Davide Caniatti

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.

The 90s were undoubtedly the golden age of point & shoots. Innovations in the optical field, as the introduction of AF and the help of electronics, have helped to create iconic camera bodies even today. Among them, there is certainly the Contax TVS. The German-Japanese brand took full advantage of this trend, producing many popular models such as the T2 and, indeed, the TVS. With the advent of digital, these camera bodies were among the first to disappear, as they were intended for those rich amateurs, who went digital before professionals.

If analog photography in 2021 may seem prehistoric to some, the technology in 2002 was decidedly antediluvian compared to the one we use today. Digital sensors were already rapidly establishing themselves, the previous year the Nikon D1x was released, the first authentic DSLR designed for a large market. At the same time, however, the iPhone was still 5 years away, the most popular social network was Friendster and Wall-Mart was the biggest company in the world.

The G series of rangefinder camera lenses created by Carl Zeiss in the 1990s is universally considered one of the best creations of the turn of the century, an absolute swan song for film. However, among so many lenses acclaimed by the public and critics like the 45mm Planar, there has always been a caveat. The 35mm, introduced later for the updated Contax G1 green label, was immediately judged too soft and inferior to the rest of the kit.