[Leica] Another 50 for the Jeffster

[msmall at infionline.net (Marc James Small)]

At 08:00 PM 3/30/06 -0600, Jeffery Smith wrote:
>I meant COSINA Voigtlander (Bessa R2C). I got my Contax Iia + 50/2 lens for
>$400, which was pretty good considering that it hadn't been banged around.
>Although they are about the same size, the Contax feels much smaller in my
>hands than the similar Nikon S2. And I have to admit that I like the *zip*
>of the metal shutter. ;-)

Jeffrey

Nothing sounds quite like a Contax S or D with all of its many gears
whirring about when the shutter is released, but I do acknowledge the joy
of the slick sound and feel of a IIa or IIIa Contax.  As I have gotten
older, I tend to fall back, and so my regular picture-taking cameras are a
Leica IIIc, a Contax II, and a Rolleiflex Automat, all from a decade or so
of birth.  When I postively MUST get the picture, of course I take an M6
and my Rolleiflex 2.8GX and probably a couple of Hasselblad cameras as well
-- my 2000 FC/M with a converted 2.8/18cm CZJ Sonnar T makes a most
magnificent portrait lens though from a distance, mind you!

A Contax II with a CZJ 2.8/3.5cm or 35mm Biogon or a 1.5/5cm or 50mm Sonnar
is an epic instrument and a great way to learn basic and advanced and
REALLY advanced photography.  The same can be said of that Leica IIIc, but
then I tend to use CZJ or Soviet lenses on it, though I do desperately
admire the texture of the 2/5cm Summitar, my very first Leitz lens from all
of those years ago.  

There are other system cameras worth exploring and which now come up cheap
on eBay.  Premier among these are the Zeiss Ikon Contaflex and Kodak Retina
RF lines, and these are really worthy of great respect, as they were
intended for advanced amatuer and professional work.  Neither system is as
rugged as is a Contax or a Leica TM camera, but they are still resolute and
determined workers and have lots of auxiliary bells-and-whistles available
-- I have had grand fun with a Retina IIc and IIIc with different optics,
one with Rodenstock and the other with Schneider, and with a bunch of
auxiliary lenses, and damned if they aren't both fun to play with and
capable of great results but, then, so is my Contaflex Super BC with ITS
ausxiliary lenses.

Finally, there is the East German Werra, one of the very few cameras
actually made by Carl Zeiss Jena.  This was a product of the old Zeiss
binocular works at Eisfeld (today, the site of Docter Optic Technologies
though I believe the name has been changed since it was reabsorbed by
Zeiss), and the best of the line, in my mind, is the Werra III which can be
had for a pittance and some of them come with a Prestor RVS leaf shutter
with a top end of 1/750",  a record at the time.  And it whirs and clicks
with the best of them and is a most capable camera but, then, what more
could ever be expected from the factory which produced the 8x,21mm folding
TURMON monocular, still in production today and in its 85th year of
production.  (Boeing has been bending and grinding in glee over the
announcement some years back that the B-52H was intended to remain in
service until 2040, giving that late model a service life of some 78 years.
 Rodinal and the TURMON can teach Boeing something about longevity!)

Of course, over on the IDCC, we have guys still doing mercury-vapor
processing with cameras made in the 1860's, so maybe my love of my my
1930's and 1940's and 1950's camera gear is really not all that odd?
Waddya think?

Marc



msmall@aya.yale.edu 
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