Contax iiia - good deal? bad deal?

I have a not-mint IIIa that is a great shooter. This one looks nice enough, but most of them do. No Zeiss bumps? The interesting part is the Nikkor 1.4. If the "C" is large and not red, then it's a Nikkor that is actually compatible with the Contax. If the C is only on the bezel, and it's red, that just means it's coated, and does not mean it will focus properly on the Contax. NICE body though!
 
The IIa/IIIa are never fake - they way are too different from the Kievs to build profitable Kiev based fakes.

The lens looks nice, and assuming this is a Contax register "C" lens and the body is indeed fully working including a non-capping or dragging shutter, it is a nice deal. With a Nikon register lens, you'll have bought bits and pieces to re-sell (at a modest profit), unless you decide to get into the considerably more expensive Nikon bodies...
 
where should the c be?

where should the c be?

Thanks. Either way sounds like I am okay. For contax compatible where should the c be exactly?
 
Takizawa1 said:
Thanks. Either way sounds like I am okay. For contax compatible where should the c be exactly?
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Not on the front ring, but somewhere on the barrel or mount. It is very literally "C", by the way, that is, upper case and in double quotation marks! And it is a solitary letter - it is not grouped with other engravings.
 
I think the engraved "C" on the barrel is only a factor for lenses that use the external bayonet. Usually only longer lenses, as there is a lot of depth of focus to the wide angle lenses. I don't think the "C" is ever used on the internal mount 50mm Nikkors.

The incompatibility between the Nikon and Contax is driven by the thread pitch of the built-in lens mount, different for the two cameras. This is not a factor if you are using the internal mount, as the RF and the mount are obviously compatible. There is hypothetically a difference caused by the small difference in nominal focal length between the Nikon and Zeiss lenses, but I suspect that is less than the uncertainty in focusing accuracy of the average eyeball using the average rangefinder. There are some mechanical differences, as the mounting flange on the 50mm lenses are slightly different, and I find that a Contax 50mm lens usually is a very tight fit in a Nikon mount, so maybe the other way around would be a bit loose.

I suspect the above paragraph may be considered controversial, so it would be great if any optical experts out there could chime in with some quantitative info.

Now if you have an external mount Nikkor 50mm f 1.1 lens, you shouldn't use it on your Contax, but if you can afford that lens, you can surely afford an extra Nikon body or two.

Cheers,
Dez
 
Any other opinions??

Any other opinions??

I still wonder whether the Nikkor S 1.4 50mm lens would cause any real problems on the Contax iiia.

Also, any benefits to using the external viewfinder given that the Contax should be calibrated for a 50mm lens anyway?

Thanks all!
 
If that's a zoom finder (and I think it is), then no worries, you can use it with any Contax mount lens. It will help with parallax when focusing on close subjects, and may provide better eye relief than the camera finder. If I recall correctly, the focusing problems manifest themselves more with the longer focal lengths, so those are the lenses you would definitely want to make sure what type mount they have. And that's a lovely looking camera. Real Contax, too. The CLA tag is a bit suspect, but could have been added by the owner because the shop didn't put one of their own in it. I actually had that one on my Watch List, but just to see what it went for.

PF
 
Takizawa1 said:
I still wonder whether the Nikkor S 1.4 50mm lens would cause any real problems on the Contax iiia.
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Fully open? Yes. That is, in my experience there is visible focus shift with f/2 Sonnars on Nikon bodies, so the inverse will also hold true, even more so with a faster lens. By f/5.6 the difference should be covered by DOF, so if you shoot as intended at the time of making, you'd generally be able to work around it.

Takizawa1 said:
Also, any benefits to using the external viewfinder given that the Contax should be calibrated for a 50mm lens anyway?
Click to expand...

The external viewfinder is not involved in focusing, so it does not help there. You cannot "calibrate the body" to make up for the Contax/Nikon differences - but the lens could presumably be shimmed to correct one or both of focal length and flange distance (but so far I've only come across people that did it the other direction, Zeiss to Nikon).
 
farlymac - I had only planned to watch this myself. I happened to turn back to the page with 7 seconds left. Instincts kicked in. I agree that the CLA paper looks to have been strategically placed by the seller. It will be interesting to see if the condition of the camera is as good as claimed.

sevo - thanks for sharing your personal experience. Now all I need to figure out is how to focus at close distances with the aperture wide open. The lens seems to have been designed around that use case to contrast with Leica lenses -->
http://www.dantestella.com/technical/nikoleic.html
 
Ah, the thrill of the hunt! Even if the Nikkor doesn't pan out, you can always sell it, and get an Opton Sonnar. Keep the finder though. It will come in handy later on when you expand your lens collection.

PF
 
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