Size
Lens
Metering
Selectable aperture
Custom settings

Careful where you put those fingers

Two rolls of Provia 100F through this camera, I'm quite pleased with the sharp, contrasty images. Very accurate metering. To my eye, the images are better than those produced by the minilux. Plus it's tiny compared to the the minilux. Flash, while weak, has provided pleasing results in both fill and night modes. Best point and shoot I've tried. Relative to other P&S, would give it 5 stars for value, but in absolute terms it's too pricey for the average user. Significantly better than the Yashica T4, but not a better value than the T4.

Customer Service

None required

Similar Products Used:

Minilux
Yashica T4

- Optical quality equal to good midlevel Nikon SLR gear. (Try tripodmounting before you contest this - camerashake is your fault)

- Pinpoint focus even at F2.8

- Smaller than many APS but 35mm quality, and solid titanium and metal housing and filmtransport. Makes the Leica Minilux look like an ancient brick.

- 2.8 lens + 800ISO Professional Fuji = Lowlightimages with lots of mood.

- You can turn flash off default (I have never used it)

- Customsetting lets you focus the lens on halfpress just like your SLR

- Nice belt-case that looks stylish even on formal wear

- Filterkit available with warmup for those that like it.

- No manual ISO-setting, but you can have exposurecompensation permanently switched on with custom settings.

- No exact indication of shutterspeed

During my first holliday with this gem I got so many great shots in situations where you can't lug an SLR-kit without looking like a geek (dinners, evening strolls, airports, etc) that I kick myself for not getting one sooner.

I use it with profssional Fuji 800 print and Provia F400 slidefilm for very nice imagequality in lowlightsituations without flash. Placing the camera on a stationary object lets you take killer longtimeexposures with the self timer (2 and 10 sec)

Customer Service

Not needed

Similar Products Used:

None

Small size, very handy to carry and fast to use; Deploy, shoot and stow it back in its case in nearly one easy fluid motion. Renders beautiful, razor sharp images.

No hot shoe. Built-in flash adequate for most head/shouler portrait snaps. Optional accessory SA-2 flash bracket ($149) and TL-200 flash (About $200) fit nice and do not over-encumber the small camera and perform well.

The T-3's small size lends itself to comfortably carrying it constantly. It has become second nature to reach for it in the easily accessible pouch on my belt. With the custom function focus set to focus on 1/2 shutter depression, it locks-in focus and shoots very quickly. Image quality appears equal in sharpness to my Canon 50mm, f/1.4, and slightly sharper than the images rendered by my wife's Leica Minilux Zoom (30-70mm).

In sum, it points and it shoots extremely effectively. I have been getting perfectly satisfying, particularly high resolution, crisp 8x10 enlargements from images captured with my T3.

It appears that the Contax people researched all of the complaints about all of the P&S cameras and attempted to resolve them all with the standard and custom features available on the T3.

I wonder if Leica will be sufficiently threatened by the T3's strong (superior?) performance to cause them to upgrade the Minilux?

Similar Products Used:

Yashica T5, Minilux Zoom

+ Zeiss optics gives sharp pics
+ Small size
+ Low light performance
+ Modifiable custom functions
+ Flash mode can default to OFF
+ Quiet operation

- Flash relatively weak
- Bright line frame reference sometimes hard to see based on amount of background brightness
- Bright line frame markings hard to see based on wearing eyeglasses

The T3 has been so enjoyable that I'm given to carrying it around almost as much as my cell phone, looking for reasons to capture images. It's quite portable and the included case can slip on ones waist belt.

With side-by-side comparisons (taking same picutres) of Stylus Epic, Canon Elan 7e 50mm f1.4 lens, and T3, all using Fuji Superia iso 1600 film: T3 very noticeably sharper than Epic (better be at these prices). 50mm f1.4 and T3 on par with each other wrt sharpness.

I particularly enjoy the low light capability. Meter can expose down to 16 secs @ f2.8 (iso 100), plus there's a pseudo bulb for exposures to 180 seconds.

Manual focus (limited steps) is handy in aperture priority mode for hyperfocal focus plus infinity focussing.

Being able to save a default mode, especially the flash mode is a great feature for a P&S.

Wish list for a future "T4" would be: +Distance readout that lists actual distance (not step), +Readout of actual shutter speed (instead of range), +Manual exposure mode possible?

This is an admittedly expensive P&S. At these prices, optical performance had better the less expensive machines (as it does). The modifiable default modes and low light performance also make the T3 fun to use. I don't see why other P&S can't have some of these same features for a lot less money.

Customer Service

Email requests are responded to within a few days. The person there tries to answer questions about the operation the best they can but several questions went unanswered.

Similar Products Used:

* Olympus Stylus
* Olympus Stylus Epic
* Olympus Stylus Zoom
* Yashica Electro 35

small size
high quality

none

Awsome camera, beats Leica Minilux (I have used for 4 years) hands down. Picture quality is simply superb, even when developed at a 1 hour lab. Easy to use and very portable... but picture quality is awsome (on par with contax G2 that I had for a while). Best P&S in the world as far as I am concerned. Definetly give it a try.

Customer Service

not used yet

Similar Products Used:

minilux

Excellent optics: Renders rich and natural images with sharpness and contrast
Aperture priority and manual focus
Bright and clear viewfinder
Excellent build quality and finish
Customizable settings
Possibility to add filters etc.
Compact size
Rather quiet

Built-in flash seems a bit too weak compared to other p&s cameras
Shutter speed readouts are a bit confusing
No illuminated LCD display
Belt case (though nice and stylish) does not match the camera's quality standards. Only few days after I had bought the camera, the synthetic leather layer peeled off near the edges of the pouch, thus showing ugly signs of wear. Maybe, an inferior material was used. However, Kyocera's customer service promised to send me a new case as soon as possible.
No manual ASA/ISO settings

Much has already been said within the various Contax T3 reviews, therefore I try to give a concise summary.
Several months ago I started to inform myself about a very good p&s camera which could replace my old Olympus mju. Although you see "zoomania" everywhere, I always preferred fixed focal lenses over over zoom lenses. And in this field you currently do not have many choices. I first tended to give the Leica Minilux a try, especially due to its excellent lens quality. However, I saw some very good results from my girlfriend's T2 and I read several times that the Sonnar 2,8/35 lens should be an improvement over the older T2 lens. And besides this, the T3 is significantly smaller than its predecessor.
Maybe, the compact size finally gave the casting vote. I confess that using a T3 also shows a bit of positive understatement: Using a T3 does not attract attention. You can concentrate on the essential issue: just taking satisfying photos.
I admit, the T3 is much more expensive than most other p&s cameras and it does not necessarily represent a better value. But in my opinion it is worth the price. However, sad to say that you have to invest a lot of money for an extremely good p&s. (Remember for instance the prices you have to pay for a Rollei 35!)
Currently, the T3 seems to be the standard every compact p&s has to measure with.
And until now there was no reason to regret buying it.

Customer Service

See above: Very competent and friendly, e-mail requests were responded within one day.

Similar Products Used:

Contax T2
Olympus Mju
Rollei 35 3,5/40