Zeiss Ikon Contina Ic

Zeiss Ikon Contina Ic

Not a lot I can say about this camera.  It is mid-range amateur - well above the Box Brownie and well below the likes of the Contaflex.  The standard of manufacture is what you would expect of Zeiss Ikon - solid, heavy, works well - perhaps a bit over-engineered. It was not cheap - the version with the Novar lens cost £29/7/- (in old money or £29.35 in new money). Given the average working man's weekly wage was £9 in 1957, this equates to around £1,500 in 2013 values.

This particular Contina is a model Ic although that was never Zeiss Ikon's designation.  It is distinguished from other Continas by 1) not being a folding camera and 2) not having a built-in exposure meter.  I also have an article on a Cortina IIa.

The viewfinder is a Galilean finder with bright-lines.  I find this awkward to use after using either an SLR or a camera with a crude frame finder as the finder shows much more than the image area.  It is necessary to remember to compose entirely within the bright-liners.  The finder is reasonably large and easy to use while wearing spectacles.

The top plate is uncluttered - the rewind knob, film type reminder, accessory shoe and combined film advance/frame counter/shutter release is all that is there.  The whole frame counter/shutter release assembly is depressed when the shutter is fired and it is possible to fire the shutter when setting the frame counter to zero (I did!).

On the front of the camera is a satin-chrome bezel with the lens sitting centrally.  The shutter is a Prontor SVS by Gauthier and uses exposure value settings.  With this system, you read an exposure value from a light meter (from 3 to 18) which sets a combination of shutter speed and aperture.  It is then possible to move the shutter speed ring to the desired shutter speed and the aperture will adjust itself to keep the exposure correct - or move the aperture ring and the shutter speed will adjust automatically.  It is not possible to move away from a "correct" speed/aperture combination without depressing the EV button.  This works in much the same way as the 'program' mode on a modern digital camera.  People either love or hate this system - I am the only person I know whom loves it - but it was in general use for many years so must have had general support.

There is what, at first sight, appears to be a second, useless range of shutter speeds.  These are in green and cannot be set.  "Then why have them?", I hear you ask.  Well, there is a reason.  In the case that the EV value is low, the usable speed/aperture combinations allowed will be small.  For an EV of 3, the speed/aperture combination is 1 second at f2.8 - and that is it.  If you want a smaller aperture, say f8, you read the necessary shutter speed of the green range opposite f8 (in this case eight seconds).  Now adjust the EV setting so that f8 is against the B setting on the speed ring.  This sets the aperture to f8 and allows the photographer to keep the shutter depressed for eight seconds.  Clearly, a tripod and shutter release cable are required for this, and the shutter speed is only as good as the photographer times it, but when you realise that the shutter manufacturers worked to a 20% margin on shutter speeds, timing the exposure to between seven and nine seconds will be fine and we should all be able to time that accurately.

The lens is a Zeiss Ikon Pantar f2.8, 45mm lens.  This is a triplet (three pieces of glass) rather than the Tessar's tetraplet structure, that focuses from about three feet  to infinity (the nearest marked distance  is four feet, but the lens moves well beyond that).

This lens has the usual Happy Snapper  settings - with this lens it is f8 and around twenty feet (both marked in red) which gives a depth of field of from nine feet to infinity.  If the lens is set to its smallest aperture (f22), the depth of field is from less than four feet to infinity.  As with all lenses, the largest and smallest apertures are best left alone and the lens will work best stopped down two or three stops - f5.6 and f8 in this case.

Film is rewound using a small knob on the left.  When this is turned to rewind then film, it automatically raises itself so it is above the level of the top plate.  When you have finished rewinding the film, you need to turn this knob one turm anti-clockwise to lower the knob again.  The only other thing to note is that this camera has a PC flash connector and can synchronise for bulb (M) or electronic (X) flash.  There is also a setting (V) for delayed action shutter release.

In use, the camera operates much as you might expect from Zeiss Ikon.  I have large hands and the camera is a bit small - the edge of the shutter housing is where I would like my fingers to be and the shutter release is a little too close to the right-hand edge of the camera.  I suppose this is unavoidable when making a small camera and it is far from the worst camera that I have, ergonomically speaking.

Some example pictures from this camera (note: these were scanned with my Canon flatbed film scanner - not the best scanner).

Busker with home-made 'instruments, Lincoln

Exchequergate, Cathedral Close, Lincoln

Mr Musicman, High Bridge, Lincoln.

Zeiss Ikon Contaflex

I have been after a Contaflex for while now. Zeiss Ikon put a lot of thought into the design of their cameras and all that I have come across have been a joy to hold. The Contaflex is no exception.

After WWII with the partition of Germany, Zeiss Ikon became two concerns.  Both continued to use the Zeiss Ikon name and initially produced the same range of cameras.  After litigation, East German Zeiss Ikon were not allowed to use the Zeiss Ikon name outside the Warsaw Pact countries - their products became Pentacon and Pentax.  West German  Zeiss ikon continued as much as before as they could.  Both Zeiss Ikons developed Zeiss Ikon's flagship camera - the Contax.  This article is concerned with the West German Zeiss Ikon's development of the Contax into, amongst others, the Contaflex.

The Contaflex is actually a completely new camera which owes little to the Contax.  Zeiss Ikon continued to use elements of the Contax name - Contaflex, Contina.  Zeiss Ikon needed to produce a camera to compete with East German Zeiss Ikon's new range of SLRs - the Pentaprism Contax.  They took a different route and used a between the lens leaf shutter rather than a focal plane shutter.  This proved to be a developmental dead-end but continued in use for a decade or so. Initially, several manufacturers followed suit - Voigtlander, Kodak - but now just about all SLR's follow East German Zeiss Ikon's (Pentacon, Pentax) lead with a horizontally travelling focal plane shutter.

The Contaflex was aimed at the serious amateur market.  It is very well made and very heavy.  The quality of both design and build is evident in that they still work just fine  fifty-plus years after they were made.  The cameras were introduced in pairs - I & II, III & IV, Alpha & Beta and so on.  The pairs either did not have a built-in exposure meter (I, III, Alpha) or did (II, IV, Beta).  Up to and including the Beta, the meter was not coupled and offered nothing over a separate hand-held meter and had the disadvantage of being attached to a very heavy camera making it harder to use than a separate hand-held meter would be.

The shutter is a between-the-lens leaf shutter rather than a focal-plane shutter. This is a superior design in several ways. Firstly, the shutter moves radially and so confers little in the way of vibration to the camera. This is, unfortunately, offset by the need to close the shutter, lift the mirror, open the secondary shutter and then open and close the main shutter again. The result is a very firm shutter release and a respectable “clunk” when the shutter is fired. Secondly, the shutter and flash can be synchronised at any shutter speed. Thirdly, the shutter does not distort moving objects in the way a focal plane shutter must.  Usually, the shutter was a reflex version of a Synchro-Compur shutter, but the Alpha and Beta models has a Prontor Reflex shutter (the Super has Synchro-Compur shutter).

The main (only) drawback of having a leaf shutter is that the lens is difficult to replace. Zeiss Ikon overcame this by having the front element replaceable to give wide angle and telephoto versions. This was not as big a drawback as it might seem as in the 1950s and 60s it was rare for amateur photographers to use anything other than the standard lens that came with the camera. Collections of lenses had to wait for modern design and manufacturing systems and cheap lenses. The strangest part of Zeiss Ikon's shutter design here is that the mirror does not return automatically after the shutter is fired. It is hard to understand why Zeiss Ikon did this as there is no great technical problem with having the mirror return automatically.  In the Super, the action of the shutter has been improved by angling the secondary shutter to sit just behind the mirror so it has less far to move before the primary shutter can open.

In the Contaflex I, II III, IV and Super, the lens was the renown Carl Zeiss Tessar f2.8 lens.  The Alpha and Beta models had the cheaper three element Pantar lens, with front element focussing.  The filter size is 27 mm.  In the Super, the Tessar lens focusses by moving the entire lens.

To load the film, the camera is opened by removing the base and the back as one. I was a little nervous of this technique initially as the only time I have come across this before was with my Ukrainian FED 5. With the FED 5 the fit is loose to say the least and it leaks light. The Zeiss Ikon version works well, fitting together reassuringly well.

As I mentioned earlier, the lens in the Alpha and Beta focuses by turning the front element.  With this camera, there are two drawbacks to this. The first is common to any camera and that is that the performance of the lens drops as the front element moves relative to the rest of the lens elements. It is much better to focus by moving the whole lens. This is difficult with the shutter in the middle of the lens so front element focussing was easy option in the lower priced models.  The second drawback is that the front element can be removed to allow a replacement element to give either a wide angle or telephoto lens. There is a small lever below the lens that needs to be depressed to remove the front element and this lever gets in the way whilst focusing. Apart from that niggle, focusing is easy as the viewfinder has a split-image microprism circle in the centre. The viewfinder is certainly bright enough to see what you are doing.

With the Super, the whole lens moves and has two 'knobs' attached to the focussing ring which makes focussing much easier - in fact, only one finger is required for fine adjustment.

There is also an exposure meter which is not a TTL meter.  With the Beta, it is not coupled and gives you an exposure value which you set on the Prontor shutter.  The meter covers film speeds from 12 to 33 DIN and 5 to 650 ASA.  Unfortunately, this is old style ASA where 21 DIN equates to 40 ASA rather than to 100 ASA as the new style ASA standard would have it (new style ASA is the same as ISO).  The ASA range was adjusted in the late 1950s to be a more "sensible" range.  This makes using modern films with old exposure meters fraught.  Personally, I rely on using the DIN scale which has remained constant since its introduction.  

 

With the Super, the exposure meter is still not TTL but is coupled.  It has an indicator in the viewfinder which makes using this version much easier.  It also uses the modern ASA range and so can be used with modern films easily.  This is a shutter priority system - you set the required shutter speed and then turn the front meter-setting knob until the meter needle in the viewfinder points at the central notch.  Turning this knob moves the aperture ring on the lens to an aperture that matches the shutter speed for the required exposure.  If your initial setting of the shutter speed was inappropriate, it will not be possible to set a suitable exposure and it will be necessary to change the shutter speed accordingly.

Busker, Lincoln Stonebow

Zeiss Ikon Contaflex 126 SLR Camera Tessar f2.8 45mm
Contaflex IV Instruction Book
Zeiss Ikon Contaflex Guide
Zeiss Ikon Cameras 1926-39 (Hove Collectors Books)
The Zeiss Ikon 35mm. guide (The Modern camera guide series)
Photo-Technik 1929
Zeiss Ikon Catalog Numbers 1926-1972
Zeiss: Ernst Abbe, Carl Zeiss, Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung, Jenoptik, Zeiss Ikon, JenTower, Schott AG, Siegfried Czapski, Optische Anstalt C. P. Goerz (German Edition)