Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/11/21

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Subject: [Leica] Military Contaces
From: Marc James Small <msmall@roanoke.infi.net>
Date: Sun, 21 Nov 1999 13:54:51 -0500

At 03:50 AM 11/21/1999 -0500, Andrew S Jordan wrote:
>Marc and other historians: During the the horrors of WWII both sides both
>sides to the conflict used Leicas. In particular, Leicas with Heer and
>Luftwaffe markings are costly collectibles. Did the Contaxes play the same
>role? Just wondering.


The German military divided procurement among the three services.  Hence,
most -- but not all -- Leicas procured for military use came through the
Luftwaffe, as the German Air Force had the assignment for E Leitz Wetzlar.
Zeiss Ikon and Ihagee fell within the purview of the Kriegsmarine, and,
thus, KM-marked Super Ikontas and Exaktas are known.

SUPPOSEDLY, ever U-Boat had a complete periscope-camera kit consisting of a
Contax camera and adapter and various related doo-dads, and supposedly this
came about because Doenitz' father was a middle-level optical designer with
Carl Zeiss Jena.  While we have a slew of pictures taken with this gear, we
do not have a single surviving example of such a camera kit, making me
suspicious that these puppies were quite rare.  (By comparison, the US Navy
found the best camera for their use on our pig-boats was the Prewar Bentzin
Primarflex, and they only managed to scarf up six such sets, which were
given out at Pearl to departing subs as needed.  Again, we have a slew of
pictures taken with this gear, including a nice multi-mission set of recon
shots of various islands taken by NAUTILUS (the real one, not the later
Rickover-spezial) in '43 and '44, but not one of the cameras has ever
surfaced.  Probably sitting in the attic of the grand-daughter of some
retired and long-deceased admiral.)

So, yes, there are known Contax military cameras -- including a few
"kalt-fest" models akin to the Leica IIIc (K) -- but not in anywhere near
the numbers of the surviving military Leicas.  (And it is a bit surprising
the post-Soviet types haven't fabricated these as they have those
"Lufthansa" FED's:  the early Kievs are dead ringers for the Prewar Contax
and, in fact, began production in Germany.)

Marc

msmall@roanoke.infi.net  FAX:  +540/343-7315
Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!