Davide Caniatti

In early June, I was hired for the first wedding of my life. It is not the first time that I have been paid - a little - to be a photographer, but it was the very first time someone entrusted me the most important day of their life. I was very anxious and nervous at the same time. The set-up was ready: my trusty Fuji GFX 50R with 32-64mm and the adapted 80mm Planar T *.

The first time I wrote about Contax TVS Digital was over a year ago. The discovery of this little digital camera was surprising to me. Not only does the technology of 20 years ago seem absurdly old, but above all useless. When I picked it up, I did it with an almost archaeological spirit, as if to reconstruct the functioning of a now-forgotten object. In fact, over time I realized that it is something much more: it works, and takes beautiful photos!

2021 was a challenging year. Now that it comes to an end, it is right to give us a little treat. In this spirit, I tried my luck and bought myself a Contax 645. It is a bit of a gamble as these cameras are prone to problems and malfunctions. Unlike other past models, once broken there is no way to repair them. Or rather, there is a way to cannibalize other bodies to take the necessary parts, but it is never an actual repair, but at most a transplant.

Some heroes are celebrated more than others. They gradually enter the legends and remain etched in the collective imagination. Much the same happens with lenses. However, there are also some equally deserving people who for one reason or another never rise to the status of legends. Not that they’re much worse, but they’re just not flashy enough to make headlines. Also in this case there is a parallelism in photography. The Contax G 28mm Biogon is exactly that: a great performer, who is never talked about well enough.

There are things in life that are rarely done, and graduating is for sure one of them. A few weeks ago, the inevitable happened to me too, thus concluding my academic career. Just in those days, my trusted dealer listed a 16mm Hologon, the widest lens ever made for Contax G. Like most 16mm, it is not something one ever really needs. At the same time, it seemed like a curious coincidence, and I was looking for a small gift to buy myself: in other words, I could not resist.