Contax shows beta N Digital SLRs

22nd February - 2002
By Ian Burley

Read the press release - click here

Contax N Digitals really do exist. This article is illustrated with pictures we have just taken of the cameras. We’ve held one - two even - in our very own hands. Better still, there will be as many as three to examine at the Focus on Imaging show at the Birmingham NEC, which starts this weekend.

What’s special about the N Digital? It’s the first digital SLR camera to use a CCD sensor that is the same size as a 35mm film frame. The chip, which is made by Philips, means there is no compromise relating to the focal length of any lens fitted to the camera. Other digital SLR cameras that use a sensor with a smaller area than a film frame cause the effective focal length of the lens to be shifted by up to 60%. This is fine if you need a longer lens, but the coverage of wide angle lenses becomes severely limited. All this is history with the N Digital. Being able to see the cameras first hand and the infamous chip is very reassuring after so many false starts. This  includes the scrapping of a Pentax digital SLR using the same chip.

Alas, the Contax N Digital is a specialist camera that will cost a lot of money - the body on its own will be about £6,000. But it represents an important watershed in the development of digital photography. What’s possible now for a given price may be possible for a lot less in a year or two.

The cameras we have seen are pre production models and we weren’t allowed to take any pictures. But we could handle them and they were clearly not prototype hacks. Contax had hoped to launch the camera formally this month, especially as the key PMA show in Florida also starts this weekend. It now looks like a formal launch will take place at the CeBIT IT fair in Hannover, next month and we’re promised first production samples will ship in April.

Interestingly, the N Digital is not the large and heavy monster it looks in photographs. Compared to a Canon EOS-1D or a Nikon D1, the Contax feels lighter and a bit smaller. The viewfinder view is, as you’d expect, noticeably big and bright compared to other digital SLRs we have tried. No longer is there any need to mask the viewfinder to match the diminutive dimensions of sub 24x36mm CCDs.

More will be written about this remarkable camera in due course. But also on show was the new N-mount Carl Zeiss T* 17-36mm f/2.8 wide angle zoom, un-emasculated, of course, on the N Digital. It will be interesting to see how this CZ optic compares with Canon, Nikon and even Sigma alternatives that have about the same specification.

For more in-depth details on the Contax N Digital, we have reproduced a press release that contains a good deal of technical specifications - click here to read this release.

www.contaxcameras.co.uk

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