Features Profile: Walter Iooss Gary Gladstone’s Search for “It” Profile: Scott Eklund Contest Spotlight Rf Cookbook Profile: Jane Bown Profile: Steven Katzman Profile: David Paul Bayles Diane Arbus Profile: Chuck Nacke Columns Insight/ On the Cover First Exposure Digital Photography School Spotlight Departments Industry News Problems & Solutions New Products Archives

Rangefinder Magazine
December 2003

First Exposure by Stan Sholik
For Pros Only: Contax 645

Contax 645 with Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* 45–90mm f/4.5 lens.

When the 6x4.5 format was introduced in 1975, it wasn’t particularly popular among professional photographers. Some serious amateurs embraced its larger-than-35mm image size and lower-than-2 1/4-square system cost. Professionals tended to stick with the square-format systems or opt for even larger negatives with format sizes such as 6x7 or 6x9.

Over the years, though, professionals have come to appreciate the 645 format. The introduction of several new autofocus 6x4.5 cameras and a wide range of superb optics in recent years, and the availability of nearly full-frame digital backs for various models are making the 645 format even more popular among professionals.

The Contax 645 from Kyocera Corporation is clearly targeted at those pros. With a full range of features, including seamless integration with digital backs and a wide array of Carl Zeiss T* lenses, the Contax 645 is a high-quality tool not only for portrait, wedding and commercial professionals, but also for travel, stock and street photographers.

Contax 645 with Carl Zeiss Planar T* 80mm f/2 lens.

The rigid metal body is covered in a mixture of polycarbonate and carbon fiber. Polycarbonate helps to keep the weight down to a manageable 3 pounds (including the AE prism finder and film back, but not optics or the single 2CR5 6V-lithium battery). The carbon fiber also keeps weight down, while providing impact protection and scratch resistance.

The new Contax 645 body incorporates a motor drive with a maximum frame rate of 1.6 frames per second. Autofocus is neither as quiet nor as fast as photographers have come to expect with modern 35mm equipment, despite the fact that the Zeiss lenses incorporate in-lens motors and rear/internal focusing whenever practical.

Communication between the body, lens, viewfinder and film or digital back is completely electronic. Shutter speeds of the vertical-travel metal focal-plane shutter range from 32 seconds to 1/4000 second in Aperture Priority mode and 8 seconds to 1/4000 second in Shutter Priority mode. Manual mode offers the same speeds as Shutter Priority plus Bulb, X (1/90 second), and Mechanical Bulb. As might be expected from a camera targeted at professionals, the Contax 645 does not offer a Program mode.

	The Contax 645 can be set up to imprint a wide range of information on the film margin.

Flash sync is 1/125 second or slower. At present, none of the available Zeiss lenses incorporate built-in shutters, although the all-electronic coupling of the lenses to the body should allow leaf-shutter lenses in the future.

The layout of the Contax 645 controls is clean and uncluttered. The shutter release button is angled forward on the handgrip/battery compartment and is surrounded by the on/off switch. The on/off switch has an additional autofocus lock position, allowing the scene to be recomposed without having to hold down the shutter button half way, which can also be used to lock focus.

The top of the camera is dominated by the shutter speed dial and the similarly sized exposure compensation dial. Surrounding the shutter speed dial is the pre-flash metering switch. TTL pre-flash metering will work with any flash equipment, including studio packs. It is activated after setting a shutter speed and aperture and composing the photo.

By rotating the switch surrounding the shutter speed selection dial, the flash is triggered, and an error relative to the correct exposure in a range of ±2 EV is displayed on the flashmeter indicator in the viewfinder. If the indicator blinks, the error exceeds ±2 EV. Otherwise, simply adjust the aperture as indicated for correct exposure. Lens aperture is adjusted on the lens; there is no dial on the camera to change it.

Surrounding the exposure compensation dial is the automatic bracketing control. Two compensation values are available: ±0.5 and ±1.0 EV. Three different exposures are made: normal, over and under. In Aperture Priority and Manual modes the shutter speed is varied; in Shutter Priority mode, the aperture is varied. In Continuous shooting mode, selected by a dial on the side of the body, the Contax will take the three exposures and stop. They can also be made individually in the Single shooting mode.

On the back of the handgrip is the Focus Dial for selecting Manual, Continuous or Single autofocus and a central button that can override the selected mode. For example, in Manual mode, pressing that central button turns autofocusing back on. That is a very handy feature, and its controls are well positioned.

Most camera controls are grouped on the top of the handgrip, where they are easily accessible.

Other controls on the body allow for aperture stop-down, mirror lock-up, PC-cord connection, electronic shutter release, external power connection and more. The layout is well organized and intuitive, but I found some of the dials and levers difficult to operate, and they would be even more so for someone with larger hands. For example, in order to change the exposure mode, a tiny locking button must be pressed. In some designs this might be necessary. But with this camera, the exposure mode switch below the shutter speed dial is recessed enough that this additional button is unnecessary.

Two viewfinders are available: the AE prism finder is standard and a waist-level finder is available as an option. The AE prism finder provides spot and center-weighted metering options. Eyeglass wearers will need to move their heads around slightly to see all of the corners of the frame.

The viewfinder display is built into the body, so it is available with both finders. Essential information such as a frame counter, in-focus indicator, aperture and shutter speed values and an exposure bar are visible without being intrusive or overloading the photographer with information.

The interchangeable film back has its own set of dials and levers. The film back removal button will only operate with the dark slide in place. A dark slide storage slot is also provided. Turning a flip-up lever opens the film back for film changing.

	Carl Zeiss Planar T* 80mm f/2 (left) and Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* 45–90mm f/4.5 lens (right).

A film barcode reader is incorporated into the back to automatically set the ISO speed of DX-coded film. A large ISO-speed dial on the film back is used to set the film speed for non-barcoded films. Also on the side of the film back is a multiple-exposure lever.

Frame count and film type (120 or 220) are displayed on the top of the film back. The standard film insert accommodates both 120 and 220 film by rotation of the pressure plate. A Vacuum Film Insert for 220 films only is also available. This insert incorporates a mechanism to draw the film flat against the pressure plate for maximum sharpness. Also available is a Polaroid back and several digital backs.

Sinar made a Sinarback 43H back available to us to test the integration of the Contax 645 with digital equipment. They worked together seamlessly, and the still life images taken with the Sinarback were outstanding.

Undoubtedly, the new Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* 45–90mm f/4.5 lens, supplied along with the camera and its normal Planar T* 80mm f/2 played a substantial part in the quality of the images. The Vario-Sonnar puts to rest the debate about whether a zoom lens can be as sharp as equivalent prime lenses: at 80mm focal length, film images from the Vario-Sonnar are indistinguishable from those taken with the 80mm Planar.

With a focal length range covering wide-angle to normal (the equivalence approximately 28mm–56mm on a 35mm camera), and a constant f/4.5 aperture, this lens deserves consideration as the standard lens for the Contax 645, especially for photojournalists and wedding photographers. Granted, it suffers a size disadvantage in comparison with the 80mm. The Vario-Sonnar adds 2.6 lbs. and 5 inches to the body, but the combination is still very well-balanced. That combination does make you wish for a larger handgrip for a more secure hold, however.

Minimum aperture is f/32, and, as mentioned earlier, aperture adjustments are made by rotating the aperture ring on the lens. There are detents only at full f-stops. Filter diameter is 95mm.

With a focusing range from 1.6 feet to infinity, autofocus is slower than might be hoped for, but it is very precise. What is remarkable is the integration of auto and manual focusing: they both operate simultaneously without the need to switch from one to the other. You are able to fine-tune focus manually at any time. There is some resistance in the focusing ring initially, but the action is smooth with no backlash. In conjunction with the Focus Dial and Focus Button, a default focusing mode can be chosen, but it can be changed at any time. That’s a very elegant and effective way to handle focusing and focus lock.

A full range of autofocus Zeiss T* lenses is available for the Contax 645, besides the Vario-Sonnar T* 45–90mm f/4.5. These include focal lengths of 35mm, 45mm, 55mm, 80mm, 140mm, 210mm and 350mm. There is also a manual focus APO-Macro-Planar 120mm f/4 and a Mutar Teleconverter for 140mm and longer lenses.

The list price of the Contax 645 body only is $2775. The Contax 645 outfit including the body, 80mm lens, AE prism finder and film back is available for $5750. List price of the Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* 45–90mm f/4.5 is $4333.

Stan Sholik is a contributing writer for NewsWatch Feature Service. He is also a commercial photographer with over 30 years of large format studio and location experience.