Contax

The Casual Collector

Contax

Zeiss of East Germany sires the modern 35mm reflex
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     This is IT. The nexus. This is where the 35mm single lens reflex began standing upright. East German Zeiss introduced the Contax S in 1948-49. Two features introduced with this camera live on to this day. The 42mm x 1mm screw thread lens mount and the pentaprism viewfinder. The latter feature put the SLR on course to equal and overtake the Leica/Contax type rangefinder camera in usefulness and sales.

Contax D is the second version of the revolutionary 1949 Contax S.

     Over the next dozen years, manufacturers in Europe and Japan would add features to this basic plan. Instant return mirror, thumb lever film advance, rewind crank, fresnel focusing screen, automatic diaphragm, non-rotating shutter speed dial. The end result became the mature 35mm SLR of the 1960s.

      The example illustrating this page is a Contax D, from about 1954. The major external difference is the addition of a PC socket on the top plate, adjacent to the rewind knob. The camera is very “un-Zeiss-like”. It has a Leica style, cloth focal plane shutter. It looks and feels quite svelte, unlike its’ West German Zeiss Contaflex/Contarex counterparts.

The Contax legacy, pentaprism and M-42 lens mount.                    The Contax "user interface", simple and  uncluttered.

     Shutter speeds from 1 sec. To 1/1000th are changed by pressing and turning the small, tapered knob, adjacent to the wind knob. The set speed is indicated on a dial in the top plate window. A switch next to the eyepiece engages the slow speed escapement. The advance knob has a frame counter; the rewind knob features a film speed/type reminder dial. A self-timer resides on the front plate, immediately beneath the shutter release.

Dry, stiff shutter curtains, peeling leatherette, missing take-up spool, this one is rough, but restorable.

     This camera is from a box of “schtuff” that was headed for the landfill. Time and poor storage have taken their toll. The camera can be coaxed through the operating cycle though the shutter curtains are dry and stiff. Inside the back is one of those little artifacts that spark the imagination. A decal displays, Broddmans Foto, Storgaten 12, Stockholm. One can only guess the route of its’ travels to New London, New Hampshire.

     The lens arrived via a different route, to Vermont via Massachusetts, a castoff from another friend. The 50mm/2.8 C.Z. Jena Tessar is from the same period, but may have originally been attached to a Praktica. Together, they make an attractive paperweight. As I become more adept at tinkering, the pair may yet make pictures again!

     While the pentaprism viewfinder is the Contax’ most influential legacy, its’ 42mm x 1mm screw thread lens mount lives again in the Cosina/ Voigtlander Bessaflex TM of 2003.
Inside the Contax!

"Professor" Rick Oleson explains

How it works and How to fixit

 when it doesn't

M-42 lens compatibility! Contax D mounts the most humble of lenses, the 55mm f-1.8 Auto Sears