RTSIII + ML 50 1.4 and Zeiss zoom...
Feb 3, 2021 14:34:24 GMT
on Feb 3, 2021 14:34:24 GMT
Last Edit: Feb 4, 2021 23:20:01 GMT by biggles3
Given the age of C/Y gear and the absence of spare parts, it's always useful to have duplicates.
This happy little bunch arrived last week: the legendary RTSIII, the lovely ML 50mm f1.4 and the Zeiss 28-85mm f3.3-4.0.
RTS3_ML 50 1.4_Zeiss 28-85
The camera remains a great piece of kit but it still saddens me to see how Kyocera failed to support it adequately with accessories. The one huge omission was a 250-back as enjoyed by the RTS and RTSII. The camera has a removable back but the manufacturer decided not to produce the one that was promised to those that were consulted on its specs. At just over 5fps, a film was finished in 7 seconds; as a sports photographer at the time, the combination of fast lenses, high shutter speeds (1/8000s) and that motor made it ideal to freeze action even in poor light BUT you would miss all the action unless you had 4 identical cameras and lenses plus an assistant to keep loading and unloading film... Not a practical, or affordable, proposition. But that 250-back was part of the initial proposal. The problem according to Kyocera was that it was technically too complex and expensive to produce a small number of bulk-backs with the vacuum-system and ceramic plate that was found in-camera. It was explained that a conventional plate (or just the ceramic plate as enjoyed by the ST) inside the bulk back would suffice and reduce the cost and complexity but they canned it all the same. So one of its most obvious target groups, given its specification, moved back to Nikon and Canon.
In the end, the only alternative back was not even a Contax product but was the rather excellent and advanced NPC Forscher Polaroid back as produced for the previous RTS models. Such a wasted opportunity and a great pity.
This happy little bunch arrived last week: the legendary RTSIII, the lovely ML 50mm f1.4 and the Zeiss 28-85mm f3.3-4.0.
RTS3_ML 50 1.4_Zeiss 28-85
The camera remains a great piece of kit but it still saddens me to see how Kyocera failed to support it adequately with accessories. The one huge omission was a 250-back as enjoyed by the RTS and RTSII. The camera has a removable back but the manufacturer decided not to produce the one that was promised to those that were consulted on its specs. At just over 5fps, a film was finished in 7 seconds; as a sports photographer at the time, the combination of fast lenses, high shutter speeds (1/8000s) and that motor made it ideal to freeze action even in poor light BUT you would miss all the action unless you had 4 identical cameras and lenses plus an assistant to keep loading and unloading film... Not a practical, or affordable, proposition. But that 250-back was part of the initial proposal. The problem according to Kyocera was that it was technically too complex and expensive to produce a small number of bulk-backs with the vacuum-system and ceramic plate that was found in-camera. It was explained that a conventional plate (or just the ceramic plate as enjoyed by the ST) inside the bulk back would suffice and reduce the cost and complexity but they canned it all the same. So one of its most obvious target groups, given its specification, moved back to Nikon and Canon.
In the end, the only alternative back was not even a Contax product but was the rather excellent and advanced NPC Forscher Polaroid back as produced for the previous RTS models. Such a wasted opportunity and a great pity.
