Lens Lens Lens Lens Lens !!!!! It's Five Stars ha...ha...ha

Flash relatively weak

This camera feels very good in your hands, very solid. The shutter release takes some getting used to, it is very easy to release the shutter when trying to "half depress". The viewfinder is a bit cramped, but this is not a major drawback in my opinion. Taking advantage of the aperture priority mode with fill-flash you get beautiful close-ups with nice "out of focus" background.

Customer Service

East Enterprise

Similar Products Used:

Ricoh GR 1 V, Leica Minilux

Size, picture quality, great leather case.

None

Let me start off by saying that I have the Contax T2 (my first point & shoot purchase), Yashica T4 (my second point & shoot purchase) and Contax T3 (my third point & shoot purchase). I am not going to repeat what everyone else have pointed out about this camera. BUT... I will say that the T3 stands out above the other two. These three point & shoot cameras are all equally great as far as picture quality. The reason I use the T3 alot more above the rest is the size of the camera. In my daily life, I commute to work on the NY Subways during rush hour and sometimes I could be in a pretty tight situation (for those people who live in NY, you know what I mean). I like to keep my hands and my shoulders free. I won't carry a bag to work if I could help it. So... attached to my belt; my Contax T3, my Motorola cell phone and some change and keys in my pocket. A couple of years back I was carrying an Canon EOS 3, then I started carrying a Minolta Maxxum 5 cuz it was smaller. But that got heavy too... espacially when it is 110 degrees on the Subway platform. Long story short... If you want to be one of those photographers who dedicates themselves to not have missed a picture opportunity, go with the T3. But if you are a photographer who wants good quality pictures only when you go on vacation. Then it might be worth while to find a bargain on a T2 or T4.

Similar Products Used:

Cojtax T2, Yashica T4, Eos 3, Elan 7, Elan 7E, Yashica FR1

-Good optics -Nice Ti body -Small/light -Bright viewfinder -Very usefull custom functions -Lots of options (filters, SA-2 flash adapter)

Ergonomics!! -Disturbing 2D viewfinder parallax -Painful EV +/- correction -AFL spot focussing should be standard and not that slow -No simple AEL independant from normal focus lock (can be done though by using the AFL button and setting the appropriate custom function)

From a quality point of view, this is a top notch camera. The optics are really great, but not in the league of Leica M lenses. Sharpness and contrast are certainly comparable with those, but not the overall plasticity and harmony (which has little to do with MTF graphs). On the other hand, it is the best point-and-shoot lens I have ever seen. In fact, it is so good that one should not waste it by not shooting slides with it, which brings me to the next point. Shooting slides means precise framing. After having used this camera for over a year, I am still not able to do that intuatively because the parallax needs to be corrected in 2 dimensions (width and heigth) at close distances. With the Minox 35 one only has to do that for 1 dimension (ok, then mostly out of focus at such distances). As you can go very close with the T3 (35cm), it would be very helpful to also have the viewfinder exactly above the lens. So, although having good optics, good AF, good metering, great features, I still end up making better pictures with the little piece of plastic Minox 35 with guess-it focussing. Don't get me wrong: I'm not going to give up my quest with this T3. It's truly a gem and sports much better image quality than the Contax T and T-VS I traded for it.

Customer Service

They serviced my previous T-VS just fine.

Similar Products Used:

Contax T, T-VS. Minox 35 ML. Other league: Minolta CLE, Nikon FA.

- Zeiss optics, improved over T2 & Minilux - Aperture Priority - Bright, sharp viewfinder - Fast shutter speed (1/1200") - Long time shutter (up to 3') - Accepts filters, lens hood, TLA200 flash - Custom functions - Light, compact, Titanium housing

- Lacks a separate EV +/- knob - Pseudo & slow manual focus - Flash could be stronger - On the expensive side

Originally I wanted to buy a Leica Minilux for its awesome optics. But once I held the T3 in my hands and looked in the bright, crisp, clear viewfinder, there was no turning back. The T3 is lighter, smaller, and loaded with features that makes it the top contender. It accepts filters, lens hood and external flash. Coupled with its fast shutter speed and Custom Functions, the T3 is quite versatile.

Customer Service

None yet necessary

Similar Products Used:

- Rollei 35S

size; fun of control and user setting; very light shutter; comparatively cheap as a Contax camera; etc..etc..

a bit complicated for EV+- operation; very not user-friendly for your mum and dad;

Powerful P&S camera. I bought this camera as my first serious-use camera half years ago. Compare with a SLR, T3 is much much more handy but also provides enough flexibility and fun for me in terms of operation: Control of DOF, application of filters such as PL, Manual focuing, explosure compensation. With a tripod, the 10sec. timer with the manual focus function are extremely useful when you only want to AE lock an object/grey area (but not Focus lock) and then compose the picture within that 10sec. The focuing of T3 is excellant. If you are thinking about whether get a GR-1 or T3, T3 definitely wins in this aspect. Finally, Zeiss lens just never let me down.

Customer Service

No needed

Similar Products Used:

GR-1s

Color saturation, more natural color than GR1. Accurate exposure meter Expensive look.

press too much buttons on exposure compensation

Great camera. I put all my SLR aside now. Last month, I have a holiday trip to Cape Town, South Africa, I make a tough decision only bring my T3 and GR1v on the road. It is right , the result is excellent, not only the sharp image and surperb color, so relax for carrying a tiny camera vs a 1 Kg SLR.

Customer Service

n/a

Similar Products Used:

GR1v

An outstanding lens. Incredibly sharp and contrast;y. I was just stunned when I looked at my slides shot using Provia 100 through a loupe with this camera. Build quality Titanium body Quiet with precision controls and operation

Flash is weak.

This is a superb point and shoot camera. The T3 has excellent build quality, is easy to use, small and very compact. It delivers absolutely beautiful photographs, amongst the sharpest and contrastiest I have ever seen. The camera is also a pleasure to use, very quiet and innocuous for candid street photography.

Similar Products Used:

Yashica T4

Fast focus response time.

Very high price and relatively low value compared to most point and shoot cameras in the $200 to $300 dollar price range. Very weak flash. Most shots look washed out with flash. Size almost too small for average sized hands. Focus not very accurate at less than infinity distances. Shutter is so quiet, it is difficult to tell when camera has been fired. Viewfinder borders very difficult to see with glasses. No diopter correction available.

I have read all the reviews here and must say that this camera has not met my expectations. The sharpest and most saturated pictures I have ever taken in 25 years have been using a Canon Elan 7 and Rebel 2000 with the Canon 35 F2.0 and 70-200 F4.0 L lenses. That says it all. The Olympus Stylus Epic takes pictures at least as good as the T3 for a much lower price.

Customer Service

Not needed.

Similar Products Used:

Canon EOS 1V, Elan 7, Rebel 2000, Nikon F5, F100, Olympus Stylus and Stylus Epic, Canon Z115.

lens aperature dial size quiet operation custom functions

need to depress a button on dial to change aperature. manual focus not easy to set expensive I would not have bought it for the retail price

I really wasnt looking for this type of camera when I bought it, but the price was right. Initially I was going to re-sell it but I decided to put a roll of fillm through it first. I fell in love with it immediatly afterwards. The camera is small and the focusing is fast. Custom functions allow you to tailor the camera to your needs. You can set it so the flash is disabled whn you turn it on, a nice plus. Also it can be set to extend the lens when it focuses, so when you push the shutter release the lag time is lessened. The aperature priority makes the camera usable for me and of course the lens is fantastic. I compared it with pictures shot with my nikon primes and I can't tell the difference, if anything the contax's have a little nicer look to them. I take this camera with me everwhere, it's so small it's no problem. Also with street photography and documentary work it's very unobtrosive, and very silent. also you can set the aperature to f16 and manual focus to 3feet take it outside and it's the perfect street shooter.

Customer Service

not used, comes with 3 year standard

Similar Products Used:

canon canonet QL17g

Excellent Lens Aperture Priority Exposure Compensation

A little bit too heavy for the size Power of internal flash too weak Shutter speed indication is not exactly readout sometime

If you need a bring camera anywhere, want great optics, some controllability of exposure and focus with many excellent features, the outcomes are pretty amazing, superb sharpness and colorful!this is it. I believe Contax T3 is a beautiful and best P&S camera.

Customer Service

Not used yet

Similar Products Used:

Leica minilux zoom Canon & Nikon 35mm SLR