Zeiss optics?? (Japenese, not German) I was impressed with the 50mm, but felt that the micro and short zoom were were on par with my Nikons.

-Inaugural venture into AF - Build quality of body. Lenses were solid. -Rediculous price for the format and results -Contax service does not have a great reputation in the industry. -Outside of major cities, tough to find a lot of well stocked Contax dealers.

I recently attended a "Contax Day" in NYC where I was able to use the N1 and several lenses for only a few hours. At the end of this brief encounter my main question was "why the REDICLOUUSLY high cost of the lenses?" Lenses tried were the 50, 100 macro and 17-35, all of which I own in Nikon. Results were very nice, as with the Nikon. Purchase price of the Contax body and 3 lenses would cost $5,925.!!! F100 body with the same 3 lenses in Nikon would be $3,185. What makes this even more rediculous is that this is the Contax companies first venture into AF body and lenes (AX is a different breed). Auto focus is annoyingly slow, similar to earlier generation Nikon and Canons. I had a hard time using matrix metering scale in AV mode. Overall I was disappointed in the build quality of the body and thought the lenses to be too bulky, similar in size to my medium format but only delivering 35mm size negatives. Before jumping into this system, do yourself a favor and check out the Canons and Nikons, proven systems with great lenses and track records.

Similar Products Used:

Nikons in the same size lenses.

In my opinion, I love its outlook design very much. All the functions are easily understand without reading the I/M. Its handle and P-9 vertical hand grip, makes the whole body very comfortable to hold.

Being a top class model, I hope it provide 100% viewfinder and full MLU. Of course, it provide 2 sec time delay with MLU.

I don't know whether it is my own body problem or not. My N1's AF sensitivity is very low especially using wide angle shots coz the object become smaller and less contrast when in wide angle picture. Thus, always cannot reach infinity (zoom<35mm)when taking scenery pic. I always need manual focus to adjust to infinity, quite troublesome.

Customer Service

I bought parallel imported good coz of much cheaper price, but I paid much more to check and repair the body compared with authorized dealer goods. Anyway, its my choice.

Similar Products Used:

Nikon F5,F100, MZ-S, Canon EOS 30.

Handling, matrix metering, dualfocus mechanismen and the great 24-85 zoom.

AF is not the fastest in the world, but for 99% of users totally fine and fast enough. Do not worry about that, try it yourself!

Great camera, many professionals features, Matris metering excellent. AF is totally fine. AF of Minolta 9xi is as fast/slow as the one of the Contax N1/NX, so why people are complaining, if they did not with the Minolta??? Look at my review at www.contaxinfo.com. This is the ultimate source for every Contax/Zeiss user! (For every camera model).

Similar Products Used:

almost all Contax camera models, Minolta 9xi

Carl Zeiss optics, Solid construction, Ergonomic design

Heavy

With the experience of using Nikon 801 for more than 10years, I have been relying on the autofocus function for taking pictures. But I become dissatisfied with the picture contrast and sharpness of my Nikon Lenses. I pursuit to have an absolute optic reproduction tool, Carl Zeiss Lens. I bought the Contax N1 with 24-85 zoom kit 5 months ago. After taking about 3 rolls of film, I found an unacceptable inaccurate autofocus problem. When I was taking pictures for Angkor Wat in Cambodia, I found that the focus range never reached the infinitive position, so I had to focus manually every time. After I was back to Hong Kong, I did not hesitate to take the N1 for maintenance services. 4 weeks later, the Contax N1 came back to me and gave me a new born feeling. The manufacturer had calibrated the autofocus and all the camera functions. I bought a FX-1 focusing screen to ensure the accuracy of autofocus. It replies me that the camera is providing more than 99% focus accuracy. The outer 4 focus points are extremely useful for taking portrait photos. When pointing one of the focus point to the eye of the model, it shows a good picture construction. Ergonomics design not only for handholding of the camera, exposure compensation and exposure bracketing placed at convenience position. The optic performing of Carl Zeiss Lens gives me incredible picture quality which may be better than eye seeing. Now I use the Contax N1 as my first choice on journal photos.

Customer Service

Calibration has been made

Similar Products Used:

Nikon F801, F80

Quality Zeiss Glass. Two well matched zooms: 24-85 and 70-300. Unique 2-second timer as explained above. Auto focus with instant manual overide is very intuitive.

Autofocus

Like many others, I had accumulated a pile of equipment ending up with a Nikon F100 and the AFS lenses. When I first handled the Contax N1 with a 24-85 attached my impression was that it was just another large and heavy SLR like the F100/80-200 combo. However, I was immediately impressed by the build quality of the body and the smooth focusing of the lens. I decided to purge all my Nikon equipment (good prices for used Nikon on Ebay) and simplify my equipment: N1, 24-85, 70-300, TLA 360, and recently added the 50 1.4 for speed. The move to Zeiss glass is well worth it. The sharpness and contrast of Zeiss glass is amazing, but it is cooler look than you get from Leica glass. In the field, the most disappointing feature is the autofocus accuracy as others have mentioned. It is annoying the way it finds focus, then moves off-focus as you lift your finger and re-focus. However, I do like the manual override that kicks in as soon as you rotate the focusing ring. In order to get acceptable manual accuracy you need to order the FX1 focusing screen and set the custom feature accordingly. One feature that is unique to this camera is the 2 second delay timer. It has the standard 10 second position and a special 2 second position that operates as follows. First the mirror is raised, then 2 seconds later the shutter is released. Neat! After discovering this (which is not explained in the manual, by the way) I decided not to bother getting the cable release as the mirror lift/delay/shutter release is a very good technique for landscape photography. Using hyperfocal distances at the 24mm position of the 24-85 zoom is a delight. The markings on the lens are clear and accurate and the manual focusing is VERY smooth. All in all, this is the most versatile SLR I have ever owned with extremely fine optics.

Customer Service

NA

Similar Products Used:

Nikon F100, F80

Sturdy body; good lay-out of controls; system flash real good; Carl Zeiss lens (?>see txt review)

AF sometimes inaccurate; Aperture-thing (see txt review)

With the help of reviews on this site, I made the decision not to buy the Nikon F100, but instead I bought the Contax N1 with 24-85 zoom and system flash unit TLA 360. I publish a business magazine on shopping centres and a lot of the photographs in this magazine are made by myself. Not only the shopping centre architecture is important for my kind of photography: also photographs of shopping people are important to record the atmosphere. Therefore: not a medium system (e.g. 6x4,5cm), but a high-quality 35mm SLR is what I needed. I bought the Contax with Carl Zeiss because of the expected high quality of the lens, as stated in other reviews on this site. Here is my review. Sometimes I compare this modern Contax with an almost antique Nikon F2, the camera I was using before. This off course is of more importance for me then it might be for other photographers! Body N1 Very sturdy body. Fine grip. Well balanced with 24-85 zoom. Buttons and dials easy accessible. Weak spot in body left from rewind lever, you can feel the body bend somewhat: didn’t looked for it, just noticed it whilst using the camera. Body is heavy (about 35grams heavier than my old Nikon F2-body, which in its time was known as a heavy camera – off course without built-in drive) and working with the N1, the 24-85 zoom and the flash unit TLA 360 is a kind of weight lifting. That is, if you’re walking around with this combination for an hour or longer. Probably another strap will help. In my early days I have done quite some wedding photography (with my Nikon F2 and also Leica M4), but I am not sure the Contax is suitable for this. Imagine two sets of this heavy equipment hanging around your neck for some hours… If you consider only the all round character of the 24-85, I guess it will do fine for this kind of photography. Film loading works properly, but you have to position the film exactly at the loading mark, or it won’t wind. The switch for locking the auto-focus system easily can be turned out of the lock-position, which happened to me several times (and I just have shot only three films…). AE-lock: not the position I would have chosen for this knob. But no problem, it is possible to assign another button to do the job! Many functions can be adjusted to ones needs, using the Custom Functions menu. E.g. one can also set the camera to rewind the film at normal speed or at slow s

Customer Service

Not needed

Similar Products Used:

Canon AE1, Canon EOS, Nikon FM, Nikon F2A, Leica M4P, Leica M5, Hasselblad, Bronica ETRS

Zeiss lens - Zeiss color Good metering Quite good flash metering

AF Speed AF Accuracy Hard to use dials

I had been a Nikon owner, with F100 being my major gear for some years already. Then I bought a G2 after having fun with the T3, and finally I reached this N1. Therefore in this review I try to compare the F100, G2 and N1 in different areas: Built: F100 > N1 > G2 F100 feels very solid, indeed I had accidentally dropped it to the ground for at least two times that I remember, but it worked fine. Both N1 and G2 doesn’t get the same feeling, but N1 seems to be stronger than G2. Control: F100 > N1 > G2 F100 is very easy to use, you can locate the function very easily. N1’s function is a little bit harder to find (remarks: since I had used F100 for more than 2 years, my this feeling may not be 100% correct), but still easy. But the big difference is Nikon’s dials and buttons are very easy to turn, while N1’s dials are all strangely tight. G2’s buttons are easy to press, but their layouts are not as systematic as the other two machines. Metering: F100 > N1 > G2 When you talk about 3D matrix metering, Nikon is just the best. N1 is already very good, their performance is close, but the difference is the metering mode button of the N1 is quite hard to locate, while F100’s one is very easy to find. And the AE-L button of the N1 (and G2) is just quite troublesome to use. G2’s centre weight is strange, I messed up quite some of my photos which were supposed to be great, just because of the metering. AF Speed: F100 > G2 > N1 F100 is fast, in some cases it’s even faster than the F5. G2 is not too reliable, but if I talk about the speed alone, it’s also fast (a bit noisy though). But N1’s AF speed is those from the generation of Nikon F801! You’ll see the lens running slow, then when it reaches the focus point, it steps forward and backward for quite some times before it can determine the actual focus. AF Accuracy: F100 > N1 > G2 F100’s accuracy in both “S” and “C” mode are as great, and the dynamic AF really worked. N1 gave me several pieces of out-focus pictures, G2 gave me even more. I want to talk about the AF area selector as well, Nikon’s one is very easy to use no matter how you are holding the camera, and even when you are holding some other things in the same hand, but N1’s one is quite hard to use when your hand is occupied with some other things. You know,

Customer Service

Not for Contax yet

Similar Products Used:

Nikon F100, Contax G2

Controls are well laid out and intuitive. Build quality, fit & finish are on par with other flagship SLRs manufactured in Japan (e.g. Canon 1V). Use of Zeiss-designed T* lenses and the external LCD display are the exciting selling points of this new system. It should be noted that, pricewise, the Zeiss T* lenses for the N1 are on par with similar Canon L lenses.

Autofocus is somewhat quick (not quite up to Canon USM standards but close), but accuracy leaves something to be desired. AF mechanism tends to "search" a lot, and occasionally is not able to resolve targets that a Canon EOS would have no problem with.

This is my preliminary review. I love everything about this new body and am awaiting processing of my first roll of film. However, the occasional lack of accurate auto-focusing is a disappointment; perhaps I've been spoiled by the near-flawless AF on Canon EOS. I will talk to some Contax reps to see if this is an anomaly. For now, my ratings are....

Customer Service

Haven't used customer service yet, but spoke with a sales reps who was very helpful.

Similar Products Used:

Canon EOS 630, EOS 3, EOS 1V, Elan 7e.

Good feel and excellent lenses. I like the diagonal array of the AF sensors as they match the way I "see" pictures. I love using the joystick on the back. And, as always, the zeiss lenses are better than any other zooms Ive used. In fact they are quite on par with my G lenses in terms of contrast, detail and bokeh.

AF "slower" than canon but not really that big a deal.

If you like zeiss and cant live without it, and only zeiss fans would know what I mean, then this camera is a beautiful piece of optics and technology. It has more class and precision than any other item I own. I have searched for and tried many cameras that would match my style and I have finally found it in the N1. For once, I have found a system that hasnt left me wanting for a certain feature.

Similar Products Used:

Contax G, Canon elan IIe, 7e, A2E, 1n, 3.
Hasselblad. Fuji rangefinders.

Soild Quality Build
Easy-to-use layout
Excellent Zeiss lenses
Full-featured
Solid, but not too heavy

Not enoubh lenses or digital counterpart available yet.

I tried switching to Canon from Nikon and couldn't deal with the plastic feeling EOS 3 or other cameras. This has a different feel, and the 24-85mm lens is exceptional not only in sharpness, but also in color. The Nikon system is great, but there is a difference with the Contax.....Now waiting for the Contax 6 MP N Digital.

Customer Service

Very helpful folks for info. No repair experience.

Similar Products Used:

Nikon F100
Nikon N80
Canon EOS 1V
Canon EOS 3
Nikon D1
Canon D30