Amateur Photographer - UK (2020-12-05)

rotating wedges of glass placed so that, at
in nity, the thick end of one wedge falls
against the thin edge of the other, passing
light straight through without displacement.
As the camera lens is focused, one glass
wedge rotates against the other, forming
a prism and de ecting the light in a way
similar to the swivelling mirror in a more
traditional range nder.
To load  lm, the camera back and its base
plate are completely removed by turning two
keys on the base, proving far easier to use
than the Leica’s bottom-loading system. Film
winds from cassette to a take-up spool, or
can be used with twin cassettes, winding
 lm from one to the other.

Contax II and III
By 1936, with Leitz nipping at its heels
with the improved Leica III and IIIa, Zeiss
Ikon released the Contax II. Gone was the
square black look and in came a body with
chamfered ends,  nished in a mixture of
bright and satin chrome. The  lm wind and
speed dial with a shutter release in the
centre are switched to a more traditional
spot on the top plate, while slow speeds
go down to 1/2sec, one stop less than
the Leica’s 1sec, but the top speed is
increased to 1/1,250sec, against Leica’s
1/1,000sec. The Contax III launched the
same year has a similar speci cation
mechanically, but adds a non-coupled
exposure meter  xed to the top plate.

A good range of lenses can be found for

the Contaxes with focal lengths from 28mm

to 500mm, all of which  t to the bodies via

a bayonet mount, thought to be more ef cient

and accurate than the older screw  tting

used by Leica up until 1954. Accessories

include view nders to match different lenses,

close-up accessories, a plate back with its

own ground-glass focusing screen, and the

Flektoscop which, with the appropriate

lenses, converts the Contax into a single

lens re ex.

Post-war Contaxes

When the Second World War ended in 1945,

the Zeiss company split in two. One part

remained at Dresden in East Germany, while

a second division relocated to Stuttgart in

the West, where production of the Contax

resumed.

With none of the original plans available,

engineers had only the original Contax

cameras to work with. Examples of the

Contax II and Contax III were stripped down,

examined and new plans

drawn up. From these,

two new cameras

arose, built from

the ground up as

Contax I with telephoto

and wideangle lenses,

viewfinders, close-up

accessories, plate back

with plates and ground-

glass screen, and delayed

action device

How the Contax was
advertised in the 1930s

View from

the top of

the Contax I

With the back removed for easy film loading and

showing the vertically running focal plane shutter