[rollei_list] Re: Leica and Contax
- From: "Richard Knoppow" <dickburk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 3 Apr 2005 14:14:18 -0700
----- Original Message -----
From: <TrueBadger@xxxxxxx>
To: <rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, April 03, 2005 1:12 PM
Subject: [rollei_list] Re: Leica and Contax
>I find it curious that in this lengthy discussion of
>rangefinder cameras that
> there was no commentary on the fact that the first Nikons
> were copies of the
> contax, and that the first Canons were copies of the Leica
> III series. I
> suppose this is too well known to merit comment.
> I was stationed in Korea in 1954-55, and thousands of both
> nilons and canons
> were sold to GI's thru the PX system, somewhat before
> either was that well
> established with distribution in the US proper.
>
> I bought a Contax IIIa in the post exchange ($187.50 as I
> recall, with case
> and a 50 mm sonnar.) It was a great camera, but accessory
> lenses never showed
> up in the Px, so I wound up selling it and coming back
> with two Canon IVs2's
> with normal lenses and a wide angle and a 90mm. The PX
> price on the Canon with
> a normal lens and case was $105.00.
>
> I never got a lot of use out of the canons, because I sold
> them about two
> years later so I could afford to get married. It was a
> case where my youthful
> photographic aspirations had overshot my equally youthful
> financial reserves,
> which were basically zero. After that I did not have a
> camera for about three
> years, when someone sold me a pristine M3 double-stroke
> for $150.00, a camera I
> still have.
>
> I don't think Leica ever showed up in PX's, although there
> may have been a
> few that got snapped up before I ever saw them.
>
>
> G, King
>
Early Nikons were _styled_ like the Contax but did not
copy the internal mechanism. Nikon used the Contax type
bayonet lens mount but the back focus is different so Contax
and Nikon lenses are not interchangible, they don't focus
right. The shutter was the Leica type. Canon copied the
_style_ of the Leica, but again, was not a clone of the
Leica. I am less familier with the early Canon than the
early Nikon. There were Leica clones. In the US one was made
by Reid and there was another made in England, the name
escapes me at the moment. Supposedly, at least one of these
cameras was supposed to be superior to the Leica. I think
Kodak made lenses for the US made copy. All these dried up
when Leitz got control of their patents back. AFAIK, the
Contax shutter was never attempted by anyone else.
I rather wonder if Zeiss made any money off the Contax. I
think it may have been a prestige item made to demonstrate
the company's prowess in precision manufacturing more than
anything else.
---
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA
dickburk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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