Finally found a good quote for a Contax IIa. Cosmetically and mechanically, I don’t think they come any bette today. Everything works. Tested the shutter speeds — spot on. A great surprise came with the package: the original manual and a booklet expanding on the usage.
Ausgereift, indeed. Naturally it’s leagues above the Kiev; and still a great step up from the Contax II I was able to briefly handle a few months ago.
Digital color photo of a worn red instruction booklet reading “CONTAX IIa,” “Die Ausgereifte,” and “Gebrauchsanleitung,” with a Zeiss Ikon logo and “Zeiss Ikon A.G. Stuttgart” at the bottom, standing upright on a wooden table with a Contax camera partially visible behind it against a dark background. (Photo by me, CC-BY-4.0)
a frustrating moment when i fired off the shot when the focus was on the bee not the birb, however, it gives you a nice size comparison of bee vs. birb
A photograph of a bee flying by. The bee's background is the out of focus blurred green and blue of the Steely-vented Hummingbird. Aracauna Lodge, CO. Nov 2025. Photo by Peachfront.
A hummingbird flares his tail as he approaches an unusual purple and red tropical flower. The hummingbird has clean white undersides in contrast to a flashy green face and blue cap. This is a male Andean Emerald. Aracauna Lodge, CO. Nov 2025. Photo by Peachfront.
A woman poses against a light blue background. She is wearing a black sheer top with a leaf pattern and sequin detailing, along with a black hat adorned with a feather and mesh veil. Her makeup is dark and dramatic.
For a while, I felt the best flash option for the X100 series was Fuji's discontinued EF-20 (NOT the EF-X20). It was low profile, could bounce upwards, and, well, was made by Fujifilm. But it had pretty basic controls, and sometimes didn't communicate well with the camera.
But there's a better option now, especially if you get a "good copy" of this flash: the Meike MK-320F flash, seen here
It is similar in size to the Fuji EF-20, but is in all ways better: better TTL (incl full reading of your fstop, lens length, etc), more powerful GN, faster recycle time (I tested this directly), quieter in operation (the EF-20 has a very apparent cycling whine), a LCD panel with settings for flash exposure adjustments, two slave modes, off camera firing, full manual modes, a light sensor, and it can even charge the batteries installed, directly via USB micro.
My fave function is that, not only can it bounce vertically, but you can also rotate the flash 90 right, or 60 left. Combined with multi-tilt function, its extremely versatile.
It's also half the price of the EF-20 when that was available for sale.
Bought a flash to use on camera for some family portraits (Godox tt350f). As a newbie to flash, this video is hands down the best explanation I’ve seen for how to think about and use the tool.
It really clicked, and I had some success today bouncing flash around some walls and windows. I’m excited to build myself a little “black foamie thing”.
The creator, Neil van Niekerk’s, blog is also fantastic.