The camera is very light, at 460g (16.2oz), and very nice to hold. It is a really nice camera for hiking and traveling.
The tripod socket is centered, unlike that of the 167MT, and it has been moved a bit forward, so that the light Aria body is better balanced on tripod. Also, unlike the RTS-II and 139, the Aria can be mounted flush on a large tripod head with small lenses (the ones that take 55mm filters) without having the aperture ring interfere with the tripod base.
All dials are smooth to operate, except for the on-off lever that is slightly stiffer. This might be good to prevent the camera from switching on in a crowded camera bag. I find the meter selector for evaluative, center-weighted, and spot metering easy to use with the thumb even with camera at eye level. The lettering of all dials is painted onto recessed lettering outlines, so that it is resistent to abrasion, and it is quite pleasing esthetically.
A nice feature is that when you use the DOF preview, the camera automatically activates AE lock, so you can read the correct exposure in the finder even when previewing DOF.
The viewfinder gives 0.82 magnification (with 50mm lens at infinity). It's not quite like the 0.87 of the RTS-II, or the 0.9 of the Yashica FX-3, and it shows. On the other hand, the viewfinder is bright and contrasty, so focusing is easy. Also, if you like high-magnification finders, you may be out of luck with modern Contaxes: the RX is 0.8, even less.
I have found the focusing of the Aria to be very accurate - meaning that the lens-to-film and the lens-to-focusing-screen distances were equal, as far as I have been able to detect.
The viewfinder screens are interchangeable, and you can select from 4 different types.
The Aria is not in the same league. The shutter delay is average, and the camera is slightly more noisy. However, in practical use I have never found the shutter lag to be bothersome, and I have never had any problem with camera vibration, not even when shooting macro with times of 1/4 or 1/8 seconds. The RX might be better, but I really could not detect any problem with the Aria.
The RX gives you a better balanced camera with heavy lenses: the Aria with an 85/1.4 nose-dives a bit, and it is not that comfortable to hold. On the other hand, the Aria shines with the lighter Contax lenses: 28/2.8, 35/2.8, 50/1.4, 50/1.7, 85/2.8.
The meter is very precise and well calibrated. It perfectly agrees with my Luna-Pro Digital F exposure meter over the whole range of exposures metered by both. It was not so for my RTS-II meter, that had a difference of 1/3 stop between high-light and low-light performance. I often shoot slides, and the well-calibrated meter, together with the spot meter, has been a true blessing: I noticed a definite improvement in exposure accuracy for slides (and the slides I took with the RTS-II were good already). Note that when I am saying that the meter is very precise, I mean just that: it measures the light with great precision (linearity over the whole scale, and sufficient accuracy). To achieve proper exposure, you still need to interpret the meter results (i.e., you have to think, and not always use the exposure the meter tells you), but having a precise reading as starting point is a great help.
Compared to the meter of the RTS-II, the meter is over-sensitive to red, and you need to compensate when metering through the lens while using filters for black and white photography. A comparison between the exposure compensation needed by the RTS-II and the Aria is as follows:
| Filter | RTS II | Aria |
|---|---|---|
| Light Blue (B+W 080) | 0 | 0 |
| Green (B+W 061) | 0 | 0 |
| Medium Yellow (B+W 022) | 0 | 0 |
| Yellow-Orange (B+W 040) | 0 | +2/3 |
| Orange-Red (B+W 090) | +1/2 | +1 2/3 |
This makes shooting with filters for black and white photography a bit inconvenient: you have to set the exposure compensation correctly each time you change filters or lenses, if the lenses have different filters. This also means that you must be careful to interpret the readings of the spot meter when metering red subjects. In my house, under tungsten illumination, the spot meter gives the same reading on a light-yellow wall, and on a solid red curtain that covers part of the same wall. This over-sensitivity to red is caused most likely by the type of photodiodes used in the exposure meter, but I wonder why a better filter has not been placed in front of the photodiodes. This over-sensitivity is shared also by my Gossen Luna-Pro meter, but it is less serious in an incident meter (that measures a more balanced light) than in a spot meter (that is often used to meter objects of specific colors).
The meter gives up when the light is too low. With any lens you mount, fully open, at 100 ASA the longest exposure the Aria indicates is 2 seconds. At 400 ASA, it is 1/2 second, and so forth. I can actually shoot at 1/8 second and 1600 ASA film (and 28mm lens), yet this is the longest time (with lens open) it indicates. The problem is also that if the light is too low, the Aria just displays an incorrect time (the lowest it can meter) with no indication of "out of range". The only way to check whether the reading is out of range is to put your hand in front of the lens, and see whether the reading can decrease still. At any rate, consider that the EV 2 limit of the Aria is still better than the EV 5 limit of the RX spot meter. At any rate, after using the Aria in practice, I found the sensitivity to be adequate for everything but night photography, where a handheld meter is better anyway. On balance, I much prefer a precise meter that gives you good readings over a prescribed range than a less precise meter that tries to cover a wider range.
I have also found that an incident meter (my favorite is the Gossen Luna Pro F) is a wonderful companion to the Aria. Often, the incident reading just gives you better exposure of slides than any amount of spot-meter aiming, and it is often somewhat faster to get an incident reading than to aim the spot meter all over the scene. Moreover, the Gossen meter has much greater low-light sensitivity, and as remarked above is a necessity for night photography.
I don't often use auto bracketing, but it's there if you like it. I would have preferred that the camera automatically set continuous drive mode when selecting autobracketing; selecting continuous drive mode each time is otherwise somewhat time-consuming (more about this later).
I find that in low light the flash compensation of the Aria is less useful than that provided by the RTS-II. Suppose you are in a poorly lit room, and your exposure reading (without flash) is 1/30 f/2.8. Suppose also you want to use the flash compensated 1.5 stops down, to fill in the shadows a bit.
With the RTS-II, you have to do the following:
With the Aria, if you turn the exposure compensation lever after locking the exposure, it is the stored exposure that changes! So you must do as follows:
The Aria has no such problems, and closes the diaphragm quickly and reliably with all the combinations of lenses and extension tubes I have tried. This is a big plus for macro photography.
To start rewinding, if not at the end of the roll, you have to use a prong in the camera strap (which by the way is excellent) to push a recessed rewind button. It is possible to leave the film leader out after rewind, as already mentioned.
The ISO button is easy to use. The camera has a setting for DX, and settings for film speeds from 6 to 6400 ASA. Pressing the ISO button also quickly makes the settings appear on the camera, so you can check them.
The other button close to the ISO one is for changing drive mode: single frame, continuous advance, self-timer (10 secs), and multiple exposure. The continuous advance rate is 3 frames per second. The single mode works very well: after you take a photo, you can immediately take another one, without need for completely taking the finger off the release button in the meantime (i.e. you can keep the shutter release always half-depressed, and then press it all the way each time you want to take a photo). This pretty much obviates for the need for continuous mode in wildlife photos: you can simply keep your finger always on the release, and press each time the framing is good. The only drawback is that changing shooting mode is slow: you need to press the "drive" button for 2 seconds before you can change the setting.
First, the advantages of the Aria over the RTS-II (in order of decreasing importance to me):
The Aria is a superb camera. It is simple and intuitive to use; it has all the features I need, and none of those that I believe would only add clutter.
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