The Contax N Digital was a six-megapixel

digital SLR A digital single-lens reflex camera (digital SLR or DSLR) is a digital camera that combines the optics and mechanisms of a single-lens reflex camera with a solid-state image sensor and digitally records the images from the sensor. The reflex des ...

camera A camera is an instrument used to capture and store images and videos, either digitally via an electronic image sensor, or chemically via a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. As a pivotal technology in the fields of photograp ...

produced by

Contax Contax (stylised as CONTAX in the Yashica/Kyocera era) began as a German camera model in the Zeiss Ikon line in 1932, and later became a brand name. The early cameras were among the finest in the world, typically featuring high quality Carl Zeis ...

in Japan. The camera was announced in late 2000, and began to be sold in spring 2002, after several delays. The camera received mixed reviews from the press, and was withdrawn from the market within a year of its introduction. It was noteworthy for being the first

full-frame digital SLR A full-frame DSLR is a digital single-lens reflex camera (DSLR) with a 35 mm image sensor format (). Historically, 35 mm was one of the standard film formats, alongside larger ones, such as medium format and large format. Many digit ...

, with an imaging chip the full size of a

135 film file:135film.jpg, 135 film. The film is wide. Each image is 24×36 mm in the most common "small film" format (sometimes called "double-frame" for its relationship to the "single-frame" 35 mm movie format or full frame after the introduc ...

frame. All previous digital SLRs had a smaller sensor, giving a cropped view (see

magnification factor In digital photography, the crop factor, format factor, or focal length multiplier of an image sensor format is the ratio of the dimensions of a camera's imaging area compared to a reference format; most often, this term is applied to digital ...

). The imaging sensor was a

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), simply branded Philips, is a Dutch multinational health technology company that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, its world headquarters have been situated in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarter ...

FTF3020-C, which had previously been used in the

Jenoptik Jenoptik AG is a Jena, Germany-based integrated photonics company. The company is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and is included in the TecDAX stock index. History The group can trace its heritage back to the original Carl Zeiss AG c ...

''Eyelike'' medium format

digital back A digital camera back is a device that attaches to the back of a camera in place of the traditional negative film holder and contains an electronic image sensor. This allows cameras that were designed to use film take digital photographs. Th ...

Pentax was a Japanese camera and optical equipment manufacturer. Currently, it exists as the Pentax Life Care Business Division of Hoya's medical endoscope business, as well as the digital camera brand of Ricoh Imaging, a subsidiary of Ricoh. Penta ...

also planned to use the sensor in a full-frame digital SLR, the Pentax MZ-D, but abandoned work on the prototype in late 2001. The sensor featured ISO settings as low as ISO 25, but the reviews noted that it had a relatively high noise level above ISO 100. The next full-frame digital SLRs were the

Canon EOS-1Ds The EOS-1Ds is a full-frame 11.1-megapixel digital SLR camera body made by Canon in the 1Ds series, released on 24 September 2002. It was Canon's first full-frame DSLR. Its dimensions are 156 x 157.6 x 79.9 mm (6.1 x 6.2 x 3.1 in.) ...

of late 2002, followed by Kodak's DCS Pro 14n in 2003. Nikon and Sony introduced full-frame models in 2007 and 2008 respectively. The N Digital was based on the short-lived Contax N range of 35mm film SLRs, and used the Contax N-mount lens system. Nine lenses were produced for this mount, by

Carl Zeiss Carl Zeiss (; 11 September 1816 – 3 December 1888) was a German scientific instrument maker, optician and businessman. In 1846 he founded his workshop, which is still in business as Zeiss (company), Zeiss. Zeiss gathered a group of gifted p ...

. There were three Contax N-Mount cameras – two 35mm film SLR bodies, plus the N Digital – all of which are now discontinued. Contax's parent company

Kyocera is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational ceramics and electronics manufacturer headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It was founded as in 1959 by Kazuo Inamori and renamed in 1982. It manufactures industrial ceramics, solar power genera ...

withdrew from the digital imaging market in 2005.

References

Contax DSLR cameras Contax N-mount cameras Full-frame DSLR cameras {{camera-stub