[rollei_list] Re: Contaflex
- From: "Marvin Wallace" <Marvin0@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 27 May 2005 09:34:35 +0700
Regarding different Rolleis, the question that I would like to ask is
regarding image quality.
And how the E model and F 3.5s compare.
I has been suggested that the Bulls Eye had the best quality lenses ever
built for 35mm.
The price and weight of the Bulls Eye was such that it inadvertently
competed with the Hasselblad and its range of Zeiss Optics.
Marvin.
-----Original Message-----
From: rollei_list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:rollei_list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Marc James Small
Sent: 27 May 2005 09:18
To: rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [rollei_list] Contaflex
At 03:00 PM 5/26/05 -0700, Peter K. wrote:
>I know, I have a Lynx 14. It is a wonderful camera and the lens is
>first rate, but the combo is not light.
>The Zeiss cameras I was referring to was the Contaflex. It had
>interchangeable lenses. I am not very familiar with these cameras, so
>I leave details to Jerry, Richard, et al who know far more. I do
>remember they went out business around 1971. Their lense had leaf
>shutters and were slow. I was told that to make the Zeiss designs
>faster would involve a change in design, a different shutter, and
>hence increase the price and size of the lens. They had a 50mm F2.8 as
>the standard lens while all the Japanese SLRs with focal plane
>shutters had 50mm F1.4 lenses. They also had a top speed of 1/500 secs
>while the focal plane SLRs had 1/1000.
>Eventually, Canon and Nikon and others put them out of business with
>faster lenses and lower prices.
Peter
Now, for the REST of the story.
The Contaflex was an SLR development of the RF Contessa 35 and was
introduced in the early 1950's. There were a number of versions, but all
were intended for the amatuer market and not for use by professionals,
though some pros did use them extensively. They were never intended to
compete with professional cameras and were priced accordingly.
The cameras all used Compur 00 shutters which did limit lens speed. The
basic lens, as you note, was the f/2.8 45mm and, later, 50mm Tessar, while
the Pro Tessar range ran to f/3.4 and f/4 lenses, and the use of an 8x,
30mm monocular allowed a rather sexy f/13 400mm arrangement, rather unique
for the time, as it weighed almost nothing. =20
(There were four basic families. The first was the Contaflex I and II,
which had a non-removeable 45mm f/2.8 Tessar as the standard lens; there
was a single auxiliary lens attachment, the 1.5X Teleskop produced by
Rodenstock. The Contaflex III brought out the Pro Tessar lenses produced
by Zeiss which remained the mainstay until the end of the line, with a
recomputation of the basic 50mm f/2.8 Tessar between the end of the Super B
and the introduction of the Super New. There was a less expensive version
which used a lens range similar to the Pro Tessars but produced by
Rodenstock; these were the Pantar lenses shared with the Contessa III P&S
camera. Finally, there was a 126 version, though this isn't actually a
Contaflex at all, having begun its existence as the Voigtl=E4nder Icarex
126=
.
There was a Proxar range of five lenses affording close-ups and the three
35mm camera series all had beam-splitter stereo rigs.
The Contaflex Super BC was the first camera marketed which provided TTL
metering, incidentally, quite a nifty item for 1965.
The Contaflex was a huge success throughout its life and sold very well
even to the last Contaflex S which walked out the door of the plant at
Stuttgart in 1971. The income earned from the Contaflex allowed Zeiss Ikon
to stay in business after the war and underwrote the losses incurred by the
development and production of the Contax IIa and IIIa camera line. =20
What bankrupted Zeiss Ikon was the huge, bleeding, pool of debt caused by
the Contarex SLR line, a camera system which has never been equalled in
terms of its quality but which, as was the case with the Sunbeam Alpine and
Tiger sports cars, cost about 125% of the price at which they could be
sold. While the camera was magnificent, it was simply a huge loss leader
and the Zeiss Foundation, while patiently waiting for Dr Kuppenbender to
retire, pulled the plug the minute he did so. (Zeiss Ikon did have a
business plan to recover, and a fascinating one it was: they wanted to
concentrate production on four camera lines, the Contessa S310 and S312,
the SL 706 (the final Icarex), the SL 725 to replace the Contaflex, and the
SL 2000F to replace the Contarex. In the end, the S 310 and S312, the SL
706, and the SL 2000F were passed to Rolleiflex when Zeiss Ikon went
belly-up, while the SL 725 was sold to a firm called Wolf who attempted to
produce the camera but failed due to lack of funding -- they had been
foolish enough to believe that the Zeiss Foundation would pay their way!)
The Contaflex is a fine camera, as was the Contessa 35.
Marc
msmall@xxxxxxxxxxxx=20
Cha robh b=E0s fir gun ghr=E0s fir!
NEW FAX NUMBER: +540-343-8505
---
Rollei List
- Post to rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Subscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'subscribe'
in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org
- Unsubscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with
'unsubscribe' in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org
- Online, searchable archives are available at
//www.freelists.org/archives/rollei_list
---
Rollei List
- Post to rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Subscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'subscribe'
in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org
- Unsubscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with
'unsubscribe' in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org
- Online, searchable archives are available at
//www.freelists.org/archives/rollei_list
Other related posts:
