Contax AX
Contax (Kyocera) · Contax/Yashica mount · 1996
single source, unconfirmedAlso known as: Contax AX · CONTAX AX · Kyocera Contax AX · Contax AX body · Contax AX autofocus · Contax AX 35mm SLR · Contax AX C/Y · コンタックス AX · コンタックスAX · CONTAX AX ボディ
Variants & identification
| Variant | Mount | Years | Serial ranges | Production |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AX (1996–2005) | Contax/Yashica | 1996–2005 | — | — |
- Every specification figure on this page is Emulsive's transcription of the maker's table (shutter range, 1/200 sync, 95% and 0.8×, 1.08kg, 162 × 123.5 × 72mm, one 2CR5, 3 and 5 frames/s, EV 2–21). Japanese Wikipedia confirms the mechanism (ceramic shafts and guide rails, ultrasonic motor, 10mm of film-plane travel) and the April 1996 release but gives no numbers beyond the travel. No Kyocera page for the AX was reached, so the figures stand on one transcription; hence the single-source flag.
- The 10mm travel sets a hard limit: lenses longer than about 180mm cannot be autofocused across their full range, and Emulsive advises setting approximate focus by hand first. Lenses with floating elements (Emulsive lists the Distagons and Planars from 15mm to 100mm) do not get their close-range correction when the body, rather than the lens, does the focusing, so Emulsive calls pre-focusing on them necessary for edge sharpness; Japanese Wikipedia makes the same point.
- A yen launch price of ¥198,000 circulates on enthusiast pages but was not found in any source read for this page, and is not adopted. Japanese Wikipedia's Contax article lists no body prices.
- Emulsive's correspondent describes the bottom plate as thin plastic over the battery, and accepted a reader's correction that it is titanium like the top plate.
How to tell them apart
- The depth: 72mm front to back for a 35mm SLR, with the inner body visible travelling when the camera focuses (Emulsive; Japanese Wikipedia)
- CAF / SAF / MF / Macro focus-mode switch, and a Macro position that racks the film plane fully back to focus closer than the lens alone allows (Emulsive; mat.uc.pt)
- Shutter-speed dial on the left shoulder with the mode, ISO and custom-function switch beneath it; AF/AF-L button and dial on the back (Emulsive)
- Any Contax/Yashica lens, AE or MM, mounts and autofocuses; there is no AX-specific lens line (Japanese Wikipedia)
AX (1996–2005):
- A body 72mm deep, far thicker than any other Contax/Yashica SLR, because the inner body travels inside it (Emulsive; Japanese Wikipedia compares the depth to a dictionary)
- Focus-mode switch marked CAF, SAF, MF and Macro; the shutter-speed dial sits on the left of the top plate with a secondary switch for exposure mode, ISO and custom functions (Emulsive)
- A rear button and dial set AF or AF-L behaviour; titanium top plate (Emulsive)
- AX (1996–2005): The only version. Production is given as 1996–2005 by Emulsive's specification table; no production total has been found, and Emulsive records only that more than 100 patents on the camera's technology were pending at release.
Specifications
- Finder
- fixed eye-level pentaprism, high eyepoint with about 25mm eye relief, built-in dioptre correction +0.5 to −2 (Emulsive) · 0.8× magnification · 95% coverage · no rangefinder image
- Shutter
- vertical-travel metal focal plane, electronically controlled (Emulsive) · 32s–1/6000 in aperture priority and program; 4s–1/4000 in shutter priority and manual; B (Emulsive) · flash sync 1/200 and slower (Emulsive)
- Film advance
- built-in motor: single frame, continuous low at about 3 frames/s, continuous high at about 5 frames/s (Emulsive)
- Meter
- TTL centre-weighted and 5mm spot; program, aperture priority, shutter priority and manual; compensation ±2 EV in 1/3 steps (Emulsive). Autofocus by TTL phase detection on a single central zone, sensing range EV 2–21 (Emulsive; mat.uc.pt, which sets the EV 2 floor against the Pentax Z-1p's −1)
- Motor drive
- Not compatible — Motor built in, so no separate winder or drive exists (Emulsive)
- Weight
- 1080 g
- Dimensions
- 162 × 123.5 × 72 (W × H × D), body only, 1.08kg without battery (Emulsive) mm
- Country
- Japan
- Original price
- $2,795 body only, Popular Photography, May 1996 (cited by Emulsive); £1,900 in the United Kingdom in 1996 (mat.uc.pt) (today $5,590)
- Accessories
- Power through one 6V 2CR5 lithium cell in the base (Emulsive) · Contax TLA-series TTL flashes on the hot shoe; sync at 1/200 and slower (Emulsive) · Contax/Yashica lenses of both AE and MM generations, all of which the body autofocuses within its 10mm travel (Japanese Wikipedia; Emulsive)
Where sources disagree
- Original price
- $2,795 body only — Popular Photography, May 1996, cited by Emulsive
- £1,900 in the UK; a New York price of $1,900 given with a question mark — mat.uc.pt, 1996
Better supported: $2,795
The two are different markets, not a contradiction; the New York figure is the author's own uncertain note and is not adopted.
What reviewers say
- EM (Emulsive) (blog) — A long-term user's account of the only camera that autofocuses manual-focus lenses: big, expensive and strange, with a 10mm travel that rules out full-range autofocus on long lenses and needs pre-focusing on floating-element wide-angles. 'Sure, the AX has its drawbacks but the workarounds, well…work.'
- Sam (Camera Legend) (blog) — A 2016 'Tuesday Titans' piece that found the autofocus slow, which he expected, and unreliable, which he did not: 'most of the time, for me, it didn't hit its mark.' He rates it well built but bulky, and prefers to use it as a manual-focus body. His first example malfunctioned and went back; his second came as a parts camera with a broken battery-chamber lock.
- R. P. Santos (mat.uc.pt) (blog) — Written against Amateur Photographer's review of July 1996: the body-shift autofocus is accurate and 'very quiet' but hunts more than the best systems and is weaker in low light; the restricted range with telephotos matters less in practice than the magazine said, and the macro mode is the happiest accident of the design. At £1,900 it makes sense mainly for someone who already owns many Zeiss lenses.
History
The AX is Kyocera’s answer to a problem of its own making. The Contax/Yashica mount of 1975 had no autofocus lenses, and Zeiss was not going to make any, so in April 1996 Kyocera released a body that focuses the lens by moving everything behind it. The film gate, mirror box and shutter sit in an inner body that travels up to 10mm along ceramic shafts and guide rails, driven by an ultrasonic motor, and a TTL phase-detection sensor on a single central zone tells it where to stop (Japanese Wikipedia; Emulsive). Any Zeiss lens made for the mount since 1975 becomes an autofocus lens on it. Emulsive records more than 100 patents pending on the mechanism at release and a Popular Photography price of $2,795 for the body alone in May 1996; in Britain it was £1,900 (mat.uc.pt).
The price of the idea is the body. It is 72mm deep and weighs 1.08kg without its 2CR5 cell, and Japanese Wikipedia compares it to a dictionary. Inside the depth is a camera of the RTS III generation: 32 seconds to 1/6000 in aperture priority and program, 4 seconds to 1/4000 in shutter priority and manual, 1/200 flash sync, centre-weighted and 5mm spot metering, a 95% finder at 0.8× with 25mm of eye relief, and a built-in motor giving about 3 or 5 frames a second (Emulsive). A Macro position on the focus-mode switch racks the inner body fully back, so every lens focuses closer than its own helicoid allows; Amateur Photographer’s reviewer in 1996 called it the best accident of design he could recall (mat.uc.pt).
The 10mm of travel sets the limits. Lenses longer than about 180mm cannot be autofocused across their full range, so Emulsive sets approximate focus by hand and lets the body finish the job. Lenses with floating elements get no close-range correction when the lens does not move, and Emulsive lists the Distagons and Planars from 15mm to 100mm as needing a pre-focus for edge sharpness. In use the reviews split along those lines: Emulsive’s long-term user finds the workarounds work; R. P. Santos finds the autofocus accurate and quiet but prone to hunting and weak in low light; Sam at Camera Legend found it slow, as expected, and inaccurate, which he had not expected, and uses his as a manual-focus body. All three agree it was built for people who already own a shelf of Zeiss glass.
Manufacture ran from 1996 to 2005 by Emulsive’s table, and no production total has been found. A yen price of ¥198,000 is repeated on enthusiast pages without a source that could be read, and is not adopted here. Camera Legend’s author paid about $300 for his first example in 2016 and about $80 for a second sold for parts, which is the only used-price evidence in the sources above.
This history is AI-written, from the sources listed at the foot of the page. Where the record is silent it says so rather than filling the gap — but no human wrote these sentences.
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