When it comes to Contax, you can’t talk about the cameras without talking about the optical giant that is Zeiss, and almost all of the photographers who defected to the SLR Contax in the day went for the matching Zeiss CY lenses.
In fact, at that time Kyocera was a more thoughtful photographic manufacturer, and not satisfied with the Zeiss CY lens halo, designed the Contax AX camera that was quite remarkable in that the whole back of the focal plane moved to provide autofocus with CY manual focus lenses. They also came up with a monster RTSIII, with the use of ceramic plate with a vacuum to solve the problem of uneven film!
Of course, these huge models designed by Porsche, full of angular industrial design, but the actual use of it is a mixed blessing. The weight is one of the problems to consider, and the complex electro-mechanical design another. Many of them suffer glitches and have issues these days.
A favourite of the Contax models is the Aria. I like the small and elegant shape and size. It’s also lighter weight and feels similar to a Fuji X-series camera or other similar modern mirrorless cameras. It is high in functionality too with a P / Av / Tv / M mode dial, up to 1/4000s of the shutter, the exposure compensation dial, continuous mode, manual ISO and so on, all on the upper part of the body, making clear and easy to use.
After many years, only this Aria is left in my collection, even the legendary RTSIII has left me… Hanging the classic Carl Zeiss 50/1.4 planer T* lens, stuffed with two CR2 batteries, this Aria, was revived, and was taken to shoot the traditional classic Cantonese Opera, and it still worked well!
Here you have it, a set of 5 frames selected from a roll of Kodak VISION3 5219T 36 light film rolls.
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