Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/03/14
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 12:54 PM 3/14/98 +0100, Alf Bruell, a normally conscientious soul, erred in writing: >I'm looking for an unemployed and lonely Contax II (without >lightmeter), with or without lens, from the 50ies, Argh. We can try and try and try to teach them, but the first time we let 'em out in public they embarrass themselves ... There weren't any 'Contax II' cameras made in the '50's. The last regular production cameras were the 'O' series of 1940, though a few may have been made during the War. The destruction of the old ICA works in the Dresden firebombing caused a small assembly line to be set up at the main Carl Zeiss Jena works which produced the 'Jena' Contax from 1945 to 1948, but these are quite rare and bear a hefty collector's premium. Starting in '51, the West German Zeiss Ikon firm, based in the old Contessa-Nettel works in Stuttgart, began producing the Contax IIa, an entirely different design. Nor were there any Contax II cameras made with light-meters. The metered models are the III (Prewar) and IIIa (Postwar). These puppies are fairly common, and lack a lot of the distinguishing marks which make Leica lore so fascinating to the collector. Expect to pay around $175 for a II, $200 for a III, $225 for a IIa, and $275 for a IIIa, all in E+ condition. The nice angle from the Leica user's perspective is that most Contax lenses cost substantially less than their Leitz counterparts, the stunningly fine 1.5/50 Sonnar, for instance, generally costing around $125 to $175, while a Summarit would be twice that. The shutters are not as reliable as the Leica shutters but are not nearly as bad as their reputation -- in its heyday, the Contax was the accepted camera for rough-country travel, being the documentary camera, for instance, on the '53 Mount Everest climb. And the light-meters are relatively accurate, relatively reliable, and easily repaired if they fail. Marc msmall@roanoke.infi.net FAX: +540/343-7315 Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!