I figured that I should give an update on this little camera, having used it quite a bit, recently…and the update is this: I absolutely love it. I honestly don’t know that there’s a better option for my particular working style, because this tiny little thing has exactly what I want and nothing that I don’t need. It is unpretentious, simple, and surprisingly low-tech…and those are nice descriptors. It’s as if I was very good in a previous life, and some benevolent deity has decided to reward me.
To explain: I’ve often said that the equipment one uses to photograph doesn’t really matter…and I stand by that, here. I do not need this camera to make good photos. I do not need any particular camera to make good photos…but some cameras manage to get out of my way better than others, physically and functionally, and as such they allow me to concentrate on making good images instead of worrying about what my camera is doing. My M3 is very much like this, and I’ve carried it on several trips…but this little dingus does everything that the M3 can do, only in a smaller, lighter and simpler package. Sure, you lose lens interchangeability when you move to a point-and-shoot, but I don’t swap lenses on my M3 so what does that function matter? I’ve had the same 50/2 on it for about six years now, so it might as well be cemented in place. That focal length matches my view of the world quite well in most cases, as does the 35/2.8 that the T3 wears. It’s incredibly liberating to not even have the option to swap a lens: it forces me to see rather than to look and descend into contemplations of alteration. This mentality will not work for everyone, obviously…but other methods are available.
I like the lightness and the quickness, as I’ve previously said, and I like where the controls are placed. The only thing that I don’t like is that Contax didn’t give me a factory option for changing ISO settings…and as I severely deviate from box speeds, this can be a bit of a pain. Thankfully, stick-on DX coding labels exist; this erases the one gripe I could have about the camera.
It would be nice to have the ability to show a few images that I’ve created with the T3, but the scanning and correction technologies that are required to make digital representations mimic my prints are sadly beyond me at this time. I may investigate a third-party service for this kind of thing at some point in the future, but for now, it’s not a happening thing. As always, however, prints are available for those that are interested.
Future changes: not many. I may decide to use a yellow filter at some point in order to tone down/up certain values in the negatives, but I’m not decided on that course, yet. Until then, I’ll just keep a plain skylight filter in place as a lens protector, and continue to learn the subtleties that Zeiss built into this little jewel. It really is a nice bit of kit; too bad that doesn’t really make much of an impact on anything. 😉
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