Let's see your vintage Contax

Coldkennels said:
Oh, god. I'm getting flashbacks to the last time I tried dealing with this.

There's a couple of adjustment points/methods on the Contax/Kiev rangefinder. I don't know if it's different on the IIa, but I can't imagine it changed a lot.

The "easy" fix is the one below the RF window, accessible by removing the front plate. That shifts the rangefinder mechanism side-to-side and will give you a small amount of adjustment for the whole range of travel. Unfortunately, if you're in focus at one end but not the other, this won't be enough.

The more substantial fix is to remove the entire top of the camera and rotate the RF prism/lens at that end. Note that the adjustments for this are below the long prism that brings the image over to the viewfinder, so adjusting this necessitates removing the prism, making an adjustment, and replacing the prism to find out if you got it right.

Usually, a combination of those two should bring everything into line - if you're lucky.

The ninth circle of hell is if the lens mount has been removed and the gearing between the focusing helical and the rangefinder mechanism has changed. Now you've got to reposition that and adjust the other two parts of the rangefinder mechanism until everything agrees. Good luck with that - it's a constant process of removing parts, making small adjustments, putting parts back, checking both ends of the scale, removing parts, making more adjustments, and so on.

I can see why so few people work on these things. They're a nightmare.
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Christ, yeah I see what you mean! It doesn't help that half what you read on old forum posts is "oh no, there's only the gearing and no other adjustments" and half are as you describe. I didn't realize you could remove the front plate without to much added misery though, I suppose it's worth a look just in case. On the other hand since it does focus more or less right, I could just leave well enough alone. Just kidding, I can't! It's a personality defect! 🙂
 
You all know I love the looks of the II. And I like them almost enough to buy one and screw around with film again. Almost. If I were to buy one I would first send it off to Oleg (?) to have it looked at and have him fix what needs to be fixed. I know nothing of camera repair and am not gong to learn by taking apart old, rare and intricate cameras. I don't even change the oil in my car anymore. I take it to my mechanic and he will do that and fix whatever he sees needs fixing..

But the II sure is a gorgeous camera.
 
Coldkennels said:
As for noise: there's going to be a lot of sample variation. My Contax IIa sounds like a metallic gunshot for some reason. My Contax II sounds like a quiet snick. My Leica IIIf is also weirdly loud thanks to a technician in London that overtensioned everything to "repair" it, but my Leica Ic is quiet as a whisper.

But one thing that's always made me laugh about pre-war Contaxes and Kievs vs any Leica or Leica-based design is the slow speed mechanism. Firing a Leica at 1/4 is a beautiful and subtle noise. Firing a pre-war Contax or Kiev at 1/5 makes a sound like the dying wheeze of an old man with emphysema. I've never heard anything else like it!
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My contax IIIa is very very quiet.
 
hap said:
My contax IIIa is very very quiet.
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Mine starts capping at 1/500 and 1/1250 so it needs a service anyway. I suspect someone's pulled the classic "overtension everything to power through old grease" which is seemingly so common with a lot of "technicians".

This thread almost made me dust it off and load it with film last night. It's certainly a pretty thing... it just drives me nuts every time I use it.

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You guys are making me crazy. No, let me amend that, crazier. They sure are beautiful. I guess the "a's" are more competent but the predecessors look more beautiful to me. The new RF windows just do not have that pizzazz.
 
This is an unusual post for me, this is the only camera I refuse to use.
Back in the day my father worked in China and I gave him a list of cameras I was interested in and he brought back a bagfull of old Shanghai's which I sold for a fortune. Several Barnack Leicas and this bloody thing.
At first I thought it was a fake but it is genuine, at least according to a few 'experts' that have looked at it. However I loath the engraving, really I could never use a camera with that on it. I assumed the engraving was done in Russia later, although it surprises me they bothered doing it on the underside of the chassis.
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trix4ever said:
At first I thought it was a fake but it is genuine, at least according to a few 'experts' that have looked at it. However I loath the engraving, really I could never use a camera with that on it. I assumed the engraving was done in Russia later, although it surprises me they bothered doing it on the underside of the chassis.
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I'm not sure if this is actually genuine.
I suppose "FL" wants to announce that it would be a Contax of German air force where this seems to have been an abbreviation for "Flieger" (airmen).

But: Please have a look at this site (though it deals with Leica - but I suppose the engraving methods were the same back then, on Leicas and on Contaxes, Exaktas etc.) : It shows a genuine Leica of German air force "Luftwaffe". You may notice that the second letter “l” is a small “l”. This is followed by the abbreviation point.

Here is another site which deals with this genuine Leica copy.

On your camera, the “L” is a capital “L”. The abbreviation dot is missing. I think that's unusual.

Furthermore, I am not sure whether authentic cameras actually bore the emblem of this barbaric regime, as can be seen on your camera.
The markings on the cameras were not for the purpose of representation, but merely to identify a camera as the property of the air force, the army, the navy or even the notorious secret police “Gestapo”. The emblem was not required for this, only the registration number with the letter code as engraved on the original Leica.

In at least one respect, the emblem itself also looks unusual: The swastika with rounded shapes was used by the Nazi party and its supporters primarily in its early days: 1920 and after. In the late 1930s and the 1940s, the swastika had the widely known angular shape.

So I would suppose, you have got a fake camera. Henry Scherer has written about cameras like these. Maybe you've got a real pre-war Contax (the A series was produced in 1936 - same with a 1911XXX Zeiss Jena lens according to this list) where someone faked the engravings many decades after.
Or it's a former Kiev which got a Contax nameplate in a faking workshop (Henry Scherer has written about it) plus the fake engravings.
 
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Interesting. I have been using a Contax II regularly for over a decade primarily using a Sonnar 50/1.5 and a Biogon 35/2.8. I must be lucky. I have never had to adjust the focus since I bought it and had it serviced.

Never been able to say that about any of my Leica cameras, and I have owned a few, so I guess it must be a good thing that the focus on those cameras is easy to adjust. Even the focus on my Zeiss Ikon ZM has gone out of adjustment a couple of times since I have owned it. Have no intention of ever getting rid of it but it does not exactly have a habit of staying in focus over long periods of time.
 
1936ContaxII said:
I'm not sure if this is actually genuine.
I suppose "FL" wants to announce that it would be a Contax of German air force where this seems to have been an abbreviation for "Flieger" (airmen).

But: Please have a look at this site (though it deals with Leica - but I suppose the engraving methods were the same back then, on Leicas and on Contaxes, Exaktas etc.) : It shows a genuine Leica of German air force "Luftwaffe". You may notice that the second letter “l” is a small “l”. This is followed by the abbreviation point.

Here is another site which deals with this genuine Leica copy.

On your camera, the “L” is a capital “L”. The abbreviation dot is missing. I think that's unusual.

Furthermore, I am not sure whether authentic cameras actually bore the emblem of this barbaric regime, as can be seen on your camera.
The markings on the cameras were not for the purpose of representation, but merely to identify a camera as the property of the air force, the army, the navy or even the notorious secret police “Gestapo”. The emblem was not required for this, only the registration number with the letter code as engraved on the original Leica.

In at least one respect, the emblem itself also looks unusual: The swastika with rounded shapes was used by the Nazi party and its supporters primarily in its early days: 1920 and after. In the late 1930s and the 1940s, the swastika had the widely known angular shape.

So I would suppose, you have got a fake camera. Henry Scherer has written about cameras like these. Maybe you've got a real pre-war Contax (the A series was produced in 1936 - same with a 1911XXX Zeiss Jena lens according to this list) where someone faked the engravings many decades after.
Or it's a former Kiev which got a Contax nameplate in a faking workshop (Henry Scherer has written about it) plus the fake engravings.
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What I said was the camera seemed genuine but the engraving was probably done post war in Russia.
I think you are agreeing with me...
 
Sonnar Brian said:
My Turn. I do not have a Contax I. I have 10 or so Contax's in good working condition, including the Meters. Several bought cheap for the lenses on non-working bodies. I have good luck with the IIIa shutter- managed to fix two of them by cleaning the mechanism and applying slightest amount of oil. The II and III- got pretty good at cleaning the VF/RF. I have 4 Contax II bodies with non-working shutters. Maybe when I retire completely from writing code...

Contax III with an early T 5cm F2 Sonnar, to the right in the picture- First Batch of lenses made in Contax Mount, 5cm F3.5 Tessar. Meter works perfectly.
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Contax II with 5cm F1.5 Sonnar T

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Anybody else use their Leica M3 Case for the Contax? Fits perfectly, move the screw.



Contax II with a very late production KMZ Jupiter-3.
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And the IIIa that I repaired, a color-dial. I think this was $60. With a very, very good J-3 on it. Made from parts after converting a Sonnar to LTM. The focus on the J-3 was WAY off. Figured I had to shim it anyway, might as well use the LTM mount for a Sonnar and the J-3 on a Contax.
View attachment 4846383View attachment 4846384

Meter works just fine.
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Brian I just fixed a non working shutter on a II. It was quite an experience.
 
(In a good way... but very involved. It is a brilliantly designed and executed camera, of any vintage, but particularly considering that it was produced in the 1930's. Incredible...) I repaired the main shutter spring, flushed out a flake of film that was jamming the winding mechanism, cleaned and lubricated all of the gears that were sticky from old age, replaced the shutter leather braces, replaced the shutter ribbons, lubricated the shutter, cleaned and horizontally aligned the rangefinder and vertically aligned / reglued the rangefinder barrel lens, set the shutter slit width and timings, replaced the main spring latch, ground/polished the shutter casting. It was enlightening and a testament to top notch engineering and manufacturing. Looking for my next project, maybe a LTM japanese Barnack clone. Any takers?

I learned that there are way more blade-screwdriver sizes than there seem to be for JIS sizes. A large set of copycat Bergeon watchmaker screwdrivers has really helped with securing / protecting the screw heads in this camera. A must have.

Thank god for the internet, Maizenberg, Oleson, Elek, Javier, Van Straten, Romney, Ho, Tooke. Surprisingly, the main shutter spring "end" for tensioning the shutter has a higher tolerance susceptible to slippage at the latch when compared with the Kiev shutters that I have. I strongly believe this was the orignal shutter spring since it had the typical Contax leather pad and clearly original shutter.
 
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Coldkennels said:
...this is bringing back the totally irrational desire to own a Contax I again. Dammit.

NURSE!
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As someone who is completely Contax-insane and loves both the IIa and II's using them as daily drivers.

Don't. Like I actually love (did I say I was normal?) the way the II and the IIa work and feel to shoot. I love the focus wheel. I use it for the normal lenses and wide angles. I have about 10 Contaxes and like 100 lenses for them, I much prefer it over my button-rewind M2. Again did I say I was normal?

I also have a I(f) because it came with the two black and nickel lenses as a package (50 and 28) - and of course when I got the body I had to give it a service - so it works and works well. But... boy is this thing awkward to shoot. If you wind it in a hurry you risk rubbing on the aperture ring of the lens with your knuckles, either changing focus, the aperture setting - or both! Bonus points for knocking (and possibly denting) the hood off - which is only push-on for this generation and costs like a million bucks these days. For... reasons...

Then - it has the split VF/RF, which as I learned from my attempts to use various Barnack Leicas and copies I am not fond of. And then once or twice in the "heat of action" I managed to partially pull out the viewfinder mask which of course "deleted" the rangefinder image leaving me wondering what was wrong and missing the shot.

But god -- it is a gorgeous camera. Also the black and nickel Sonnars are so fine. It's the only camera other than a Rolleiflex, where I had wild strangers literally flag me down so they could come over to the other side of the street to take a closer look at it.

Edit, some image content. I repaired three of these - where two of the II's had their rangefinder purposefully misaligned - someone changed the RF gain (increased the gain - aka RF indicates closer quicker) so that they could use their Nikon lenses on these. They of course also took out about 0.03mm worth of shims. What the heck. The last one simply needed a clean of the finder.

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While we are at it, how do you grip the damn thing to keep your finger out of the RF window?

(I say "damn thing" in that it's bloody frustrating when the patch vanishes - everything else is no worse than any other 1930s camera I've owned!)
 
Behold the Contax grip!
(The IIa is admittedly better in this respect - but I just love that pre-war and war-time goodness. Luckily I was gifted with long very flexible fingers.)

Edit removed image of holding it extra awkwardly because I was holding it one handed - in shooting I hold these two handed of course with a strap around my neck. Sometimes even two of them.
 

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Thanks - I'll give that a go when I pass the cabinet later - mine are short and dumpy, but got to give it a go!

ETA - I suspect its a bit more comfortable for you, but I can do that. I'll have to practice before the next roll.
 
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I somehow never noticed that. I just checked and you're right. But I had to consciously focus on what my finger was doing to notice it. I guess it's just natural to me either way?

I also sometimes use LTM cameras, so I might just be used to focus direction confusion and adapt without having to think about it much.

Also: Your IIa's capping usually is ironically enough - a good sign! It often means that the camera has not been over-tightened, yet. If it had been, the shutter would make a loud "twhack!" noise running at similar speed from 1/250 through to 1/1250, gaining only 10-20% for each stop. A correctly serviced IIa is very, very quiet.
 
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