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me and medium format, what a fate

drevil

Well-known member
Staff member
Hi everybody,

like 3/4 of a year ago i decided i wanted to make a step upwards from from 5DII and switch to medium format. as a good friend uses a contax 645 with superb results it was a no brainer which system i wanted.

i bought a nice contax kit and waited for my christmas holiday to pick it up in germany, i work and live in china for the time being.
i shot the first roll and the images were all quite dark, and the spot metering seemed not to work at all.
i contacted the seller who denied to know anything about it, but later on told me, he would take it back for testing and if the testing would confirm my problems i would get my money back. i asked for his address, since i threw away the package with the "sending letter" but that was it, no response whats so ever. he will hear from my lawyer soon.

so i was on the lookout for another nice copy of this camera and i got lucky, it also included the 80mm and 35mm, batterygrip.
it did cost a bit more but hell, its the 35mm right?

so since i was back in china, the seller shipped the camera to my fathers home, there he checked it and it looked all good. so the plan was to ship the camera in a camera bag and package to berlin to my companies office, and wait for a colleague to bring it to me at the next business trip.

that was like 4 months ago, none of the colleagues, including the boss wouldnt dare to bring it to me, how nice.

so since my next vacation grows closer i told me IT boss to just take it back to hamburg, where i could pick it up myself while on vacation.

so yesterday i was reminding him twice and the office secretary once to not to forget the bag.

this morning i woke up and checked my emails and found an email from my boss.

telling me that he took the bag BUT FORGOT IT IN THE TRAIN FROM BERLIN TO HAMBURG............:wtf::wtf::wtf::wtf::wtf: :facesmack::cussing::cussing::cussing::cussing::cussing:

ITS (insert F word here) UNBELIEVABLE
in the meantime i acquired a p45+ i wanted to use with the camera, i would say my next vacation is ruined, somebody does not want me to become happy with this camera system!

sorry but i really needed to write this down:angry:
 

Jorgen Udvang

Subscriber Member
It's a sign. When things like that happens, you know that you're not supposed to have that camera. Go for something else. I'm at the buying end of MF myself these days, and in spite of buying different components from 5 different sellers in 4 different countries, everything has gone very smoothly so far, only one delivery left. But that's a Fuji, not a Contax :)

Apart from that, I feel your pain. But why don't you just pop over to Japan or down to Hong Kong to buy your camera? Plenty of used ones in both places and flights within Asia are cheap these days. There are members on this forum at both places who can lead you to the best stores.
 

GrahamWelland

Subscriber & Workshop Member
That's just unfair bad luck. I hope your medium format journey gets better from this point onwards. The good news obviously is the P45+ is a fabulous place to start ... once you've got a camera that works of course.

Btw, why not get the original Contax fixed? I'm sure that there are specialists out there (KEH for example in the US) that could sort out any metering or other problems with your Contax.

I hope your luck improves.
 

drevil

Well-known member
Staff member
chris, my boss already contacted them

as far as for the first contax body, i bought it as a so called functionable body, well it didnt, and the behaviour of the pre ownder is more than disrespectable, so i dont know why i would give him the satisfaction with my money.

of course i could let it repair and sue him for the costs, but its not the way i see it
 

gazwas

Active member
of course i could let it repair and sue him for the costs, but its not the way i see it
Bad luck but suing for the costs........ Really???

Just get the first camera fixed or just used a light meter if its a metering problem and crack on. Not great that you were sold a not fully functioning camera but I'd be itching to get started if I had the back waiting and IMO one of the problems with choosing the Contax mount is there are not as many easily available cameras around as say in Mamiya or HB mount.
 

PeterL

Member
I feel sorry for you - such bad luck!

However, don't worry about the meter. Just use the histogram on your P45+ back to judge exposure, much easier and accurate.

Good luck, -Peter
 

T.Karma

New member
It's a sign. When things like that happens, you know that you're not supposed to have that camera. Go for something else.
It depends. Sometimes yes, ...... but sometimes you need to prove your will power in order to achieve something. Best way to know which is it, is to ask yourself if it is only the desire of aquisation or real aspiration to do something with it.

of course ...... IMHO :)

good luck
 

drevil

Well-known member
Staff member
hope after all, seems like my gear was found by the deutsche bahn! :thumbup:
 

dick

New member
You probably did but if not you should definitely contact the lost-and-found office of DB:

Chris
I left my MFD kit on a local bus in Switzerland...

Fortunately I was with my last girlfriend who is fluent in English, French, German, Spanish and Italian, and the bus was on a regular "to and fro" rout... and the bus brought the camera back to us within half an hour!
 
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