Biggles
My cup runneth amok.
(looks around) We can write about old Zeiss Ikon Contax stuff in this sub-forum, can't we?
(sound of crickets)
(steps onto soapbox)
Okaaayyy....
Received an old, 1950s Contax IIa in the mail today. Bought it without ever having held one, though I had played a bit with a IIIa.
What a nice old beast.
I immediately rammed the fifty-eff-two Sonnar into its mouth, stuffed a roll of fi'umm into it and scurried off to the riverfront. A few things quickly became apparent:
1) This is going to be a daylight camera. The rangefinder window is bright, but it's quite a bit dimmer than a Leica CL's, for example. However, it's got sufficient eye relief to be pretty easy to use with in slanting light while wearing a pair of sunglasses. This thing'll be a streeter.
2) The finder has no framelines. None AT ALL. This camera was just made to be used with one lens- a fifty. And I came up through the school of the fifty. Good match, there.
3) It's a small, dense sonofabitch. Those crazy Germans- they used actual METAL to make this ingot. (Feels like depleted uranium. What in hell were they thinking?) This is not your father's Olympus Stylus. Not nearly as effortless to carry as a modern point-and-shoot. Makes a far better weapon, though.
4) Winding it takes time. Like rolling a cigarette. So, one does it ruminatively.
5) Bloody depth-of-field scale is in metric. Agh! Thinking! Hurts! Brain!
6) Chicks look at it. This is really odd. Roller girls, bicycle wimmen, sharp older ladies with frou-frou muffdogs; they were all sneaking peeks at the satin nickel-plated Art Deco brick swinging from my right hand. Must have been curator night on the running path. Either that, or the local chickocracy really digs the metric system.
Overall, I like it, even though my fingertip's a bit chafed from the focusing wheel. Pictures later this week, metered with scrap of printed carboard from the film box.
(sound of crickets)
(steps onto soapbox)
Okaaayyy....
Received an old, 1950s Contax IIa in the mail today. Bought it without ever having held one, though I had played a bit with a IIIa.
What a nice old beast.
I immediately rammed the fifty-eff-two Sonnar into its mouth, stuffed a roll of fi'umm into it and scurried off to the riverfront. A few things quickly became apparent:
1) This is going to be a daylight camera. The rangefinder window is bright, but it's quite a bit dimmer than a Leica CL's, for example. However, it's got sufficient eye relief to be pretty easy to use with in slanting light while wearing a pair of sunglasses. This thing'll be a streeter.
2) The finder has no framelines. None AT ALL. This camera was just made to be used with one lens- a fifty. And I came up through the school of the fifty. Good match, there.
3) It's a small, dense sonofabitch. Those crazy Germans- they used actual METAL to make this ingot. (Feels like depleted uranium. What in hell were they thinking?) This is not your father's Olympus Stylus. Not nearly as effortless to carry as a modern point-and-shoot. Makes a far better weapon, though.
4) Winding it takes time. Like rolling a cigarette. So, one does it ruminatively.
5) Bloody depth-of-field scale is in metric. Agh! Thinking! Hurts! Brain!
6) Chicks look at it. This is really odd. Roller girls, bicycle wimmen, sharp older ladies with frou-frou muffdogs; they were all sneaking peeks at the satin nickel-plated Art Deco brick swinging from my right hand. Must have been curator night on the running path. Either that, or the local chickocracy really digs the metric system.
Overall, I like it, even though my fingertip's a bit chafed from the focusing wheel. Pictures later this week, metered with scrap of printed carboard from the film box.
