Contax IIa Rangefinder adjustment...

T

Tim

Guest
...seems to be non-existent. The instructions I thought I had were for a II, all I have been able to find is references to the IIa/IIIa being virtually impossible to adjust. Only thing I can find is references to unsticking the Rangefinder window and sticking it into a new position. But my IIa is in pieces in front of me, and I can't see how that's possible.

Anyone any wiser?

tim
 
I have been reading a lot about the Contax cameras lately and have seen in a couple places mention that the adjustments are inside the camera and some disassembly is required. I am taking this to mean the top cover.

Rick Oleson is a member here (and budding artist 🙂).
This is a link to his diagrams of how to take the top cover off.

http://members.tripod.com/rick_oleson/index-62.html
 
I suppose the iia and the iiia are the same from this popint of view. When i re-assembled my iiia, the only way to put the lens mount back was to put it back in the same time with the rangefinder unit (i mean the little wheel-thingies and the rotating small lens behind the wheel, NOT the long prism which i did NOT remove). The alignment of the whole thing is based on the connection between a cog wheel and the "cogged" region of the lens mount, through a hole cut in the outer shell of the mount. I'm talking about the lens mount in the camera body, of course, not the lens itself.

When you put back the lens mount into the body shell AND the rangefinder unit, you can align the rangefinder unit as you want and fit the things back. When i did this with mine, i discovered that there were two scratches made on the two rotating cog wheels of the rf unit. When those two scratches are aligned, the whole rf unit was well-aligned for infinity.

If this does not help, i'll try again saying it in a different way - however, check also Henry Scherer's pages where he shows a disassembled contax iiia rf module.
 
top cover's off, and rick's instructions are next to me., and i'm buggered if i can find any way to adjust.

i cannot believe how insanely complex this thing is. the engineers obviously decided to put in extra gear trains and things just because it made them happier......

tim
 
Oh, to do the above, you need to get the front plate of the COntax off. The plate with the "Contax" word on it. Should be easy with the iia since it has no meter; on the iiia, the damn thing is put under the whole meter module.
 
hmmm. i was looking at henry's pages today. might have another look now that i have the camera in bits in front of me....
 
There are also some screws on the back-top side of the rangefinder module (behind the focusing wheel/window) which COULD be there for rf adjustment - however, on mine they were seemingly stuck and i did not try to force them. I would check the two fine scratches on the two cog wheels to see if they are aligned when set at infinity. You should see them when you remove the front plate of the camera (four screws only), after the top plate🙂
 
Tim said:


i cannot believe how insanely complex this thing is. the engineers obviously decided to put in extra gear trains and things just because it made them happier......

tim

I believe they call that Engineering Mastery.
😀
 
Hi,

I had a IIa serviced last week and gave it a CLA. Took some fotos of it.

http://www.classic-camera.de/web/Contax_IIa_Reparatur/images.html

The focusing wheel was stuck, long times were dead.
Now everything moves like butter. The Contax IIa is indeed highly complex, but when you get into it, the construction makes sense.

As you can see, I had everything out that needed to be, in the end all was synchronized and perfect, like a Contax should be.

Have to go to job now, for further questions I be back tonight.

Canon P (aka 11a)
 
ok, it actually turns out to be fairly easy, once you work it out....

😉

assuming you don't need to clean the rf/vf (i did, which means more dissasembly), but just to adjust the rf.....
 
bugger, hit enter too early.

looking at pherdinand's picture #1 above.....
my camera didn't have those scratches. but....there are three screws holding that plate on, you can see them around the focus wheel. Removing them allows the module with the front lens and focus wheel to move around. In fact, it can move out of engagement with the lens helical.
so...you set the lens to infinity, move the rf focus plate out of engagement, then just adjust your focus until it's on infinity, then move the plate back into engagement with the lens helical.

magic!

i'll try and get some pics of the process tomorrow..

tim
 
yeah, that's what i ment by moving the rf unit and the lens focusing helical back into place together...
those 3 screws hold the RF unit in its place, when you unscrew them, the unit disengages the cogs on the lens focusing mount and it can be taken out, without touching the prisms behind.
Strange...the scratch was looking so perfectly made, i thought it's factory work - apparently it was made later during a service🙂 Sorry about that.

Nice that you managed🙂 enjoy the camera!
 
Mine had no scratches as well. But when I saw yours it made sense, makes it easier to have them.

When I first got these out of the Contax I thought oh god, but you have to understand how this works, then it is easy. Same with getting the whole shutter out of the Contax II and putting another in.
 
as Canon P says, it all makes an evil kind of sense when you spend some time examining the works.

But man, those Zeiss engineers got carried away by engineering for the sake of it. Beautifully engineered and built, but.........

tim
 
it would definately work that way - the manufacturing tolerances required to make that engineering actually work would be scarily expensive. probably contributed to zeiss' demise as a camera manufacturer....

tim
 
The Contax I and the following were milestones. Zeiss Ikon wanted to state who is the boss. Right now I am giving new shuuter curtains to a Canon IIb and this one (and its following Leica copies) look like toys compared to a Contax. The Leica II/III itself is build up "primitive" from a technical point of view.

Contax was a symbol of status, one who could not afford it had to take the "cheap" Leica. The Contax IIa in 1951 had a price of about DM 1070,- ! People in that time after WWII earned about DM 1,50 per hour work. That is the reason why you find so many IIa/IIIa and the older ones in very good condition, people cared for this investment.

Today things have changed. Everything with the name Leica on it is highly desirable for collectors. Prices are high. Compared to that $ 150,- for an excellent Contax IIa with Sonnar is a X-mas gift.
 
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