Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2013/08/08
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Sonny writes: "Howard, I think the inference was that the M was a rangefinder camera system. Before there were thread mounts which, while interchangeable are not easily." - - - - Sonny, ask Jim Schulman about the provenance of bayonet mounts. I had a 1932 Contax 1 35mm camera with a bayonet mount when I was in college. It was made and widely distributed 22 years before the Leica M series debuted. Basically the Leica M simply copied the best features of the 1936 era Contax II including combined rangefinder/viewfinder, one dial shutter speeds, and fast bayonet mounted lenses. Leica never got around to adding an opening back on the M series film cameras. Prior to WW2 Contax was regarded as the most advanced 35 mm camera and the Zeiss lenses were considered sharper than the Leica lenses. Even Leica used some Zeiss lens designs. That's not to say that the Contax was a better camera after WW2 or even that it took better pictures. But I can tell you this, in the era in which I worked on the old Boston Globe (1948 to 1952) staff photographers far preferred Contaxes to Leicas. Of course we all used 4x5 Speed Graphics for serious work. Larry Z