I was walking through the local Barnes & Noble Saturday night,
and picked up some photo mags to read. I don't really subscribe
to any, but pick up ones that look to be interesting. One of the
publications I picked up was _Petersen's_PhotoGraphic_. I grabbed
it because of a review of slide films, adobe photoshop 6.0, and
the Contax N1 Autofocus SLR.
I read the review of the Contax N1 this morning, and was stunned.
I read and read and read, and compared the capabilities of this
body to the yet unavailable MZ-S, and couldn't help but shake
my head. The price is comparable to the price the MZ-S body
is rumoured to be available at, yet the feature and capability
set is way beyond that mentioned on the PDML for the MZ-S.
The N1 has a reasonable set of features, and capabilities, some
quite "professional" level in modern body parlance. The body
has "traditional" shutter speed, compensation, etc controls like
the MZ-5n has. It has a 1/8000 shutter and 1/250 flash sync.
It has an optional data back that can print data between frames,
as the MB-23 for the Nikon F4 does. Or collect all the exposure
data and place it on a "index" frame. There is an optional-extra
digital LCD viewfinder that you can use to preview the image.
And, it can be used on or off (via cable) camera. There are some
new features this body has, such as "focus bracketing", which will
bracket around the DOF of the lens at the distance it is focused at.
It has 5 autofocus sensors, placed at the traditional 1/3 points
of the image, and one in the center. Oh yes, and it has interchangeable
viewfinder screens.
There are some downsides. This AF body can't use the lenses of
the previous Contax AF SLR body. However, there is an auto-focus
adaptor for the Contax 6x45 SLR lenses. No auto-focus-bracket, though,
as those lenses lack the DOF info at the digital level (my best guess).
The review mentioned, BTW, that the "street" price tag that isn't
outrageous, $1300 or so. And it is available.
I just read the article of this equipment, by a company that is less
known in the SLR market than Pentax. And I couldn't believe the kind
of stuff they "got right". And all Pentax might have in a couple of
months is a MZ-S which doesn't really compete with this?
Yikes! This is the kind of vitality and innovation that I would
hope to see in a body from Pentax. I hope Pentax does something
soon. The MZ-S seems to be way behind the power curve.
Bolo -- Josef T. Burger
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