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The Contax 645: It's posh and pricey, but does the world's second medium-format AF SLR perform like a real pro?
The Contax 645, the first rollfilm camera to bear the illustrious Contax name, is a remarkable machine, conceived and designed from a clean sheet of blueprint paper, by a company with vast experience -in 35mm SLRs but no previous track record in medium-format SLRs;. Perhaps the greatest compliment one can pay this handsome, beautifully made, fully modular, 6x4.5cm autofocus SLR is that it's a camera Zeiss-Ikon, originators of the venerable Contax marque, would have been proud of.
Since comparisons with the Pentax 645N (the world's first autofocus 6x4.5-cm-format AF SLR, tested in the August '98 issue) are inevitable, we may as well begin by enumerating the differences. Unlike the Pentax (which has a fixed eye-level prism and uses preloadable film inserts), the Contax has a removable AE prism, which allows convenient screen inter change, lets you fit an accessory wai st -level finder, and it uses fully enclosed film magazines that snap onto the back of the body. The Pentax's AF motor is in the body and connects to the lenses via a slotted-end shaft (like Minolta and Nikon 35mm AF SLRs), while the Contax uses the motor-in-the-lens system pioneered by Canon in its many EOS models. As a result of its "system" design, the Contax is somewhat larger and heavier than the Pentax, but the difference is not all that apparent in the field. Both cameras are very well balanced and ergonomically contoured for comfortable and convenient handling, and each is noticeably more substantial than all but the largest 35mm SLRs.
In terms of metering and autofocusing there are some notable differences, too. The Pentax offers six-zone multipattern metering plus centerweighted and spot options while the Contax gives you a choice of spot and centerweighted. The Contax AF sensor-which is made up of a central stack of four horizontal-line sensors and two verticals, at either end of the stack-is designed to enhance responsiveness and the ability to focus on fine detail. It covers a broad central area, whereas the Pentax uses a conventional three-sensor pattern system, similar to those in its top-of-the-line 35mm SLRs, switchable from broad-area to spot AF. Both cameras feature...