The shutter speed dial is closely surrounded by other controls, so it can be a bit difficult to get your fingers around it, especially with your eye at the viewfinder. The S2 provides an adequate shutter speed range for a mechanical camera, covering 1/4000 second to one second plus B, and utilizes a standard shutter speed dial on the top right of the camera body. ISO range for the S2 is 12-6400, same as the Nikon FM2 But remember that bright or hazy sun with distinct shadows is EV 15, so I would prefer to have more sensitivity on the low end than the high end. The Nikon FM2, by contrast, has a light metering range of EV 1-18, so the FM2 is better at dusk, but more limited in bright light. If you are shooting at dusk with an S2, you might need to pull out your handheld meter if it gets too dark. The S2 covers only EV 4-20, while the S2b has a wider range of EV 2-20. With the S2, the limited EV range of the spot meter is a bit of a problem. Unfortunately, Contax never produced a body quite like the fully-mechanical Leica R6.2, which provides both spot metering and center-weighted metering. At least, it is easy to compensate for weighted-average metering error, when necessary. I prefer to have a spot meter when it is really needed, but not most of the time. I prefer the S2b over the S2 because I think its weighted-average meter is more convenient than the S2's spot meter in most situations. If you are looking for a small mechanical film SLR of the highest quality, that uses amazing Carl Zeiss manual focus lenses, this may be the camera for you. The S2 has an extremely compact design, and it is finely constructed using the best quality materials and machining. The S2 more than held its own with its mechanical competition from other manufacturers, although each design has its own advantages and disadvantages, of course. The S2 is very similar to Nikon's FM2T (with its titanium top and bottom covers) and the Leica R6.2.

The S2 is the only late-model Contax body that allows fully mechanical operation, with a small battery required only to power the exposure meter. Unless differentiation is required, I will refer to both cameras as the S2 below. Otherwise, the two designs are identical. The S2 body came in two models: The chrome-titanium S2 with a 5 mm spot metering system that covers the area within the microprism doughnut, and a black-titanium S2b with center-weighted averaging metering (and a slightly wider sensitivity range in low light levels).

Contax S2 with Carl Zeiss Planar 50mm f/1.4 (MMJ)

How to use contax s2