Contax I with history!

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Davidhel

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Hi!

I've finally got myself a Contax I after looking on and off for years to use alongside my Leica. At the moment everything functions exactly as it should - although I have budgeted for a service if things start to go wrong...


Melbourne CBD - The equipment...what's currently in the bag.. by David Helmore, on Flickr

One of the great things about this camera is that I purchased it directly from the original owners family. The original owner was Witold Rychter - a pilot, car and motorcycle competition driver in Poland. With the help of google translate, you can read more about him on this link - http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witold_Rychter

What is even more amazing is the archive of photos he left - his original albums have been scanned in and uploaded by his family and can be viewed on this link!
http://photo.rychter.com/Archiwa

I believe that both the 1937 and 1938 albums featured on the link above were actually taken using this camera and lens!

If all goes well with the test film I will post some images soon...

Dave
 
Beautiful set Dave.

Congratulations on finding your Contax I. Looking forward to seeing the results.

I recently picked up a Contax III for very little, not in the same league as your baby though. 😉
 
Thanks for all your comments!

Of those 3 sets the Monte Carlo 1935 one is my favourite, so would be great if that was the case - from my basic research though I think it it took place in late Jan of that year. There really are some great candid shots in that set!

The Sonnar starts '150' so is from around 1934. The Contax 1 has a 'Z' serial number which dates it to 1935/6

I really hope they post some more of his albums online soon...
 
Dave,

Looking at his "documents" and the handwriting on the cover, he was in the rally from the 19th to the 23rd of January, competing in a 1930 Packard.

Bill
 
The "album" is stunning. Classic 30's rallying - no 'corporate" involvement, no "handlers" for the crew - it was a gentlemens (and womens) type of race - albeit a rather wealthy group as such.
The Contax 1 was the tool - and he handled it well too.
Great collection of pictures - and, yes, I like the camera too. Thanks for posting it.
 
Between this and Raid's mysterious air force camera, there has been much of historical interest going on at RFF lately. Very interesting.
I look over at the bookshelves in my living room and can see the first camera I was given. On one side of it is the first camera I bought with my own money, and on the other side is a camera that my mother bought my father when they first met and fell in love. There seems to be a permanence to these artefacts born in an industrial age, and the logic by which they were designed and engineered. I still have many slides and negatives taken on each of these cameras. Meanwhile, in a box upstairs at the bottom of a wardrobe sits my first digital camera. It was designed to a different logic, so though it was launched amid fanfare, it foresaw its own obsolescence. I don't have any of the images I took with the camera and I can't imagine any circumstance under which I would use it. I have had to prevent myself throwing it away if only to resist the hegemonic logic of disposability that seems to have been implicitly designed into so many modern electronic goods. So I read the story of your Contax with interest, and smiled. It's not just a history of a man who raced at Monte Carlo, or of the development of modern photography, it's a door into a much wider cultural and economic history. Thanks for sharing. Very interesting and thought provoking.
 
The first picture (the map-board) in the 1937 set says Zdjecia aparatem "ФЭД" which seems to indicate it was shot with a Fed?? (Someone who reads Polish please help us.) Some of this has quite an elegiac quality to it, as obviously would be the case with anything to do with Eastern Europe, Poland especially, just before it all went up in flames and millions of innocents there lost their lives.
--Dave
 
I was totally amazed when I saw those albums for the first time! The Monte Carlo album is amazing and I loved the colour album as well - something that would have been very expensive in the 1930's! It would be great if they were taken on the Contax but I guess we may never know... His grandson thought that he only ever owned two 35mm cameras - this one and a 'Robot' (also sold recently dating to the early 1940's)..Maybe there was a Fed as well....I think there is a lot in these albums which I have yet to absorb....

For me, what is great about both these cameras is that they have been looked after and used over many years. The Leica I/III was made in 1930 and had it's last upgrade with flash sycnch probably in the 1950's. The Contax I was made slightly later but also had the same flash upgrade maybe at a similar time. It is very likely they continued to be used regularly well beyond that time and will still be used now. Friends look at my digital SLR which is about 7 years old and ask me when I'm thinking about 'upgrading'...!
 
That Contax is the last or 7th version of the Contax I. BY all accounts the best in terms of reliability and certainly the better, later, range finder. Be warned though, they can become something of a money pit. I speak from personal experience!

Michael
 
Yep - I did my research...After weighing everything up I decided that I would wait until a 'version 7' turned up!

After reading so much about these cameras over the years, I have to say I was quite surprised by how 'solid' it feels. The shutter fires consistently at all speeds and the rangefinder is bright and aligned perfectly...However, I did buy with the knowledge that it has sat dormant for the best part of 20-30 years....with probably only occasional exercise of the shutter..

So now I have the dilemma - do I get it serviced straight away, or wait until something goes wrong!

Radu Lesaru has done work for me in the past so it will most likely go to him...and he has previously turned around the work in a couple of months which is pretty reasonable I think.
 
Dave,

My advice would be to use it until something happens. I know other would disagree but who knows, if it has had new shutter tapes at some point it may be good for a few years yet.

Sometimes a repairman may find it hard to return the camera to you with a 'light' wind on tension. The camera is ergonomically not that great and if it is stiff to wind on it becomes somewhat unpleasant.

I must admit that my foray into Contax I ownership has all but come to an end and I am back in the Leica fold. The only camera I kept was an early 'dimple' model that worked when I got it and still works now. No slow speeds to worry about!

Having said all that I still like them.

Michael
 
Very good advice!

I just re read the thread on 'contax authorized repairers'...! Finding someone to take on repair of the Contax is a bit of a challenge compared to the Leica...I think thats the main reason I held off getting one for so long..

Lets see how the test film works out!
 
Don't know where you are but the guys in Germany are excellent with the Contax I and Super Nettel (and quite expensive). It will take me a while to remember their name!
 
First impressions...

First impressions...

The film is loaded...and the first pics taken.

Quick to focus, quiet picture taking....but the front wind on dial?! This would be quite a challenge if the lens was any bigger than a 50mm I reckon!...there is no room for your fingers!!
 
Everything was going so well. I was starting to get the feel of the camera..then I decided to to increase the shutter speed to 1/200. First wind on fine. Second one seemed less resistance, then I noticed that the rewind dial had stopped turning... Later that day I discovered that the film had torn at that point...

I still had taken around 25 shots. I developed the film and saw that there was a slight overlap in the last couple of frames at 1/200 (before tearing). I had used slower speeds up to then without any problem. I also saw that the film was scratched throughout in the same place (although the pressure plate looks pretty good)...

On the positive side, the exposed film I had came out pretty well - the f2 Sonnar is quite something I think! Will post a few shots over the next couple of days...
 
Dave,

Bad luck, don't know where you are but move forward slowly and think hard. The guys in Germany are excellent but the cost is high, certainly way more than the value of your camera. Everything is possible at a price but....

It was at this point that I gave up. Much as I like the Contax I (and it is a fascinating camera) I realised that a nice black pre war Leica is much more useable. I'm sorry but my Contax I has joined the Super Nettel on what I call my 'shelf of dreams...'

Michael
 
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