Solid build. Excellent ergonomics. Outstanding results in the hands of knowledgeable people. Lafayette Auto Glass Repair

None . .

Excellent build quality, bright viewfinder, fabulous Zeiss lenses, intuitive controls, easy to use.

The shutter is quite loud, making it a tad inappropriate for some situations.

I bought this body second-hand because I wanted another Contax MF body; this one was 8+ years old but in excellent condition, a testament to the superior build and dependability of Contax cameras - everything about it reeks quality. This is slightly larger than the Aria and feels reassuringly solid. It offers spot and centre-weighted exposure metering. The red viewfinder readout is also easier to read in bright lighting conditions. Everything is laid out in the familiar Contax SLR style, and controls are very intuitive.

Customer Service

Never had to use it.

Similar Products Used:

Contax Aria Nikon F80

Excellent built quality. Meter´s accuracy. Bright, clean and contrasty viewfinder. The viewfinder shutter is also a nice adition.

Sometimes is miss things like multiple exposure setting mirror lock-up (tough the mirror is very well dumped) and custom funtion to leave the tip out in the rewind. A bit loud (both shutter and rewind) Sometimes for find the grip a bit narrow with bigger and heavier lenses but the aditional battery pack solves this problem nicely. The RTS III´s TTL pre flash metering would be wonderful.

This is a really nice camera. Its construction is great, like almost all others Contax bodies. The camera is compact in size but when you lift it you inmediately can realize that it has a really serious construction. The operation is very simple and straightfoward as you have all the controls very well placed and they are extreamely easy to understand ergo i also have to say that ergonomically it is also a very nice camera. The metering system is great and performs flawlesly in almost all situations, specially if you know how to use the spot metering. The built in date back is a useful features in some situations. The viewfinder is very clear, bright and contrasty and is very easy to focus even in very dim light.

Quality construction and feel Spot metering Lighted top panel Zeiss Lenses !!!

None I can think of, yeah the film leader group does have a point, but it is minor overall. Also, Contax no longer produces this model, but they can still be found on the back shelf at some stores.

Like other Contax cameras very solid construction, feels very good in the hand. Straight forward operation, controls are very easy to understand and operate. LED read out in viewfinder easy to see in bright light and the large ceramic pressure is such an outstanding concept and feature it is suprising it has not caught on more in the industry (must be a patent thing). The feel is very much like the RTS III, but on a slightly smaller and lighter scale. The specs on paper may not seem impressive as compared to some of todays wonder cameras (the ST is an early 1990''s design), but it is a wonderful camera that requires little instruction to use and takes those GREAT Zeiss lenses. If I had to live with just ONE Contax camera - this would be it.

Customer Service

I have called customer service before and they have always been very helpful.

Similar Products Used:

Contax RTS III Contax Aria Canon F1, T90, EF

Build quality, relative simplicity and Zeiss lenses. Value rating of five stars, as I bought a demo model.

Lacks multiple exposure setting, mirror lock-up. Loud -- both shutter and rewind.

Ergonomic -- exposure compensation and AEL by the shutter button. Very solid -- this feels like a camera. Traditional -- the photographer is involved versus isolated from the photographic process. In other words, the camera is not overly automated. Zeiss lenses -- need I say more?

Customer Service

None so far.

Similar Products Used:

Nikon N80 Contax RTS II

Nice metering system with a suffient selection of modes and good to reach controls. Clear viewfinder and great great lenses. I never liked zoom lenses before but the 35-70 just excels. Design and construction are solid. The mechanics are superb.

Film always rewinds completly which makes changing and reusing a film impossible. The little buttons to changes some film setting on top of the camera are to small.

Good camera that I would buy again

Similar Products Used:

Canon F1

Exceptionally well built.
Has spot metering and the best metering lock around - excellent if you use the zone system.
Fairly fast flash sync of 1/200 - the RX and Aria for example are slower at 1/125.
A good size - most Contaxes are rather too large for me.
Access to the amazing Zeiss lenses.

The lens range is a little smaller than I'd like. I'd like to see a wide angle zoom (e.g. 20-50) in particular.
I'm also not adverse to autofocus, but the AX is too big, and autofocus cameras from other manufacturers take away all the decisions from you - don't allow proper exposure lock with spot metering for example.

If you like to be in control of your photography and like a camera that oozes quality, this is the one for you.

Customer Service

Not had to use.

Similar Products Used:

Canon AE-1, F90, EOS 50E.

strength, accuracy, access to (expensive) Zeiss and (cheap) Yashica lenses.
Flash sync up to 1/200th.
Bright viewer with LED indications.
Dating imprint between frames.
Design concept.

Noisy transport, no mechanical exposure.

This year I decided I wanted a second Contax body, and eventually I was tempted to buy an Aria. After carefully comparing the available bodies (new or second hand), my strongest affection however was for the ST. Since this seems not to be the most popular Contax body (it is not in production anymore), this choice needs some explanation. The shape of the Aria is very simular, but the ST is a much more heavy duty camera. The covering is brass, where the Aria's is plastic. The ST has the expensive ceramic film pressure-plate.
I have always been very much in favour of the LED indications in the viewer over the more applied LCD’s, and since I was going to use the camera alternatively with my RTS-II, this was especially important for me. Looking at the total concept of the camera, I see more reason to call this one the RTS III, since it is much closer to the concept of the original RTS I and II.
Further reasons for favouring the ST are the date-imprint between the frames, large analog controls, built in dioptre-adjustment, very discrete classic feel and look, flash-sync up to 1/200th, common AAA batteries.
The lighting of the controls on top of the body is very beautiful, but with the built-in noisy winder it is not likely that you are going to use this camera in a theatre. A silent mode like the Konica Hexar used to have would have been a very good option (which is based on slowing down the transport).

Soon after I bought my ST, the shutterspeed knob came loose, but that was a very small repair under warranty.

I have seen lots of complaints on the ST for the fact that it is not possible to have the film tip staying out of the bus after rewinding, as it is a custom function on the RX and Aria. However, it took the repair-department of Contax about 5 minutes to make the ST do the same permanently. The only thing they had to do was to connect the body to their computer through the dateback contacts, and change something in the internal programming. (I wonder what other custom functions could be set in this way).
Don't forget that Yashica lenses usually are very good too, and cost nothing compared to their Zeiss brothers. There even is a 28-50 zoom!

Similar Products Used:

Yashica FR 1, CONTAX RTS II

Zeiss lenses, strong build quality, ergonomic controls

Losing the film tip on rewind.

I love it. Not to gimmicky yet has enough features to handle everything I shoot.

Customer Service

None

Similar Products Used:

Nikon, Canon