Help Please - Contax III originality

[dee]

I know I have gone on about this , but my [ unseen-direct-from-USA Contax III survived Arsenal with just a Kiev meter cell and shutter ribbons .
The meter was knocked during transit , and it has to go back .

No problem , but one fin on the meter glass is broken - the seller
did not open the meter ! Because I asked for it to remain original ,
they assumed that I knew about it and did not replace it .
I really like this camera as my primary user - OK , I know it's less than dee'screte , but I have practised with my cupog sourced cla Kiev 3a which has an accurate meter .

Should I fit a Kiev glass ?

Thanks dee

 

[ZeissFan]

I'm a bit of a purist, and I tend to keep body and lens makes together.

Nikon + Nikon, Voigtlander + Voigtlander, Zeiss + Zeiss Ikon, Kiev + Jupiters, etc. Although, I should mention that I have a Vivitar Series 1 wide angle mounted to an early Pentacon, so I don't fret about it too much. And one of my favorite combos is the Rollei 40mm Sonnar + the Zeiss Ikon body (technically, it's a Zeiss lens design, so I reckon that I'm OK there).

If you have some Soviet glass from the Kiev line, there's no reason why you shouldn't use it with a Contax body. But make sure you get plenty of pre-war Carl Zeiss Jena glass for that Contax.

 

[Sonnar Brian]

If someone used original equipment to make replacement parts for an antique camera, I for one would have no problem using them.

I would have no problem using a Kiev camera for replacement parts on a Contax. Too bad Arsenall did not make Nikon RF parts. Contax users are lucky to have such a rich supply of parts.

But I do try to balance things out.