Techart TA-GA3: aka Return of the Digital G…

…aka I Need To Stay The Heck Off Of KEH’s Website…

…aka Welcome Back.

Though my eye and purchases wander, I still maintain that the Contax G is my favorite film system. Even made a video to uphold my case.

As I have mentioned in recent posts I went on a full on Contax G bender a few years ago. Even wrote about this system for KEH. Then I sold them all off afterward in a very flawed case of misplaced “logic”, whatever that word even means as it pertains to film camera nonsense. Why? My stated reason at the time was that I used the T2 more. Honestly, no idea what I was thinking. I should have been able to predict that the T2 and the G lens system are different enough that having both made sense… for a time. Between a wildly overperforming and much less expensive point and shoot and the return of the G the T2 saw no use, so I let it go. And oddly even though that was years ago I have had no regrets. That really speaks to how good the G system is.

In that prior post I made a case for the system and why I chose the G1 instead of the G2 or even both as I had done previously. But neither of those are the topic of this post so I refer you to that post if you would like more background. This post revisits a comment I made in that post.

That if the electronics failed I would either pick up another G1 or…

Call it a day and continue using the lenses adapted to digital.

But given my history, I would be leaning towards getting another G1.

But since I had written in the past on KEH about a Contax G to FE AF adapter why did I show a manual focus adapter above? Especially since the TECHART TA-GA3 had done so well in the past.

G 45mm f/2

G 90mm f/2.8

Welp…

I sold the TA-GA3 when I let go of the G system years ago.
TECHART had stopped selling them.
There were none I could find online at that time.

So it was less of a “do not want” and more of a “cannot get” affair. That is where “I need to stay off of KEH’s website.” above comes in. Thought I was making a safe search when I was looking at the G lenses available since I had secured the ones I wanted and the rest are outside of my price range and use case. Looking at you G 21mm and G 16mm. The price combined with the external hotshoe viewfinder makes for a no-go in my little logic tree. The auto parallax adjusting inbuilt viewfinder is a main party piece of the G system for me. But then I saw it…

Dang it KEH.

There was a potential issue, however. I did not have a camera on the compatible Sony list. I took a chance and ordered it anyway.

The A7III was on the list and this was so close to the AF system of my A7C I thought it may work.
Seeing that a TECHART LM-EA7 works with the A7C gave me some hope.
Worst case I could return it.

The result? After a bit of fiddling where I thought this may not work after all the AF fired up and it worked just fine. I am very pleased with this. As well as the TA-GA3 worked on the more traditional A7 bodies…

…I think it is a much better ergonomic and aesthetic fit for the A7C.

Having said that, since the newer A7C cameras (R and II) appear to use a newer AF system I am thinking they will not be compatible. This seems to be supported by the fact that the TECHART LM-EA7 (Same deal, but for Leica M mount lenses.) works with the A7C but not newer bodies.

There are downsides to this G to FE adapter, but not many.

Getting everything seated and sorted can be a bit of a faff.
- As it did this time with the first few tries it sometimes takes a moment to get the lens properly seated on the adapter and for the camera to recognize the lens.
The odd chirps this adapter lets out during AF can be disconcerting.
- Effective but hardly elegant.
- Serves as a reminder that you are doing something that none of these manufacturers intended you to do.
As should come as no surprise video AF is not on the table.

But… when things do line up:

This set up nails AF even making use of eye AF.
- Quite astounding when you take a moment to think about it.
Zeiss glass with AF.
- That is enough of a reason right there for me.
- With the exception of a Contax CY Zeiss SLR lens adapted via an TECHART LM-EA7 adapter I think this is the least expensive way to get AF with a fast Zeiss lens.

Looks cool on the A7C.
- Has absolutely nothing to with IQ, but it matters to me.

Conclusion

Since this is a reunion I already know what to expect. And I am glad to have it back.

Would I recommend this to others?

Honestly no. I could not recommend this to most with a clear conscience. There are a lot of prerequisites at play.

Possession of a Contax G lens.
Possession of a compatible Sony camera (Or Nikon Z camera evidently.)
Great patience for a solution that may not work the first time, whenever putting it all together.

But it is right up my alley. Now that it has returned I close with a few product photos and a few more day 1 sample photos now that it has returned.

Happy capturing.

-ELW