Yes, but have you seen a Nikon copy?

erikhaugsby

erikhaugsby

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Now here's a breed of camera that I have never seen before--a copy of a Nikon. Leica copies are plentiful, but Arsenall (argh) has for sale a Melcon II that looks suspiciously like a Nikon S2 (wind lever, rotating shutter dial, etc). But it does have a Leica screwmount and not the Nikon/Contax helical. Strange.
Kiu, maybe you've seen other cameras like this one. I sure haven't.

edit: forgot the link here
 
Strange thing is, the original Melcon was a Leica copy! (Pacific Rim describes them here.)

-- Michael

P.S. Some of the prototype Nikon rangefinders were screw-mount, though I don't know if they used the 39mm/26tpi of the Leica.
 
Interesting camera. Judging by tye X-sync speed of around 1/45, it must also use a Leica-style shutter. And that switch that looks like a self-timer is actually switch between flash bulbs and X-sync.

It's a facinating thing. That's what the S2 would have looked like if Nikon had not decided to go with the Contax-based mount. The Contax mount was a fairly last-minute decision, if I recall correctly. Canon and some other makers were going the LTM route, so Nikon decided to go with Contax while greatly simplifying and streamlining the design.
 
How do you wind that thing? It looks like it's not for those of us with medium-to-big sized fingers, if it's on the left side (right side looking at the photo).

That is the strangest hybrid I've ever seen. You could focus pretty well at close range with a 135mm lens, I'm sure.
 
BTW, any prices I see from those guys, I take 30%-50% off, and that is what the normal price usually is (do a search for other items, those that you are really familiar with: talk about "sticker shock"), even compared with "mint" priced items elsewhere.
 
>>How do you wind that thing? It looks like it's not for those of us with medium-to-big sized fingers, if it's on the left side (right side looking at the photo).<<

The Pacific Rim website shows that it's got a pretty conventional layout ... it actually looks like a pleasant camera to use.
 
Let's not forget, the Contax Rangefinders where designed not to violate Leica patents 🙂
 
If you compare the Nikon/Contax mount to LTM, it's a lot faster to change lenses using that primitive bayonet. And Contaxes were widely used by photojournalists.

Nikons were pretty established by the time the M-mount was introduced.
 
I have to agree w/you, here. The Barnack Leicas are hardly "perfect" designs, @ least from a user perspective (they are cute to look @), which is why Leitz eventually found itself borrowing many of the Contax features for the M3 (combined RF/VF, single non-rotating shutter speed dial, bayonet mount, etc.), albeit in improved form.

VinceC said:
If you compare the Nikon/Contax mount to LTM, it's a lot faster to change lenses using that primitive bayonet. And Contaxes were widely used by photojournalists.

Nikons were pretty established by the time the M-mount was introduced.
Click to expand...
 
Contax was the first 35mm with bayonet mount. Zeiss didn't really have much to improve their design upon.
 
I suspect anyone who has used the Contax/Kiev mount for a long time has an experience with a jammed lens stuck onto the camera due to a mis-timed lens change.

I once had a 28mm lens very badly stuck onto my SP. Eventually, slowly, with great patience and a scary amount of physical force, I was able to separate them.
 
You know, ten years is a long time to limp along with a horrid, finicky lens mount. Hey, Contax did it for 30 years. It is mystery that Nikon even survived, being saddled with such a terrible burden for those ten miserable years
 
The infinity lock is not the end of the world, and only applies to internal mount 50s.

The only really "finicky" lens mount I've worked with was the Canon FD ... several times I thought I was adjusting f/stops and -- due to the catlike reflexes of my youth -- was able to catch the lens as the dropped to the floor.
 
If you flip through the book "The great LIFE photographers", there's about equal amount of bio photos with photographers of 1930s-1950s holding Leica and Contax cameras. I don't believe it was a marketing or design disaster of such a scale.
 
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