To find an autofocus rangefinder camera, one can look only to the Contax G series. In his review of the G2 last year, Casual Photophile founder James called this interchangeable-lens autofocus rangefinder “a camera in a class of its own.” Some might be wont to suggest the Konica Hexar AF as a companion machine, but such a camera lacks the triangulation-focusing characteristic of a rangefinder. This runs in direct opposition to what nearly everyone claims, that the G2 is the better of the two without question. But it does get a little more controversial when I specify that I’m particularly targeting its younger brother, the Contax G2.

This opinion isn’t completely wild, the G1 is known to be a great camera. We just love unloved cameras, and finding value in something under-valued is one of life’s great pleasures.Īll of this points us to today’s writing, and the opinion I’m proffering within – that the Contax G1 is the best 35mm luxury camera one can buy on today’s market. Or the early-days article that heralded the Minolta CLE as the best M mount body, an at-the-time controversial opinion that has become more widely accepted, or at least begrudgingly tolerated. This leads to occasional opinions that might appear intentionally contrarian. You can see this in some of our tongue-in-cheek articles, such as when we listed our least favorite cameras and they ended up being traditional crowd favorites Leica, the Mju II, and the AE-1, to name a few. This is, for my tastes, where Contax arises as the foremost competitor to Leica.Ĭasual Photophile has always been a place where a few quiet voices issue unpopular takes that are evidence-based and hype-opposed.

But also the ubiquity of Leica-appreciation makes the cameras somehow uninteresting to me. To start, I have little interest in paying the prices that M bodies and lenses demand (and even less ability to do so). But for some reason, the Leica bug has never seemed to bite me. From my first foray into modern film photography, I was confronted by the apparent supremacy of Leica and its M mount.

Contax g2 sample photos