allows EC and AE lock. Lack of manual exposure on both models is disappointing.
Film loading. T3 is a big winner for convenience. Loading a T at cocktail parties, however, will generate plenty of admiring attention. 😉
Flash. The T has an attachable unit, but the T3 wins big in flash activities. Even with another camera in tow, I will often carry the T3 with Superia 800 to cover interiors, and the evening hours: the shutter-dragging feature works like a champ. With option SA-2, the T3 can trigger a hot-shoe.
Shutter lag. No contest, the T wins. In fact, it's my most responsive camera, and perfect for (daytime) streets. The T3 is fairly awful, even when focus is locked.
Noise. The T3 has motorized noise while focussing and after shooting a frame, but not too bad. The T has a bright metallic ping as the leaf shutter fires: not silent, but pretty damn close. T film advance is manual and quiet.
Optical character. There's a big difference between the old Sonnar 38 and the new Sonnar 35: '70s look versus ultra-modern. The 38 has lower contrast, while the 35 has deadly sharpness and blinding color saturation. Pick your lens accordingly.
Maximum shutter speed. The T can reach 1/500. The T3 has an innovative double-leaf shutter that allows 1/1200 at smaller apertures.
Battery dependence. The T wins, of course. Both cameras need juice for the shutter electronics.
