INTRODUCTION

The Contax AX is a 35mm film SLR camera made by Contax (Kyocera) in Japan between 1996 and 2005. It has a unique design that enable it to autofocus even with manual focus lenses.

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PERSONAL NOTES

When Canon and Nikon were making autofocus bodies, they also needed to update their manual focus lenses to new autofocus lenses. The lenses needed to communicate in some way with the bodies, so elements inside the lens would be able to move to make a proper focus. Contax, on the other hand, decided to opt for another design. Instead of making some elements move inside the lenses, they opted to move the film plane. This permitted to focus any of their previous manual lenses, but it also needed more space inside the camera body to move the film plane back and forth.

So, the Contax AX is a bigger than usual SLR. The grip is good, buti, because of its size, I always feel like it's about to slip out of my hand.

The autofocus system works surprisingly fine. It's probably not fast enought for a sports/action shooter, but for what I do, it's pretty good.

The autofocus hunted a bit in low light, more that wat I am used to, but again, this is from 1996.

Where the system really shines, is when you switch the camera in "macro" mode. When you do so, the film plane goes way back in the body and any lens you have on the camera becomes a macro lens. This is really fun.

The AX is known for beign a fragile beast, mine was inexpenive, but had some issues where the mirror stucked in the up position.

CONCLUSION

The Contax AX is something every camera enthousiasti should try. Special and fun. Be sure to pay a bit more to get one in a good mechanical order.

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