Strong-high quality build. Solid and well balanced. Amazing ergonomic design. Everything where you'd want it.

Largish - not a problem for me as I am big, but could be an issue for some.

Glad to contribute back to this board btw. I shopped for this latest purchase for over three months now. I couldn't decide between F5, Eos1v or N1. I've owned many Nikons and Canons over the years, but somehow, other than the Canon F1 way back when, nothing has really felt right. The EOS3 was way too plasticky, the eye control stank, out it went. I liked the Nikon F100, but it still left something open - now that I have the N1 I know what it was. The immediate access to the controls.

Contax did something that every other mfr out there should do... the controls for aperature, speed, as well as bracketing are all direct access AND knob wheel (you know the wheel that you see every mfr have on the front by the shutter release). In other words, I can set the camera for aperature priority, and select shutter speed from a traditional shutter speed dial OR from the multi function knob. WAY COOL. So what was missing from my life was the big primary control knobs on top. This camera, although it has some hidden gem of custom functions, is basic and has everything I'd want. LOVE IT.

The 24-85 lens I bought as part of the package is nothing short of amazing. Sure it is large, but man what optics. I took a test picture hand held of my monitor from about 2 feet away, at 85mm setting. Using the largest aperature, I was only able to get about 1/6 second shutter. Now, hand held, the picture is crisp enough to see every single pixel of the monitor. Amazing.

Color rendition is dead on, crystal clear, and end to end from 24 to 85 it is dead on.

To sum it up, if you can put up with the size, BUY THIS CAMERA! Now if Contax could only figure out how to put enough flashes into the pipeline, but that is another story.

Customer Service

not needed yet - but the folks I emailed before purchase were pretty uptight.

Similar Products Used:

F4, F5, EOS3, EOS1v, canon a1, f1n.

5 focus points well placed, and the little dial to select focusing point well designed. Excellent grip size. Capable of using the 645 lenses with AF.

Lack of program shift, the 5 focus points only the middle one sensitive enough for practical use, lack of mirror lock, lack of N series lenses to choose from. NAM-1 adapter feels a bit loose with 645 lenses attached. Fit and finish seems like a step back from RTS, RX or AX. Plasticky N series lenses

Great concept to start with, but still requires some re-engineering. 5 point AF well though out but the corner 4 points are sensitive enough to capture any action. Still needs to speed up the AF speed. So far the 2 zooms that I tried are quite promising optically but feels plasticky(quite unlike the Zeiss MM SLR lenses in the past). 3 lenses won't be enough and still need to wait for who knows for how long for the new 100 2.8, so at this point we can forget about the N85 1.4 and N17-35 2.8 that was mentioned by Contax. Look forward to future developments in this N system.

Customer Service

Never tried

Similar Products Used:

Dynax 9, Leica R8, R6.2, EOS 1V.

Superb Metering.
Five point AF system with unique joy stick control.
Fast and Accurate Auto Focusing.
Great Control Layouts.
Outstanding body build quality with inner aluminum alloy frame with new crack-resistant carbon fiber reinforced nylon.
Carl Zeiss Lenses!
Being able of use additional seven prime lenses from the Contax 645. An expensive route, but it is a nice option if you are planing to (or has already) upgrade to the 645 format from Contax.

Focusing can be sluggish at low light situation.

I have been using this camera over six months now with almost 100 rolls of films. This handsome camera feels so good at my hand (medium size) and handles so well. It just makes me want to keep on shooting.

Metering - The matrix meter is so accurate even in tricky situations. Even though I bracket most of my shots. I end up using the normal exposed ones. Center weighted and spot meters are equally accurate for what they designed to use for.

Handling - Even though the outer body is not made with metal, but it feels solid and well balance with the two zooms lenses. All the control dials, buttons and switches are well made and a dream to use. Shutter lag is virtually absent.

Focusing - The five-point AF system works really well. The AF/MF dual focus mechanism makes it easy to switch between the two. In MF, you can pick one of the five auto focus points, and use the thumb to press the AF focus button to lock in the focus. The outer four auto focus points sit on the "rule of the third" layout. To me it helps my composite sometimes.

Layouts and Controls - Useful functions are controlled with dials on top of the body, such as shutter speed, exposure compensation and bracketing, AE mode. So you don't have to mess with command dial, or pushing a lot of buttons with the LCD screen to change settings like most other cameras do. Some functions such as shutter speed can also be change via the command dial. The somewhat smaller LCD display is easy to read and informative. This display makes other larger LCD display cameras look like toys.

Lens - Both of the 24-85mm and 70-300mm zoom are come with USM. The USM move the massive glasses quickly and silently. The manual focus rings have the right amount of tension. Distortion is minimal. The resolution is very very fine, with excellent color and contrast images. I made a lot of 8x10 B&W prints, and up to 16x20 color prints. And their images hold up very well in 35mm standard. In many occasions people asked me if I used medium format negative to make these prints. Need I say more.

Flash - The TTL flash system is one off the best. I used the TLA 360 flash unit and it is a perfect match for the 24-80 zooms because it has the power zoom match exactly the same focal range with the wide/tele zoom. The LCD display effective range, and all necessarily information. The multi-flash unit work with the camera's compensation function very well and with high power output, which makes bounce flash easy to use. Moreover, the auxiliary flash creates nice eye catches when the main flash is used for bouncing. Fill flash performance is also outstanding. With the N1, I have never gotten one bad picture with this flash unit. That makes photo-wedding assignment a piece of cake.

Summary - There is no single perfect camera for everyone. People require a comprehensive system like Nikon or Canon, or action/sport photographers may find this N1 system not a suitable choice. I have considered the EOS1/3 and the Nikon F5/F100. After using various Nikons for over twenty years, I wanted a change and I always love the Carl Zeiss lenses. I am glad I made this choice. I am so satisfy with this camera's capability, convenience, features, built quality and the Zeiss lenses; not to mention the quality of the pictures. It is heavy and expensive. Like everything in life, if you want quality, you have to pay for it. Now I use this camera exclusively, and leave my Nikons at home as backup. Lugging the N1 system to my two oversea trips this summer made me feel old. But I would not do it any other way. Perhaps until I move up to the Contax 645, hopefully later this year.

Customer Service

Not need so far

Similar Products Used:

Various Nikon and Canon systems.

ease of use, solid construction,excellent feel, great optics

Slow autofocus.
AF problems in bright outdoor lighting were other cameras have no trouble.
Poor lens selection unless you want to pay for the medium format lenses.

The main strengths with this camera is its ease of use and the abiltiy to use Zeiss glass. However for those of you who use cannon and nikon AF camera you will find Contax autofocus system to be extremely slow and very inaccurate in outdoor(bright) lighting were my Nikon camera had no difficulty. One would think that a camera that prides itself with great optics would produce a camera body with an autofocus system to match (at least comprable to cannon or nikon). With regards to the mention that this camera is large and heavy, I did not find this to be a problem. I have small hand and the camera felt great. The Lenses are of course very good (50mm 1.4) but the photo were not much sharper or contrasty than my Nikon 85mm 1.4. In summary I decided not too keep this camra until the autofocus system is improved. I would recommended that those how want Zeiss optic stay with Contax manual focus cameras.

Customer Service

have not used

Similar Products Used:

Nikon F 100

good autofocus system
build quality
excellent lay-out of controls
use of Zeiss USM AF zoom lenses
good ergonomics
accurate exposure settings

larg-ish (but not that heavy)
expensive with USA warranty
outer focusing points don't work well under low light/contrast conditions (hunting)
no program shift

The camera feels solid, and I find it much more comfortable to hold than my Nikon, and it is also much easier to use. The Zeiss 24-85 zoom is very good and offers the best combination of sharpness, color, contrast and distortion control among 24-xx zooms, and that is the only lens I want to carry around when I travel. It also integrates very well with the TLA 360 flash. I switched from Nikon to Contax to use their new AF lens system, and have not regretted it. I only wish it had program shift under the command dial like my Nikon N90S did, but I can live without that. Buy one without USA warranty and the price becomes very reasonable.

Customer Service

not used yet

Similar Products Used:

Pentax ME Super and Super Program
Mamiya 1000S
Nikon N90S