Quality Service for Contax IIa and IIIa

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cschwer

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Hello, I am new here... I have both a Contax IIa and IIIa camera. They are beautiful to look at and both work to a certain degree but I really want to use them every day... Is there anyone besides Henry that repairs these cameras reliably? I just do not have two years to wait for a camera repair. I have searched the past posts but would like to know what others think these days. Thanks in advance.
 
Welcome to the forum. My IIIa was iverhauled by Henry in 2003 when the wait was one week. It's been in regular use ever since without missing a beat. I'm now looking for a IIa to go with it. I WISH I knew of others, but I don't. I'll watch here with interest.
 
I have had the IIIa w/1.5 Sonnar for a while now. I have been on Henry Scherer's wait list for more than a year. I have been using the camera and I love it.... I have had hundreds of cameras over a thirty year career in photography and this one is among my very favorites. I recently purchased a very little used IIa on Ebay and was wonderfully surprised how nice the camera was when it arrived. It came with a 50 2.0 Sonnar so now I have both. I can't think of anything nicer than to have these cameras working like new!
 
I have the 50/1.5 Sonnar and a W-Nikkor 35/2.5 for mine and I'd like the IIa for the 35mm lens so I don't have to switch lenses, cause I'm afraid I'll drop one!
 
I had my iia, sonnar and a biogon that I picked up during the wait overhauled by Henry. He was very communicative and detailed during the overhaul. I checked my records and I was no. 65 in October 2008 and it was overhauled in May or June this year. Obvious this is not an answer to your question, but a recent indication of the wait time. There was a guy by the name of Eddy Smolov in Brooklyn that had a good reputation for Contax's. I even visited him once, but sadly I think he has passed away.
 
Essex Camera Services in Carlstadt, NJ.

They cleaned and repaired (new shutter ribbons) my Contax II. The cost was approx $200 and I had the camera back in two weeks.

So far, after a couple rolls of film, the camera is working perfectly.
 
if you think the wait with henry is only two years you might want to think again..... I got on the list in Jan 2008 and have finally broken into the top 10 (good thing I have two other IIa cameras)
I recommend Camera Wiz in Virginia
 
I am well aware that the wait is more than two years.... I was being kind as this is what Henry said to me when I was put on the list last year..... When I checked last month I was #200 on the list... The real problem as I see it is the Henry's website is so filled with great information about how he re-manufactures cameras that sending a camera to someone else seems like such a risk.... Henry cautions everyone about the perils of sending your camera to someone else....Im sure that there are others that can do this work.... I just want to pick the right one. Does anyone have experience with Mark Hansen?
 
Robert.... I have had several Nikon S2 cameras and to me the S2 Black dial camera is one of the most beautiful cameras ever made. I loved the Nikkor 50 1.4 lens in fact there are a few images made with that camera and lens on my Flickr page..... http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrispics57/ I discovered the Contax cameras after printing the images for the book "Assignment Shanghai" All of these images were made with either a pre-war Contax II or a Rolleiflex Automat. Truly remarkable work and Jack Birns was a nice man. I really liked the bite of the Zeiss lenses... There is a balance between sharpness and contrast that these lenses have that is like no other.
 
If you're prepared to send to the UK I would recommend Ed Troszka strongly. He's a well known specialist here for classic Zeiss Ikon repairs. He did a first class job on my Contax lla, which had numerous problems: 4 years later it continues to operate flawlessly.

I don't know his current turn around times, but they were c.2-3 months.

He's a nice man happy to chat on the 'phone. His details:

Ed Troszka/Euro Photographic Services
150 Harrowgate Drive,
Birstall,
Leicester LE4 3GP
UK.

tel:- (0044) [0] 116 2674247.

Regards,
D.
 
cschwer said:
Hello, I am new here... I have both a Contax IIa and IIIa camera. They are beautiful to look at and both work to a certain degree but I really want to use them every day... Is there anyone besides Henry that repairs these cameras reliably? I just do not have two years to wait for a camera repair. I have searched the past posts but would like to know what others think these days. Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

Henry Scherer is IMHO one of those people where the Internet hasn't done any good; at some point he was hyped to the point that he can now basically dictate his own terms, keeps an arbitrarily long waiting list, and claims an exclusivity to his service that it in no way deserves.

If you're willing to send it to Germany, one of the better addresses would be Arlüwa in Cologne - they're a former Zeiss Ikon official service center and repair pretty much everything except the Contarex:

Arlüwa Czens GmbH
Lindenstrasse 1
50674 Köln [Cologne]
Germany

Phone +49 - 221 - 2 57 38 70
Fax +49 - 221 - 2 57 39 86
http://www.arluewa-czens.de

Turnaround varies but on their website it says "we try to keep times as short as possible, but please understand that depending on the model it might also take a bit more than about 20 working days".

Contact them by mail or phone beforehand if they handle overseas repairs, sometimes they used to, at other times they didn't.
 
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