Philip Whiteman
Old hand returning to the fray
Here it sits, smiling back at me from the kitchen table: my self-repaired 1939 Contax II, now sporting a 1.5 50 uncoated Sonnar that cost six times the amount.
I was shown the Contax when I took my 2017 Christmas present - an '82 Kiev 4M - to the local photo dealer. The manager was demonstrating how much smoother the 'real thing's film wind was when the Contax's shutter broke. Kindly, he loaned me its collapsible f2 50mm Sonnar to try on the Kiev.
The Sonnar worked very nicely - but the Kiev didn't (light leaks and a pepper-grinder film advance that would from time to time jump, overlapping frames). When I returned to the dealer he asked my if I wanted the German lens. Having seen prices of over £100 asked for them on eBay, I swallowed hard. He looked up a recent KEH sale and said "Shall we say £30?" "For the lens?" I asked. "No - you might as well have the whole thing, and it comes with a case." I looked at the grubby and battered Contax, which had a frozen focus mount as well as the broken shutter, and it's home-made looking case. Well, it was a bit of history and a nice ornament...
One I had got the thing home, the more I looked at it, the more of a shame it seemed to leave it in such a sorry state. Knowing the 'works' were much the same, I had already bought the Peter Tooke Contax repair manual as a lead for my assault on the Kiev. Now, having consulted the Rangefinder Forum I went back to the Bay to order a length of that Japanese shutter ribbon. What was the worst that could happen in attempting to strip down and repair a near worthless junker of a Contax?
Actually, going nearly mad in trying to retension the thing's shutter - but that's a long story that's been told elsewhere here. In the end I did it and, having checked the speeds by comparing its apparent action with another camera's electronically-controlled vertical shutter, I tried my first film in what I now knew was a '39 camera with a '37 lens...
And it worked like a dream from the get-go. Perfect exposures (so the speed guestimation was good enough), a silky-smooth wind-on, spot-on rangefinder (simply as found - all I did was clean the optics and regrease the exposed helix of focus mount, without daring to - or having to - strip that complex bit of precision engineering).
Discoveries since are that early Kiev accessory lenses - 1950s and 60s one - work beautifully on the Contax, the asking prices for most Zeiss originals being more than I'd wish to pay for a camera that I was using (quite extensively) for fun. I wan't going to fall into that gear acquisition trap... until I just had to try one of those legendary 1.5 Sonnars. (Report on this: it looked clean and pristine and produces lovely, sharp images that match the contrast of the coated Soviet lenses.)
The one problem I have not cracked is finding a colour stock processing house that will give me hi-res scans I can make my own digital prints from. Time to reactivate the B & W darkroom, I know - but meanwhile it's a happy return to colour transparencies and the slide projector. The Oxfam shop around the corner had a pristine Leitz Pradovit for all of £25. Could I afford it? What do you think!
I was shown the Contax when I took my 2017 Christmas present - an '82 Kiev 4M - to the local photo dealer. The manager was demonstrating how much smoother the 'real thing's film wind was when the Contax's shutter broke. Kindly, he loaned me its collapsible f2 50mm Sonnar to try on the Kiev.
The Sonnar worked very nicely - but the Kiev didn't (light leaks and a pepper-grinder film advance that would from time to time jump, overlapping frames). When I returned to the dealer he asked my if I wanted the German lens. Having seen prices of over £100 asked for them on eBay, I swallowed hard. He looked up a recent KEH sale and said "Shall we say £30?" "For the lens?" I asked. "No - you might as well have the whole thing, and it comes with a case." I looked at the grubby and battered Contax, which had a frozen focus mount as well as the broken shutter, and it's home-made looking case. Well, it was a bit of history and a nice ornament...
One I had got the thing home, the more I looked at it, the more of a shame it seemed to leave it in such a sorry state. Knowing the 'works' were much the same, I had already bought the Peter Tooke Contax repair manual as a lead for my assault on the Kiev. Now, having consulted the Rangefinder Forum I went back to the Bay to order a length of that Japanese shutter ribbon. What was the worst that could happen in attempting to strip down and repair a near worthless junker of a Contax?
Actually, going nearly mad in trying to retension the thing's shutter - but that's a long story that's been told elsewhere here. In the end I did it and, having checked the speeds by comparing its apparent action with another camera's electronically-controlled vertical shutter, I tried my first film in what I now knew was a '39 camera with a '37 lens...
And it worked like a dream from the get-go. Perfect exposures (so the speed guestimation was good enough), a silky-smooth wind-on, spot-on rangefinder (simply as found - all I did was clean the optics and regrease the exposed helix of focus mount, without daring to - or having to - strip that complex bit of precision engineering).
Discoveries since are that early Kiev accessory lenses - 1950s and 60s one - work beautifully on the Contax, the asking prices for most Zeiss originals being more than I'd wish to pay for a camera that I was using (quite extensively) for fun. I wan't going to fall into that gear acquisition trap... until I just had to try one of those legendary 1.5 Sonnars. (Report on this: it looked clean and pristine and produces lovely, sharp images that match the contrast of the coated Soviet lenses.)
The one problem I have not cracked is finding a colour stock processing house that will give me hi-res scans I can make my own digital prints from. Time to reactivate the B & W darkroom, I know - but meanwhile it's a happy return to colour transparencies and the slide projector. The Oxfam shop around the corner had a pristine Leitz Pradovit for all of £25. Could I afford it? What do you think!
