Kyocera announced last week that they were discontinuing production of all Contax branded cameras, including the Contax 645 system. Find out why pro photographer Michael Reichmann believes there may be plenty of mileage left in the Contax brand yet…

“Contax is one of, if not the oldest and most venerable names in photographic history. Carl Zeiss owns the brand name, and Zeiss is very much a going concern. In fact there are few photographers who don’t appreciate, if not actually covet owning and using Zeiss lenses. For Zeiss to abandon the Contax brand and its flagship camera now doesn’t seem like a sensible thing that any company would do, (especially since it was Kyocera who took all the losses in recent years – which of course is why they bailed out). So, assuming that the designs and tooling for the 645 bodies and accessories are available to Zeiss (the lenses of course are), I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see the 645 Contax camera either resurrected, or re-released in an updated form in the not too distant future.”

Website: Luminous Landscape - CONTAX 645 R.I.P. or Resurrection?