Contax 3 (fake or not)

[richardHaw]

Hi! I got this from a shop a few days back. while everything seem to be OK and the serial number falls under M (1940), I am puzzled by the late-looking Jena-style foot 😱😱😱

Can't tell if this is a fake until I open it but it looks like the real thing from the outside. Theres a groove on serrated wheel and some of the other details indicate that this is indeed a genuine camera, including "Zeiss Zits" around the embossed logo at the back. what do you guys think?

the worst that could probably happen is that somebody swapped the shoe so I hope it ends there 🙄

 

[Bill Jones]

Ric

The camera is over 75 years old. Who knows what small repairs or changes were made to it. It's still an M series Contax III. Check that the back and the body have the same serial number and be satisified.

Let me know what take-up spool it has. Original would have been a plastic slash cut that does not require a trimmed film leader.

Zeiss Ikon may have made the foot at the time they were making M series cameras (early WW2). They made many minor changes like this without documenting them to buyers. Some O series cameras used feet that seem to be left over from the Contax I.

Bill

 

[richardHaw]

Ric

The camera is over 75 years old. Who knows what small repairs or changes were made to it. It's still an M series Contax III. Check that the back and the body have the same serial number and be satisified.

Let me know what take-up spool it has. Original would have been a plastic slash cut that does not require a trimmed film leader.

Zeiss Ikon may have made the foot at the time they were making M series cameras (early WW2). They made many minor changes like this without documenting them to buyers. Some O series cameras used feet that seem to be left over from the Contax I.

Bill

Thanks, Bill.

there an engraved serial in the back that matches the one at the accessory shoe. engraved in white like what I saw in some old Jena Contaxes.

The spool is the one with the squiggly slot at the middle.

I will work on this probably at the end of the year and I will soon see whats inside 😱😱😱

 

[Bill Jones]

Thanks, Bill.

there an engraved serial in the back that matches the one at the accessory shoe. engraved in white like what I saw in some old Jena Contaxes.

The spool is the one with the squiggly slot at the middle.

I will work on this probably at the end of the year and I will soon see whats inside 😱😱😱

Ric,

With the serial number match and the overall appearances I'd be satisified that it is a real Contax III of the M series. The spools were often changed so that is a non-issue. Enjoy your "new" camera.

Bill

 

[David Hughes]

Hi,

Two minor points, small bits of cameras were turned out in their thousands and big expensive parts in much smaller runs to avoid the time, material and labour costs. So I'd expect small parts meant for the I to be used up in the II and the for the same reason bits of the II would be used in the III and so on.

Also, repairers often save secondhand bits and pieces just in case they can use them. Fairly recently I had a favourite camera repaired and when I got it back the repair had been done and a large scratch on the outside had disappeared! My guess is that the repairer was happy to give me the good old part as it saved him/her time and trouble preserving it forever and a day.

Zeiss 35mm film originally came as reloads on a spool, btw.

Regards, David

 

[Bill Jones]

Hi,

Two minor points, small bits of cameras were turned out in their thousands and big expensive parts in much smaller runs to avoid the time, material and labour costs. So I'd expect small parts meant for the I to be used up in the II and the for the same reason bits of the II would be used in the III and so on.

Also, repairers often save secondhand bits and pieces just in case they can use them. Fairly recently I had a favourite camera repaired and when I got it back the repair had been done and a large scratch on the outside had disappeared! My guess is that the repairer was happy to give me the good old part as it saved him/her time and trouble preserving it forever and a day.

Zeiss 35mm film originally came as reloads on a spool, btw.

Regards, David

David,

All very true and anyone buying a Zeiss Ikon 35 mm camera should keep these in mind.

In the 30's Zeiss Ikon really pushed using 235 size film. It fed from spool to spool with paper leaders and trailers like medium format 220 size does today. (Yes Fuji till makes Velva 100 in 200.) So the take up spool would be replaced by the spool of the last 235 film finished in the camera. David, I believe you have the pre-war Contax Way by Freytag. If so ref pages 11, 13 and 14 for the Contax Daylight Loading Spool. This was called 235 size by Kodak.

A reload spool would have a smaller flange diameter and may not work well.
I never tried one.

Checking the take up spool is a collectors thing to see if the camera was used with 135 or casettes only. We know it was used a lot without a case from the "zits".

Bill

 

[David Hughes]

Hi,

Luckily I've the plastic take-up spool and some 1932/34 refills in the heap I pass off as the collection. I guess you've seen the series of photo's I did showing one being unwrapped and how the paper leader feed out the film?

The take-up spool is plastic but they call it composition in the instruction book (dated July 1938) but mine is identical so I could be lucky. Or it could be post-war. Anyway, it's not the one in Freytag's book.

The oddity about Zeiss bumps is that other makers didn't notice them and repeated the chemical mismatch and problems elsewhere...

Regards, David

 

[jn053]

Pretty sure you've got the real deal. I picked up an M-series (359xx) Contax III with a battered 50/1.5 Sonnar a few weeks back. Take up spool and serial # placement is the same as yours, though the foot on mine (broken and glued to the baseplate) is different and exactly the same as the rest of my pre-War Contax RFs. Yours might be one off of a KIEV III.

 

[richardHaw]

thanks everybody! I hope I can source an appropriate foot for this thing 😱😱😱

 

[Highway 61]

(...) engraved in white like what I saw in some old Jena Contaxes.

They were made in Dresden not in Jena.

What you have is a genuine Contax III with at least a Киев foot.

It may have other mechanical or optical Киев parts.