Various applications of high resolution spectroscopy with the ESO Coude Echelle Spectrometer (CES) are discussed. The aim of this paper is not to present a complete survey of the CES capabilities, but to illustrate some possible applications, with emphasis on rather unusual aspects. In all the observations presented here, the CES has been used with the new short camera and a CCD detector (high resolution RCA SID 503, 640 x 1024 pixels, 15x15 microns each). Compared to the long camera and Reticon detector, this new combination represents an increase of efficiency of 2 to 3 magnitudes with only a moderate loss of resolving power.