Contax TVS Digital

Opinion: perhaps among the best made dgital compact ever made, good quality image in its
day, still very acceptable today. Still dream that Contax will come back once again,
hopefully Zeiss will do it.

Opinion: Very well made robust camera compared to current line DC. IQ is just fantastic. Rich colors, sharp, lot of manual settings.Very happy I bought a new one last from available on the market. No camera from modern can produce images like this Contax.

Opinion: This is a very well made camera .Of course the Contax name means
quiality.Been using mine for several; years now and get excellant photos I
don't print any photos over 8 X 10,but had great results at that size..Because
it's a Contax it holds it's value,as does a Leica.

Opinion: I'm no expert, but this camera has taken many great shots for me. Make sure the auto focus is locked, then just snap away. Sharp, crisp images. Colors need to be punched up a bit with software before printing, but that's simple to do. I've gotten a few decent night/flash shots, but I don't take many shots like that.

Opinion: I bought it at full price when it first came out. Felt frustrated as it could hardly focus at dimm light. Recently, I found the Contax site in Japan in Japanese with a firmware update (1.05). Could not figure out the instruction how to do the firmware update as I don't read Japanese. But managed to download the update to the SD card and successfully update the firmware.
It now should be slightly faster in startup and between pictures.

Opinion: I'm sorry Contax will no longer be making cameras, because
this camera is a fine one. The ease with which I have
made outstanding images with this camera is almost criminal. 400 ISO is noisy, especially the luminance channel, but the salt and pepper filter in Paint Shop Pro does a good job of removing it. I literally carry this compact digital camera with me always.

Opinion: Let me put one thing right from the beginning: I´m a german, so at least excuse my bad english, please. Like so manys, I consider myself as being a quite ambitious photographer. I spent a lot of money into my expensive (analogue) hobby within the years. But it all was nothing compared to what should begin with the entry of the digital age. I bought, tried and sold again so many different expensive and cheap, from a-z cameras, looking for something good to keep. Always running for the cleanest image quality, the quickest start-up times, a big monitor.. After all, I completely became part of that game, where us consumers are used like lab-rabbits. By the way: Rabbits with their pockets full of money. That makes the world go round, you might say, and yes basically you´re right, but the few Windows-users might know better (?). Back to the track, I own this camera now for just two month. And since Contax is not existing anymore, I even found it for a competitive price. Still not really cheap it was, right. But compared to its competitors, it is made of high quality. It don´t forgets its roots and, believeve me or not, it does "produce" more than just good pictures. Just like a good tool should be. Get it, try it and maybe you finally found what you were really looking for: the photography.

Opinion: I have used the TVS film cameras for some years and this was a natural purchase to follow on.
I am disappointed overall due to its unpredictability with exposures.

It does have a superb lens - probably the best in compact digital cameras. I also find there is virtually no shutter delay - that's good for moving subjects.

It is very good for evenly lit scenes with not too much contrast.

However it is very poor with much contrast and does not expose very well if the lighting is uneven. It is very poor with pictures taken into the sun.

I also have the Canon Ixus 400 and that copes much better with exposure especially in high contrast. It also copes better into the sun. But the Contax lens is far better.

Opinion: I really like this camera, but it's just an expensive point and shoot (although street price seems to have come down since I purchased mine). Automatic exposure and white balance exceed any digital camera I've seen. The image quality, in my experience, is excellent in printed format. It's a tad noisy when viewed at full resolution on my monitor, but the relevance of that has always escaped me if your desired output is prints no bigger than 8 x 10. I find the menu system about the easiest of any digital camera I've ever owned. The lack of manual control can be frustrating (I'd like a shutter priority mode in addition to aperture priority), but it hasn't been a major issue. I really like the real-time histogram.