By Ian Burley
23rd October - 2001
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Contax plans to launch a 6.6 megapixel SLR based on the N1 (see left) system are unaffected by the recent decision of Pentax to abandon its own 35mm SLR-based digicam, code-named MR-52 (this story - click here).
That’s the message from Contax UK today. “We remain on course to launch the Contax N Digital between the end of February and the beginning of April next year,” Frazer Allen, sales manager for Contax in the UK, told DPN today. “We hope to have a camera to show at the Birmingham Focus exhibition in February,” he added.
Allen confirmed our suggestion that, while Pentax was dependent on a mass market and relatively low cost product stratey, Contax customers are fewer in number but willing to pay a lot more for their photographic gear.
Pentax axed the MR-52, which was to have used the same Philips 35mm full-frame CCD chip as Contax, because the camera would have been too expensive for its market. Contax expects to sell N Digital bodies for around the same price as Canon’s newly announced EOS-1D (this story - click here) or around £5,500.
Allen says that while Canon and Nikon digital SLRs are especially suitable for action sports photography, this is an area Contax has no pretensions to compete. Instead, Allen expects the N Digital should prove to be a strong contender in vertical professional markets, including wedding photography and commercial work as well as becoming an exclusive favourite for amateurs and professional photographers, alike, who want something different to a Canon or a Nikon and who lust after Carl Zeiss T* lenses.
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DPN News service
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