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CONTAX II s/n G 20891, 1938. Fully restored and functioning with Sonnar T 50mm f/1.5
- Thread starter jevidon
- Start date
Correction
1936ContaxII
Member
Me too.
These RF cameras and their lenses are wonderful to travel with: leightweight and versatile - and today they are cheap.
May I ask where you have let your pre-war Contax restored?
Michael
I do not have pre-war Contax cameras. My journey with Contax started with the Contax RTS. After that I became addicted and bought more or replaced one with another. Always the modern Contax with the Zeiss lenses. I became a fan boy. They are so lovely. I started a Contax forum at that time (www.contaxinfo.com), but after Kyocera stopped to make Cntax Cameras and Zeiss did not want to do it alone, that Contax community died slowly. At the end, I imported the whole conten of the old Contaxinfo.com forum into DPRforum.com, to make sure that the whole knowledge does not get lost and even younger people get to know it.
I still have a Yashica Super 2000, which is a pure mechanical camera and uses the same C/Y mount and a Zeiss 50/1.7MM lens. Everything else I had t sell to finance newer cameras. Oh, I forgot I think I have still a Zeiss 80-200 zoom adapted from C/Y mount to M42 mount...
1936ContaxII
Member
Yes the Contaxinfo forum was the very first photography forum I became a member of, more than 20 years ago 
. It's sad that the Contax community disappeared.
Some Contax RTS IIs are still my "main cameras" with their Zeiss lenses. I also keep some Yashica FX-3, an FR I and FX-D and a Contax 139. To prepare the day when my RTS IIs won't work any more.
It took a bit time for me to accustom myself to taking pictures with the classic Contax RF - it's a different kind of procedure than with an SLR, even with a a 50s SLR like the Exakta. But soon it worked and nowadays I love it.
Sure, I would have dreamed of having a Leica M3 but it's much to expensive for me. As soon as you find a working Contax RF II, III, IIIa or IIIa, its only real weakness is its rangefinder which was still on the state of 1936 even in post-war bodies.
Fortunately, Zeiss Ikon developed an additional "revolver" finder to put into the camera's shoe which is even better than the Leitz Universal finder of the Screwmount Leica.
.
As far as I'm concerned, the most significant progress of the post-war Contax was its quiet shutter which is even more quiet than the Leica M2 shutter. (A friend of mine and me, we've compared it.) The pre-war shutter is a bit loud (similar to the RTS II shutter ) - but the Contax II body itself is beautiful.
. It's sad that the Contax community disappeared.Some Contax RTS IIs are still my "main cameras" with their Zeiss lenses. I also keep some Yashica FX-3, an FR I and FX-D and a Contax 139. To prepare the day when my RTS IIs won't work any more.
It took a bit time for me to accustom myself to taking pictures with the classic Contax RF - it's a different kind of procedure than with an SLR, even with a a 50s SLR like the Exakta. But soon it worked and nowadays I love it.
Sure, I would have dreamed of having a Leica M3 but it's much to expensive for me. As soon as you find a working Contax RF II, III, IIIa or IIIa, its only real weakness is its rangefinder which was still on the state of 1936 even in post-war bodies.
Fortunately, Zeiss Ikon developed an additional "revolver" finder to put into the camera's shoe which is even better than the Leitz Universal finder of the Screwmount Leica.
.
As far as I'm concerned, the most significant progress of the post-war Contax was its quiet shutter which is even more quiet than the Leica M2 shutter. (A friend of mine and me, we've compared it.) The pre-war shutter is a bit loud (similar to the RTS II shutter
) - but the Contax II body itself is beautiful.
Yes, very sad. I have not found the "Contax DNA" yet in any other system, although the L-Mount comes now close to it thanks to the Sigma i-Series lenses for the L-Mount. They are out of metal, have an aperure ring, extreme good built quality. They are small and do not weight too much. This is the closest you can get in terms of haptic to Contax-Zeiss lenses for C/Y mount.
The image quality of the Sigma i-series is excellent and significantly better than of the older Contax-Zeiss lenses. But this is no suprise after so many years and the progress in lens design. Sigma offers the i-series currently with FFL of: 17, 20, 24, 35, 45, 50, 65 and 90mm. All with AF. See here.
The only missing part to be on par with the Contax cameras is in the L-Mount a smaller body like a Contax RTS /RTSII, Contax Aria, Contax S2 or even a rangefinder body. I do not understand why Panasonic is not offering this yet.
But apart from the L-Mount, there does not exist a good replacement of that C/Y system. Here you can find an L-Mount community forum.
1936ContaxII
Member
Thank you for the link and for the details about the L-Mount.
By the way, yesterday I mistyped: I had wanted to ask my question addressing jevidon...
May I ask where you have let your camera restored ? Just curious because some time in future I will have to get my Contax IIIa CLA'd.
By the way, yesterday I mistyped: I had wanted to ask my question addressing jevidon...
May I ask where you have let your camera restored ? Just curious because some time in future I will have to get my Contax IIIa CLA'd.
I bought it on line from a vendor in Europe. He claimed it was/'exquisite" and he didn't lie.Me too.
These RF cameras and their lenses are wonderful to travel with: leightweight and versatile - and today they are cheap.
May I ask where you have let your pre-war Contax restored?
Michael
I have thing about G series Contax cameras. I had a brand new G2 when they were new. I recently bought a GI and most of the G series lenses just because. Lovely camera with a lot of operational worts, but still lovely.
http://www.zeisscamera.com/services.shtmlI should add that the3fre is only one Contax repair person left in the U.S. That is a man named Henry Sherer
Me too.
These RF cameras and their lenses are wonderful to travel with: leightweight and versatile - and today they are cheap.
May I ask where you have let your pre-war Contax restored?
Michael
Me too.
These RF cameras and their lenses are wonderful to travel with: leightweight and versatile - and today they are cheap.
May I ask where you have let your pre-war Contax restored?
Michael
Contax G system is/was really lovely. The only thing that bothered me was the missing markings in the VF for the AF. For portraits that was really difficult. The G45/2.0 and the G90/2.8 were excellent lenses. Hard to beat, even not from Leica. The good old times...
Here a broschure of the Contax G2:
I should add that there is only one Contax repair person left in the U.S. That is a man named Henry Sherer, http://www.zeisscamera.com/services.shtml and he is very backed up and I understand in ill health at the moment. He refuses to do a simple CLA. He will only do a complete service and essentially re-build. He is no cheap but quality never is. No one else in the U.S. with an ounce of sanity will touch this complicated masterpiece. Leica uses a very direct approach to engineering, Zeiss always trode the road less travelled and their cameras a complicated and over engineered.
It is: http://www.zeisscamera.com/services.shtml. Read my message just above this one. I did send my CONTAX IIIA to Don Goldberg at DAG camera ( the Leica specialist). He really didn't want to work on it. It had a gummed up sticky slow speed shutter and he finally agreed to try to free it up, which he did. He also, at my request measured the shutter speeds and I haver affixed to the back of the IIIA a small chart with actual shutter speeds on this camera. What is really weird is that while the mechanical accuracy is way off, the old selenium meter is dead accurate.Thank you for the link and for the details about the L-Mount.
By the way, yesterday I mistyped: I had wanted to ask my question addressing jevidon...
May I ask where you have let your camera restored ? Just curious because some time in future I will have to get my Contax IIIa CLA'd.