Introduction
I’ve owned a lot of point and shoots over the years, from the cult classic Olympus Mju ii, all the way down to wasteful disposable cameras destined to end up in a bin and I haven’t enjoyed myself nearly as much as I have with the Contax TVS.
This camera screams luxury, the way it looks, the way it feels, it’s honestly a great experience with one or two hiccups, which we will get to soon. The boys over at contax knew what people were used to and what they wanted, 35mm has always been a great focal length but struggles in cosy spaces like apartments and zoom cameras have always been a bit rubbish towards the end of their focal length so they shoved a 28mm-56mm carl zeiss lens in this bad boy and people loved it! To this day this is the widest contax has ever gone with its T series cameras.
History
Kyocera first released this camera in 1994, this version of the T series changed out the prime sonnar 38mm f2.8 carl zeiss lens for a carl zeiss vario sonnar T* 28mm-56mm F/3.5-6.5 zoom lens. The body design largely copied it’s predecessor the Contax T2 except the latest technology added and a few other small additions.
What I love about this camera
Since first purchasing this camera I’ve gotten a lot of compliments over the years, the look and gold finish is polarizing and its just one of those cameras you feel good having on you, almost like a beautiful watch or a shiny bit of gold.
Other than the looks, this camera is a smash hit in terms of image quality, I was genuinely blown away by how some of these images came out. Another nice surprise that people don’t talk about is the night/portrait mode, essentially the cameras flash fires before the delayed shutter closes and it really does a great job of separating your subject from their background. This camera, unlike other point and shoots, also remembers your previous settings therefore there won’t be a need to remember to turn off your flash if you know you don’t use it all that much.
Final thoughts
This camera truly is praise worthy, it’s sleek, the zoom is usable at all focal lengths, the flash modes are great and the button layout is convenient but the camera is slightly bigger than most point and shoots in its time and the camera itself is noticeably hefty, atleast heavier than you’d expect it to be af first glance. regardless this camera is a keeper and I plan to use it until either it dies or I find something better, which is highly unlikely.