Contax G1

[schooler@apollo.hp.com]

 > Hey, anybody seen the Contax G1 yet?

Yes, I played with one at Keeble & Suchat in Palo Alto last week.  I
don't believe the 16mm lens is available yet.  I did, however, play
with the other three lenses.  The system does appear to be quite well
made.  Some interesting features:

- Parallax correction is done via LCD masking in the finder.  That is,
as you focus closer, you see the finder image become smaller on the
left and top.  This is done in a "jerky" or discrete fashion, rather
than continuously.

- Unlike a normal rangefinder with "brightline" display, the image is
meant to match the lens; one cannot see "around" what the lens sees.

- Focussing is like a point-and-shoot, and not through-the-lens.
"Manual" focussing is focus-confirmation: a little LCD display below
the viewfinder tells you to turn the focus knob left or right.  The
focus knob, by the way, is on the top right of the body, very
reminiscent of a Voightlander Prominent, except on the opposite side.
Its small size and lack of positive feedback in the finder didn't
make me feel very confident.  By the way, in autofocus mode, the
below-finder display shows you roughly the range found.

- The system is quite small and light.  It "feels" much more like a
super-point-and-shoot than a Leica M.  (This may be a good thing!)  It
reminds me much more of a Leica CL.

- The body seems very expensive to me.  ($1800 for a basic system??)
But then I'm suprised at the current crop of very expensive
point-and-shoot cameras.  Is there really a market for this sort of
thing?

        -- Richard
Replied: 10 Oct 94 11:45