Zeiss Ikon Contessamat SE

[Avotius]

Ok so I got this friend who lent me his Zeiss Ikon Contessamat SE that has a Carl Zeiss 45mm f2.8 Color Pantar lens. He doesn’t know much about it and has since started shooting digital and just told me to keep it and give it some love. I’ve had it for a while and have run some film though it, seems to be an ok camera except for a few problems: Only the 125, 250, 500 speeds work, all other speeds stick open until you turn the shutter speed dial then they close. The Auto thing doesn’t work I think. The light meter doesn’t work. There rangefinder is wildly out of wack. The inside plastic covering looks like it has moisture damage. The lens is dusty. The rangefinder is dirty and yellow so you can barely see the focus patch. And on top of all of that sometimes the film advance doesn’t catch and you have to crank it several times before it will catch and advance the film.

Regardless of all that the camera looks like its in really good condition, the outside body and insides look pretty new, one of my photography teachers even offered to take it off my hands, no thanks.

Anyway I was wondering if anyone knew anything about this camera or its lens. Anything of interest, tid bits, whatnot. I can’t seem to even find the model of the camera so don’t know if it’s an off make or something. It says it was distributed by Carl Zeiss Canada Limited but there is no date anywhere on it.

Things I would really like to know about:

Does this camera take a battery? I have looked all over and it doesn’t look like it but maybe the auto mode is just some sort of mechanical thing hooked up to the now defunked light meter?

Is the light meter in this camera on of those old type selenium’s?

What year was this camera made?


Anything else anyone could tell me about it would be super. I have been using it just for fun, guess and shoot mostly, even though most of it doesn’t work I can still squeeze some nice shots out of it sometimes. My color negatives (Fuji Superia 400) were rich and vibrant and look a lot better then the color negatives that come out of my Canon L lenses which was pretty surprising to me. This lens suffers from a lot of distortion and lousy corner sharpness unless stopped down a lot.

If nothing else, enjoy having a look and this old relic Zeiss Ikon camera, its a neat little guy! 🙂

 

[Avotius]

Extra eye candy, a few shots I have taken with this little guy on Ilford Delta 100 and scanned with the world’s worst (Benq) film scanner.

First shot: Guy getting cupping done, probably to help back pain.

Second shot: Just some pile of stuff sitting out next to the walk way, a lot of piles of stuff here in China... This shot shows a lot of that bad corner sharpness.

Third shot: Little kid ran off after I shot this, dont think he cared much for what I was doing.

Fourth shot: This little chick was on its last legs, it looked pretty darn sick.

Fifth shot: A little nap on the side of the street, believe it or not these two are probably working. They wait for someone to hire them to carry something for them and then they come back here and talk and snooze.

 

[bmattock]

Pantar lens was a three-element (triplet) budget lens that was made by Rodenstock for Zeiss. In the higher models, it would have been a Tessar 4-element and very sharp. I have a Contessamet SE, thought I was buying a Contessa. Not overly impressed with it, it was on the tail end of what Zeiss was capable of when they were great (with cameras, not referring to their lenses which are still great). The meter is selenium, no battery, and very likely to be non-functional, but that would be true of any selenium meter. Camera is something like a 1963 to 1965 as I recall. Mine may be in better shape than yours appearance-wise, but mine won't stop when you wind on - it just winds and winds until the roll is gone. I was told how to fix that, but sadly, I haven't yet.

Most triplet lenses exhibit a quality now often associated with remembrance of snapshots in family albums, if you know what I mean. Tessars and the like were semi-pro and pro lenses at that time, if you grew up in the 1960's, your parents most likely used a camera with a three-element triplet design - sharp in the middle, bigtime falloff towards the edges, maybe even some vignetting. It has a certain nostalgia. I would put down the bright colors you got to the simple fact that German lenses of all types have a very different look than Japanese lenses, whether due to coatings or lens design I could not say.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[ZeissFan]

The camera sounds like it needs an overhaul. I'm not as fond of the Contessamat as I am of the earlier cameras. And the folding Contessa is a radically different camera in design and execution and quality.

Once serviced, the Contessamat should be a fun camera to use. The meter may or may not be dead. Sometimes the contacts on the selenium cell oxidize or are broken. Sometimes the cell simply is no longer responsive.

 

[Avotius]

The camera sounds like it needs an overhaul. I'm not as fond of the Contessamat as I am of the earlier cameras. And the folding Contessa is a radically different camera in design and execution and quality.

Once serviced, the Contessamat should be a fun camera to use. The meter may or may not be dead. Sometimes the contacts on the selenium cell oxidize or are broken. Sometimes the cell simply is no longer responsive.

Yeah, I dont know if I would want to overhaul it, its an idea but for shooting film I would really perfer something a little higher quality. This is kind of a toy that gets let out of its case when im bored. Ive been looking at some of the older Ikons but find myself rather lacking in the know to put down for one.

 

[titrisol]

The contessamat is a very nice capable camera.
It was a point-and-shoot of its time, no battery, no bells and whistles.
BUT it has a rangefinder!!! (then the E at the end)

You can find a manual for it in the butkus site, and if you don;t want it ship it to me
that was the 1st 35mm camera my father allowed me to use and i have a soft spot for them.

 

[Avotius]

The contessamat is a very nice capable camera.
It was a point-and-shoot of its time, no battery, no bells and whistles.
BUT it has a rangefinder!!! (then the E at the end)

You can find a manual for it in the butkus site, and if you don;t want it ship it to me
that was the 1st 35mm camera my father allowed me to use and i have a soft spot for them.

heh, I think its a chearfull fun little camera to play with on my off time, hardly anything works on it but i guess thats part of the fun, trying to figure out how to make it work haha...

 

[drmatthes]

Hey, has anybody noticed that there are GREAT shots among the examples? I love the doctor doing the cupping in the street and also the workers having a nap, and the other pics are gorgeous as well.

Good example for the old word that no matter what camera good shots will come out if you have both the feel for the camera and the eye for the scene.

You certainly have, Avotius!!

Technically, it is a central blade shutter that gets sticky with grease by the years. Service and overhaul are said to be easy (but I have never tried, found a good repairman for my Contessa LKE which substantially is the same camera).

Let's have more of your photography, anyway!

Jesko

_________________

2006 A.D.
800 yrs Dresden
80 yrs Zeiss Ikon

 

[titrisol]

Now that is an interesnting thought! Replacing the Pantar with the Tessar from a Contessa!!!

I had CLAd a few of these over the years, and yes they are easy to maintain.

 

[titrisol]

Alctually those meters are incredibly sturdy
The soldering is the part that corrodes and loses contact, but that is about it.... can be fixed quite easily and recalibrated. If you want give me a holler and we can do it on a weekedn, together with the other problem.
:bang: :bang:

_SNIP---
The meter is selenium, no battery, and very likely to be non-functional, but that would be true of any selenium meter. Camera is something like a 1963 to 1965 as I recall. Mine may be in better shape than yours appearance-wise, but mine won't stop when you wind on - it just winds and winds until the roll is gone. I was told how to fix that, but sadly, I haven't yet.

-SNIP-

Bill Mattocks

 

[Avotius]

Hey, has anybody noticed that there are GREAT shots among the examples? I love the doctor doing the cupping in the street and also the workers having a nap, and the other pics are gorgeous as well.

Good example for the old word that no matter what camera good shots will come out if you have both the feel for the camera and the eye for the scene.

You certainly have, Avotius!!

Technically, it is a central blade shutter that gets sticky with grease by the years. Service and overhaul are said to be easy (but I have never tried, found a good repairman for my Contessa LKE which substantially is the same camera).

Let's have more of your photography, anyway!

Jesko

_________________

2006 A.D.
800 yrs Dresden
80 yrs Zeiss Ikon

Thanks a bunch, been trying to get this whole photomagraphy thing down here, working on it at least. http://avotius.deviantart.com/ here are my other photos, hit that gallery button, although be forwarned, many of the shots on there are digital.

 

[Avotius]

Now that is an interesnting thought! Replacing the Pantar with the Tessar from a Contessa!!!

I had CLAd a few of these over the years, and yes they are easy to maintain.

hm....how much did it cost to CLA and do you think the problems I have been having with it are fixable to make this as original usable as possible? Also where did you have it done, me being here in China right now makes it a little hard.

 

[titrisol]

I CLAd those myself.....
a lot of Ronsonol, elbow grease and a few boxes of Tylenol

The problems you have are fixable, and usually happen when the cameras haven not been used in a while.

 

[Avotius]

I CLAd those myself.....
a lot of Ronsonol, elbow grease and a few boxes of Tylenol

The problems you have are fixable, and usually happen when the cameras haven not been used in a while.

yourself??? oh my goodness, I dont know if i could do that, i could try though, pretty handy with a screwdriver. Any tips you would like to give me? For instance how to make that viewfinder spick and span?

 

[titrisol]

AVOTIUS, I'm in Ecuador today.
I just got my Contessamat SE from my mom and I'll take it home and CLA it
Shutter is working fine, the viewfinder is out of whack but the lightmeter is fine.

I'll try to take pics of everything and then put them in a website or so.

 

[titrisol]

I finally got to it.
The guts of the contessamat are veyr different to the rest of the contessa line.... yikes!!!
I got the top off, cleaned the rangefinder and adjusted it.
Cleaned the lightmeter contacts and it seems to be working OK, will have to double chek it and adjust the varibale resistor to make it work better.

The flash connector wire got lose, will have to resolder it.

 

[nomade]

I just got one for trial today...The focus ring is kinda stuck...