Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/02/12
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Contax was NOT concerned over patent infringements, as Leitz held no rigid patents on what was a common enough design even at the time. Zeiss-Ikon, after all, uses FP shutters on a number of other cameras at this time. The vertical metal shutter was an attempt to make the BEST shutter in the world, simply put. It does have a reputation for unreliability, but this is probably undeserved: as the noted authority Mike Fletcher keeps pointing out to me, most top-line professional news photographers in the 1930's switched from Leica to Contax and did so cheerfully. (Mike constantly dredges up pictures of these guys in World War II lugging a Rolleiflex and Contax II.) Certainly, I have not found the Contax shutter to be dramatically worse than the Leica TM shutters for accuracy or reliability, though the shutter tapes do wear and break with time. (I have replaced these but now send all mine out to be serviced. Kids, don't try this at home unless you are imbued with the patience of Job and have no distractions at all for a day or so.) As to the leaf shutter, this was adopted for many reasons but, primarily, to provide flash synch. For reasons know a bit unfathomable, designers in the 1930's saw the addition of flash synch internally as a difficult chore, and so the use of a leaf shutter got around this neatly. And it wasn't just Kodak which did so: Voigtlander used a leaf shutter on the Prominent, as did Zeiss Ikon on the Postwar Contaflex and Agfa as well. I've owned and used all these cameras. All have their own ambience. I prefer Leica for daily shooting, but find even a Prewar Contax an awesome tool. And those Zeiss lenses, simply put, cannot be beat. Marc msmall@roanoke.infi.net FAX: +540/343-7315 Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!