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Preview Polaroid Camera

G

Guest

Hi Folks,

Does anyone recall or have experience with the Preview or Preview II Contax Cameras which stopped production around 1986 ?

I myself am getting into more professional work and need a good polaroid system for my Aria and TLR. My alternatives are as follows:

1) Buy a used Contax Preview for about $600 and
use my existing MM lenses. The disadvantages
are that I only get a single shot per film
and that I have no TTL control for flash.

2) Buy a used 167MT and an NPC back, possibly
totalling around $1000. With this, you get
two shots per roll and can maintain all
AE modes plus TTL Flash ( assuming the TLA
360 works well with the 167MT )

3) Buy a use Nikon F3 with NPC Polaroid back.
This of course involves a new camera system.

Does anyone have experience with the Preview series or using Contax main bodies in this way ? or am I pushing 35mm into what a real interchangeable back medium Format system should be doing for me ?

Thanks,

Alan in Indianapolis
 
you are a candidate for the rollei 3000-system. interchangable backs, zeiss-lenses, smalll body, two viewers, ttl-flash. what do you need more? i am reflecting about buying it.
 
what is the difference between preview and preview II? i know that the body is a yashica fx-3. keep in mind: the angle-viewer is different from the standard one because there is no prism-system. i would forget the preview and use a polaroid 180 or 195 instead. there is a company who has rebuilt one of them. it a better choice to check. i did never understand why photographers use such polaroid-testshots. testing the lighting ok, but how people look? if i check such perfect shots i only see unnatural models. shooting is the best way the models look natural. and not fumbling around with technology.
 
>rollei 3000-system - i am reflecting about buying it.<

Good luck if you buy it. I really like that camera. I hear they may not be that reliable. Anyone use one for a while?
 
Jeff,
I bought one of the last new Rolleiflex 3003 cameras in the early 1990s. I had a few older lenses (Zeiss, partly made by Rollei), which I loved to use (the quality is quite similar to the Contax MF-line). But although the camera was a pleasure to use, I had trouble with one of the exchangeable backs (it did not always transport the film, so I got - unvoluntarily - multiple exposures). In spite of a check by an authorised service repairshop, who found the magazine functioning "in normal parameters", it did not work with my camera. In the end, I sold the whole system in favour of Contax gear. Although the same lenses for Contax are much more expensive than their Rollei counterparts, I felt I could not afford unreliable material. It's a pity, because in theory the 3003-system was simply ingenious.
 
contax 137ma has a similar mistake. i had double or halfway-doubleexposures shooting aerials. every second year the end of film-stop did not work. any camera can have problems. if it is not solved by repair or exchange then you have the wrong system. but changing the system if a back does not work on a camera is very strange.do you thing rollei invested so much time and money to produce crap? lens-quality is the same not similar! i have tested a rollei sx(6x6 motordriven). fantastic 80mm-lens! you need not test older lenses against newer contax-zeiss. the old quality -if there are differences-is still beyond the range of todays film-resolution. and: if you test: use rts III. all other options will not produce 100% comparison due to the lacking vaccum-system. and finally: stop this silly comparisomn of zeiss against other brands. buy used non-mm-lenses, they are cheap.
 
Re: what's the difference between Preview I and II.

Preview I :1982
Type A - Chrome back,1/1000s fastest speed, 1/125s flash sync.
Type B - Black back, 1/1000s fastest speed, 1/125s flash sync.

Preview II :1995
1/4000s fastest speed, 1/250s flash sync.

Preview I Chrome
96493.jpg


Preview I Black
96494.jpg


Preview II
96495.jpg


Cheers, Bob.
 
Rumours say that it could be the S2. Makes sense, Preview I - mechanical FX-3? Preview II- mechanical S2?

Specs look right! But I don't know for sure!

Cheers, Bob.
 
Quick question: Using the Preview cameras...is the image reversed left-to-right on the polaroid film ?

Thanks,

Alan
 
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