Carl Zeiss
Carl Zeiss T*
The Foundation
1846-1890 | 1891-1945 | 1946-1960 | 1961-1975 | 1976-1995
An extracted related contributing article from Contax Gallery, Malaysia
My favourite Contax RTS, Contax RTS II and Contax RTS IIIMotor Drive | Power Winder | Focusing screens | Flash photography | Macrophotography | Remote Photography | Databack options | Accessories
At the Leipzig Spring Fair of 1949, Carl Zeiss Dresden (East) introduced the world's first 35mm SLR camera body with a built-in Pentaprism, called the Contax S. The S came from the word Spiegelflex or mirror reflex, but there was no engraved S on the camera. There was little resemblance to the pre-war prototypes in the S. It had a roof prism and a 42mm screw mount for interchangeable lenses. The Contax S also deviated from the older Carl Zeiss models in that the shutter was a horizontal travel cloth type to reduce the overall size of the camera.
In 1952 the Contax D, successor to the S was again unveiled at the Leipzig Spring Fair. The D appeared on the camera body and was meant to signify Dresden, so as to differentiate this camera from the western Carl Zeiss. The only improvements on the D were that the flash sync socket was moved to the top of the camera and the noisy nature of the S was toned down. Eventually, the Contax cameras of East Germany became the Pentacon, meaning PENTAprism Contax.
It took another year for Carl Zeiss (West) to produce the first post war product, the Contax IIa. It was shown at the first Photokina in 1950. It was not until 1951 that lenses were produced for the post-war Contax rangefinders. Eventually, there were sixteen coated interchangeable lenses for the IIa.
Biogon 21mm f4.5 Biotar 75mm fl.5 Topogon 25mm f4.0 Sonnar 85mm f2.0 Biogon 35mm f2.8 Triotar 85mm f4.0 Biometar 35mm f2.8 Tessar 115mm f3.5* Planar 35mm f3.5 Sonnar 135mm f4.0 Sonnar 50mm fl.5 Sonnar 180mm f2.8** Sonnar 50mm f2.0 Sonnar 300mm f4.0** Tessar 50mm f3.5 500mm f8.0**
* Required Panflex reflex housing for SLR viewing.
** Required Flektoscopeor Flektometer reflex housings for SLR viewing.
In 1951, the successor to the Contax III was unveiled, as did the III, it too sported a light meter built into the camera top. Changes in the IIIa were minor but the light meter was more sensitive and extended in range. Both the Contax IIa and IIIa were discontinued in 1961 bringing to a close the era of rangefinder Contax cameras.
The first SLR produced by Carl Zeiss (West) was in 1953. It was called Contaflex and was a leaf shutter model. The Contaflex was the first SLR to incorporate a behind the lens light meter.
Carl Zeiss (West) began production of the Contarex in 1958. Unfortunately, while being a comprehensive super high quality professional SLR, it also was ugly. It quickly gained the name "cyclops" because of its selenium metering cell in front of the pentaprism, but it was the world's first exposure meter coupled, focal plane shutter camera. With the 50mm f2.0 Carl Zeiss Planar installed, the Contarex weighed exactly three pounds, a heavy weight by today's standard. The Contarex offered the highly desirable ability to interchange the film back.. One camera body would suffice to expose many types of film simultaneously. An instant return mirror and matched needle metering greeted the viewer through the eyepiece. This superbly crafted camera was not a success, however, because the Japanese were introducing far less expensive equipment at this time, including the venerable Nikon F. An onslaught of Japanese innovation and practically priced equipment followed.
The Contarex Special debuted in 1960. It was essentially a scaled back SLR with a removable pentaprism. Camera controls were much the same as the previous model but there was no light meter installed. The Special retained the interchangeable back feature of the "cyclops".
1846-1890 | 1891-1945 | 1946-1960 | 1961-1975 | 1976-1995
My favourite Contax Series: Contax RTS, Contax RTS II and Contax RTS IIIMotor Drive | Power Winder | Focusing screens | Flash photography | Macrophotography | Remote Photography | Databack options | Accessories
Credit: A related contributing article from Contax Gallery, Malaysia; the source of the original content was not specified (could be downloaded from Carl Zeiss website. Some sections has been modified.
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