Origination of S, C mount naming.

goliathus

goliathus

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Hi all!:)

I'm wondering where a name of SC mount originated from, People usually call a Contax rangefinder mount as 'Contax C mount', also Nikon rangefinder mount as a 'Nikon S mount'.

Are those officially desingated by Nikon and Contax when they manufactured the cameras, or just given by users to classify from other camera mounts?

Thanks in advance.
 
goliathus said:
People usually call a Contax rangefinder mount as 'Contax C mount'
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Not too sure about that, I rather tend to think that people speak of "Contax RF" mount... ;)

"C-mount" regards lenses made for movie cameras. And Zeiss and Nikon both made some lenses in the actual C-mount.

As for "Nikon S mount" I guess it's from the name of the five last Nikon RF bodies (S, S2, SP, S3, S4) ?

But it differs from the "S" that writes on the lenses front rings e.g. Nikkor-S-C

This very S being there for the lens formula : W-Nikkor, Nikkor-S, Nikkor-H, Nikkor-P, Nikkor-Q and so on.

And of course, this last C is completely different from the 'C' that means Contax and which is engraved on some Nikkor RF telephoto lenses barrels... ;)
 
Nikon marked their Contax mount lenses with a small "C", and made a camera called "S". In the US, that recently got associated with the respective mounts - in Europe, where Nikon rangefinders are less frequent than gold plated Leicas, it is simply "Contax" respectively "Nikon rangefinder" or "Nikon S" mount, and C mount still is the 16mm cine/TV screw mount...

Sevo
 
The "C" in after Nikkor-S stands for "Coated". The first letter Nikkor-S or Nikkor-P or Nikkor-Q stands for the number of elements "S=Sept=7. P=Penta=5, Q=4 etc"
 
And H="Hexa"=6 on the Nikkor-H-C 50/2 (which became the Nikkor-H when the -C went away, because all lenses of that time had got coated). ;)
 
The C on Contax-mount Nikkors is not on the front bezel (the C there means coated, and is - nearly - always present) but on the mount base or on the barrel adjacent to the mount.
 
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