Camera Talk

Last Saturday, I just managed to finish a roll in the Contax III that I told you about last October. The technician had to change the shutter tapes, and made a CLA. Then I got into a busy period, including several week ends working at home, and the roll kept waiting.

Last Saturday I just had to finish it. I went to my usual place, the fishing dock at Buceo harbor.

I did not like the results of a test with the uncoated Sonnar f/2 that came with the Contax. Most of this roll was shot with the Russian Jupiter-12 and Jupiter-9 lenses.

One from the Jupiter-12 at f/8, full frame, maybe 1/100.



Three from the Jupiter-9 at 1/500 in f/8 or close to. All the following are slightly cropped, images about 2/3 of full frame.



I was lucky to find a boat unloading fish. The boats might come and go twice a day if the weather is right and the fish are there. The fishermen complain a lot that the commercial fleets (mostly Japanese and Korean) are depredating the River Plate, but fortunately some of the smaller ones seem to be left.





As soon as they arrive, the fish go into the plastic boxes, which are picked at the dock itself by small trucks.

The weather was unusually mild for the date, about 18 C. The fishermen cover themselves a lot because of the wind and drizzle from the waves.

After CLA the Contax III is smooth, more than the Kiev I had used previously, but almost exactly the same camera. I am not yet comfortable with the Contax handling; maybe I need to shoot more with it.

Film and dev as usual - FP4+ in Beutler.

Fine shots there, Julio. Nothing wrong with those lenses. And, yes it does take some getting used to a Contax. It feels different than any other camera I own, but not in a bad way. It's like shooting with a highly sophisticated, but more svelte Argus C3.

PF

I'm not familiar with the equipment so I can't comment on that. But it's clear that you make fine photos with it.

The "Contax grip" does take a bit of getting used to, but once you're comfortable with it it's second nature.

I briefly owned a Kiev 4 and liked the solid feel of it pretty much. I finally sold it because the viewfinder was very small. Of course the light meter was immensely off and selecting a slow shutter speed is a hit and miss tricky affair.
I imagine that the Contax is much better in every respect.

Build quality on the Kiev's varied widely even in the best of times. It declined gradually over the years, culminating in a large stock of cameras being thrown in the dump after a factory inspection in the late '80's.

I've had a 4a from the '60's and a 4am from the late '70's. The difference in feel & build quality was striking. Both of them felt like toys compared to a real Contax.

The only cameras I fell totally comfortable with are Contaxes and Rollei 35's. I must be weird, LOL-

Thanks for the comments! Yes, that Contax grip. Must remember it.