Is this Contax IIa worth taking a gamble on?

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escuta

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Hi Forum,

I'm considering purchasing a Contax IIa with a Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 50mm f/2 lens. I've read about fake Contaxes, but this does seem to have the features of a genuine IIa rather than the II and I understand that the IIa was never faked. Is that correct?

The camera is selling for the equivalent of US$183 and it will probably cost another US$95 for me to have it serviced (there's a technician here in town that has managed to fix everything that thrown at him so far).

One curious thing is that the lens has the serial number of 2038520. From a search I did, this would place it from 1937 whereas the body is post war.

I'll paste some photos below. Can anyone please comment on the camera? Worth the gamble? Does the lens look genuine? Is it uncoated and might I be able to expect good results (i haven't started to ask the seller question yet about scratches etc.)?

All the best!
 

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Yup, that is a genuine IIa Contax camera.

The F2 50mm Sonnar lens is also genuine and could be a post war Jena made lens, as the West Germany Oberkochen plant could not keep up demands for optics and got some made in Jena in East Germany

It is certainly worth 183 USD, heck, lens alone is worth that much if it is not scratched to kingdom come or fungus-ed like a damp forest floor.

Getting it sorted out for 95 USD is a bargoon, but parts are not easy to get and it is a complex hand fitted mechanism with its own strange idiosyncrasies.
 
That is a pre-war genuine Carl Zeiss Jena lens from 1937. I have on the same on my 1937 Contax II. The post-war 50 f2 Sonnar lenses are not collapsible and have 6 digit serial numbers.
John Mc
 
Coated lenses will usually show reflections from light sources with a color tint to them, often purple. On your shots it is just white which suggests uncoated.

Is the shutter firing now? At all speeds?

Have you checked with your repair person to see if they work on the Contax IIa? The shutter is different compared to most other cameras and not everyone knows them and works on them.

Shawn
 
Many thanks xayraa33 and John. John, what is your opinion of these pre-war Jenas? Because I believe these have no lens coatings, might they be more resistant to flare problems if scratched (i have 2 Jupiter 8M lenses with scratched lens coatings that flare wildly on bright objects but are otherwise excellent)?

One other question, what is meant by "collapsible"? They can flatten down like a pancake lens?

All the best!
 
shawn said:
Coated lenses will usually show reflections from light sources with a color tint to them, often purple. On your shots it is just white which suggests uncoated.

Is the shutter firing now? At all speeds?

Have you checked with your repair person to see if they work on the Contax IIa? The shutter is different compared to most other cameras and not everyone knows them and works on them.

Shawn
Click to expand...

Shawn, I know for certain that he can can fix the Kievs and he's very experienced. I've sent a message to him but won't hear back until Monday. Yes, apparently firing at all speeds and focus is working. I'm about to send the seller some questions.
Thanks!
 
those cameras are quite different from the prewar cameras on which the Kievs are based. But your repairer will presumably know that. I'd snap it up at that price. Some think those are more pernickety cameras than the early versions, but they are beautifully crafted for sure.
 
Looks like this is an early production Contax IIa from 1950-1951. Later models had an additional glass unit hold in place with two tiny screws in front of the rangefinder window. This one doesn't have it.

Interesting enough, the camera eyepiece still has its original black plastic guard ring. Most of them got lost over time.

The leather on the camera back will have to be carefully removed, then the leather and the camera casting will have to be cleaned off all the verdigris bumps having grown up on the copper rivets, then the leather will have to be carefully glued back in place.

The lens needs cleaning. There is some oil on the aperture blades telling there is likely some haze inside. Fortunately the collapsible prewar Sonnar is extremely easy to take apart and clean. There is no ring which should be removed using a spanner and which could be so sticky that the spanner would destroy everything.

If clean with no scratches on the front element the prewar uncoated collapsible Sonnar delivers beautiful and sharp results, absolutely on par with later lenses of the same formula and considerably better than anything made by Leitz at the same time. It will show some distorsion, though. Not a big deal for daily photography. It won't show some excessive flare or "glow". Again - if perfectly clean.

At that price this is worth the gamble for the outfit if you know someone who says he can fix it seriously. The shutter firing at all speeds doesn't tell much for now. It can fire but yet travel close or at erratic speeds.

The yellow filter is a postwar Zeiss Stuttgart filter.

I would buy it according to the price and what I can see on the pictures. The seller's answers would probably not be something you can really trust in.
 
Thanks Paul. Just made the purchase. The seller had replied and said the lens has no visible scratches but that it will need a clean. Also confirmed that there are no pieces missing (nor the take up spool) and that it just needs some lubrication to speed up the slower shutter speeds. I didn't wait to hear from the repairer but I'm confident he'll be able to work on it.

Thanks a lot everyone for your comments. All the best!
 
Best lenses for Post war IIa and IIIa models, are West German lenses marked either Zeiss Option (early 50's) or later (1954 on) marked "Carl Zeiss".

Chances are the body needs a service, and if the tech you have does not know these cameras, they can do more harm than good. "Just needing lubrication.....?" Does not sound like someone I'd want to be working on mine. The thing probably needs to be stripped down, cleaned of 50 years worth of gunk, re-timed and properly lubricated. Chances are, at the upper end of the range (1/250 and faster) the shutter may not be opening even though it is running, a common issue with Contax shutters that have sat/not been serviced in a while.

Here's my 100% operational IIa outfit. the only non-West German lens I currently am using is a really clean 85mm f2 Sonnar. Looking for "Carl Zeiss" version of the 85mm f2 and a nice, clean 35mm f2.8 West German Biogon to complete my set.

 
escuta said:
One other question, what is meant by "collapsible"? They can flatten down like a pancake lens?

All the best!
Click to expand...

Only collapsible for storage. Has to be extended to get it into shooting position. All of the more desireable post war 50mm West German lenses (Sonnar and Tessar 50mm lenses) designed to be used with the IIa were rigid.
 
escuta said:
Shawn, I know for certain that he can can fix the Kievs and he's very experienced. I've sent a message to him but won't hear back until Monday. Yes, apparently firing at all speeds and focus is working. I'm about to send the seller some questions.
Thanks!
Click to expand...

Best way to ruin a good West German Contax IIa is for someone to "repair" it using Kiev parts....
 
No, that was the seller that suggested it needed lubrication. The tech is a good one and has worked here in Brasilia for years - there are many photo journalists here in the capital! I mentioned the Kiev because I have one and I asked him about it once. All the best!
 
escuta said:
No, that was the seller that suggested it needed lubrication. The tech is a good one and has worked here in Brasilia for years - there are many photo journalists here in the capital! I mentioned the Kiev because I have one and I asked him about it once. All the best!
Click to expand...

Your camera tech might be very competent and might have had some Contax IIa and IIIa repair experience.

The Contax IIa is not a Contax II or a Kiev and even these were considered complex cameras by 1930s to 1950s standards.

A camera tech that has repaired hundreds of Leica Barnacks might run into the odd Contax IIa sometimes and has figured it out, other techs who never seen one might cause more harm than good.

The truth is somewhere in the middle, camera techs with some Contax IIa repair experience can fix them if its needed and that depends on what is needed.

Then we go to the Henry Scherer extreme, where he claims only he knows the real secrets of how to properly fix the Contax IIa or IIIa and if you go on his three year waiting list, say a prayer and pay him a hefty fee then you will have the great privilege of a Henry Schererized Contax IIa.


http://zeisscamera.com/about.shtml
 
Yes, it will be a gamble, but at the very least I'll have the zeiss lens which i can use on my Kiev 4. There are 2 Contax SLRs in the tech's shop that he serviced and is selling, so I'm optimistic that he may have come across a IIa in the past. If not I'll make some enquiries in São Paulo. Cheers
 
“Contax” SLR’s were made by Yashica much, much later. Nowhere near the same thing.

You should probably assume the only thing you’re getting here that you may have long-term comrade is, the lens.
 
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