GAS Attack! Contax G1? Something else?

[narsuitus]

Now that you have the G1 body to go with your 45mm Zeiss lens, you need more lenses. I recommend the 21mm and the 90mm.


Contax Big Three by Narsuitus, on Flickr

 

[cptrios]

I'm definitely interested in the 21, but I'm not ready to spend another chunk of money yet!

Also, sadly, the G1 I got has leaks in both LCD screens. I don't find this to be that big of a deal, but the seller very specifically said there were no leaks, so I'm pretty annoyed. Do I want to bother shipping something back to Japan?

 

[cptrios]

Wellllll it rewound my 36exp TMAX roll after the 21st shot, then ate a roll of Ferrania like it did the two FPP films. So, back to Japan with it. A huge disappointment, really...and perhaps a sign from above re: my G-series flirtation. If anyone is looking for a 45/2, watch the classifieds in the next week!

Also, does anyone have any leader retrieval tips for someone who can't get the wet-film method to work?

 

[Huss]

Wellllll it rewound my 36exp TMAX roll after the 21st shot, then ate a roll of Ferrania like it did the two FPP films. So, back to Japan with it. A huge disappointment, really...and perhaps a sign from above re: my G-series flirtation. If anyone is looking for a 45/2, watch the classifieds in the next week!

Also, does anyone have any leader retrieval tips for someone who can't get the wet-film method to work?

So they sold you a defective G1 that also had LCD leaks? Messed up.
This is why I've stopped buying stuff from Japan. Had too many issues like this, where the seller has not been forthright.
There was a time when buying stuff from Japan was a no-brainer. Now it seems to be a crap-shoot.

 

[cptrios]

So they sold you a defective G1 that also had LCD leaks? Messed up.
This is why I've stopped buying stuff from Japan. Had too many issues like this, where the seller has not been forthright.
There was a time when buying stuff from Japan was a no-brainer. Now it seems to be a crap-shoot.

I'd only bought two things from Japan before, and they both turned out fine. That was 8ish years ago, though. This time, I'm actually more upset about the LCD leaks than the motor issue. I can see that escaping a seller's notice, especially since it worked totally fine with a roll of Kentmere for me. The listing literally said "no LCD leaks," though. Bah!

It's a shame, since both lenses seem to be great and the whole package is compact enough for travel. But I can't say I was in love with using the camera...at least not in love enough to have it taking up $1000ish of photo gear. So maybe it's a blessing in disguise.

 

[Huss]

It is a blessing in disguise. The Contax G series, as well as the T2/3/TVS series have a very bad reputation for going belly up now.
Japancamerahunter won't source those or the Konica RF and Hexar series anymore because of that.

 

[Bob L]

It's more accessible to print boards now, and there's also an abundance of single board computers on the market. I wonder if a new era of 90's P&S's with user updated internals is going to happen. I hope so, because I know my Ricoh R1 will not live forever.

 

[cptrios]

It's more accessible to print boards now, and there's also an abundance of single board computers on the market. I wonder if a new era of 90's P&S's with user updated internals is going to happen. I hope so, because I know my Ricoh R1 will not live forever.

Not to derail my own thread, but it sounds like you're a fan of the R1? I've looked at them a lot, but I see a lot of Flickr images with seriously soft edges that are noticeable even in thumbnails. I've always kind of supposed they had done whatever hack it is that lets it shoot normally at 24mm. Do you find the corners acceptable at the normal FL?

 

[darkosaric]

I have too much awesome cameras and lenses already. Nevertheless - I get GAS often. Then what I do is to buy some films, papers and chemicals. If that does not help - then I buy something cheap, like Pentax P&S, Fuji P&S, some cheap 6x6 folder , or something like that. This is cheap, something new to play, and then GAS is gone. It deals with GAS in non costly way.

 

[Alan Gales]

Don't do anything half gassed. Sell it all and buy an 8x10 outfit!

 

[cptrios]

Don't do anything half gassed. Sell it all and buy an 8x10 outfit!

Don't think I haven't spent a lot of time looking up compact 4x5s!

 

[Kodachromeguy]

It is a blessing in disguise. The Contax G series, as well as the T2/3/TVS series have a very bad reputation for going belly up now.
Japancamerahunter won't source those or the Konica RF and Hexar series anymore because of that.

That is very sobering. I had not looked at his web page in awhile, and saw this warning:

Please note there are some cameras I do not source:

Fixed lens rangefinder cameras e.g. Canon QL17/Olympus 35RC etc – Reason: Too hard to find for fair prices in good quality. My fees make them too expensive.

Compact cameras such as the T2/GR1 etc. I simply get too many requests and there are not enough cameras.

Lower end SLR cameras such as the Pentax and Olympus cameras. I get too many requests to be able to fulfill them and the quality of cameras has become questionable.

Canon p rangefinders (and variants). The quality of them now is not good and I cannot supply cameras that I am happy with for reasonable prices.

Konica Hexar RF/Minolta CLE. These cameras are very difficult to repair and I cannot guarantee they will be working.
​

It is a sad observation of the state of the inventory that he considers the quality of ordinary SLR cameras like Pentax or Olympus to be questionable, and that even thread-mount cameras like the Canon P are poor. The latter are at least repairable if you can find a technician. The Konica Hexar RF and Minolta CLE were brilliant when new, but it sounds like they have not aged well.

 

[Alan Gales]

Don't think I haven't spent a lot of time looking up compact 4x5s!

You said that you want the best quality possible. That's why I bought a Contax 139 back in the 1980's. I wanted the Zeiss glass. Of course if you took some slides shot by Zeiss, Leitz, Nikkor, Minolta, Pentax, Canon, etcetera and projected them onto a screen, you would have a very hard time determining which lens shot what. I know this because back in the 1980's I joined St. Louis Camera Club and every week we would view projected slides from all sorts of 35mm lenses. The only ones you could tell the camera and lens were the Hasselblad super slides that one member shot. The projected image was of course much larger.

Back in the day they used to say if your photos were not sharp enough then move up a format. Of course back then moving up a format costs a lot of money. Not always so today. You can buy a Mamiya TLR outfit or some 4x5 monorail outfits or Crown Graphic outfit cheaper than some 35mm outfits.

Each film format has it's advantages and disadvantages. Just try contact printing 35mm or shooting a 16X20 camera hand held.

My advice is to just buy a camera outfit that you really enjoy and that you won't leave sitting in a drawer. The most important thing is that you take photographs.