CONTAX 645

[London Calling]

Hello ,
wondering if you can help , I have a lovely old Contax 645 Kit sat doing nothing , does anyone know if there was ever a company that made adapter
plates for Phase one backs to fit the Contax .
I recently discovered Kipon
adapter rings to let me use my Blad lenses on Canon 5d mk11's , these work
really well if anyone was thinking of trying them ..
Best Regards
LC...

 

[engel001]

There are still many Contax 645 in use today. I have found them very reliable and they are modular. All past and present Leaf and Phase One backs are available in Contax mount. I traded in my P25 a couple of years ago for a P65+ and you can go as high as the IQ180 or as low as around $5000 for an older P back still with stunning image quality. The mount on the back is permanently fixed and the selection of used backs for Contax may be limited. For a fee (? around $2000), a back with another mount can be factory switched to Contax. The Zeiss autofocus lenses make this a very appealing system. Lens prices are phenomenal when compared to current competitors or even top 35mm lenses.

 

[engel001]

The other way you could go is adapt your Contax 645 lenses to be used on Canon, with full automation and autofocus. You would need to get a NAM-1 adapter to Contax N (the modern, short-lived and sadly defunct 35mm autofocus system) and have it converted by Conurus. That will cost you altogether close to $2000 but you could use all of your Contax 645 lenses. I don't see the point of this with exception of perhaps the 120mm Apo Makro-Planar. Rather, I would recommend looking into a digital back, as discussed above. Regarding adapters, there are such by Contax (MAM-1, around $500) and third parties (cheaper) which would allow you to use your Hasselblad V lenses on Contax 645.