I do not wish to get off on a long-winded discursus on this, but I have been studying the lineage of these cameras for thirty years and have reached some pretty reasonable conclusions.
-- In 1925, the death of the last direct Voigtländer heir left the inheritance in the hands of three daughters, so the firm was placed in trust and then sold off to the Schering Drug Company (whose interest was in the manufacture of cheap cameras to increase the sale of film and chemistry).
-- By the early 1950's, Schering was really close to bankruptcy and let it be known that it was going to shut down Voigtländer as a desperate cost-saving measure; though Voigtländer at the time was breaking even, it was not making a substantial profit. The Zeiss Foundation is charged with preserving "preservable" parts of the German optical industries. So, the Zeiss Foundation bought Voigtländer from Schering and ran it as a parallel concern with Zeiss Ikon -- both companies were controlled by the same Foundation, but they were independent.
-- The Zeiss Foundation (and, hence, all Zeiss entities from Leitz wooden woodworking tools to Deckel Shutters and so forth) was run after the War by Dr Heinz Küppenbender, who had taken over Zeiss Ikon in 1934 (?) when Zeiss had to smuggle Dr Emmanuel Goldberg out of Germany to save his life. Küppenbender ran the entire German optical industry under Speer during World War II. He ended up getting accused of treason by the Nazi Party for sheltering slave laborers (Speer got the charges dropped, pointing out that if Dr Küppender weren't around to produce Zeiss periscopes, this would detract from the U-Boat campgain). Küppenbender then found himself charged by the Allies as an Industrial War Criminal for the USE of slave labor, and it took some heavy work by UK and US military debriefers to get him off the hook. None of the German optical companies used many slave laborers and almost all shielded those in their charge -- Voigtländer used almost none, incidentally. (We are STILL waiting for Hollywood to produce a flick called KÜPPENBENDER'S LIST: he saved about three to five times as many Jews as did Schindler, and Israel has yet to recognize this.) In any event, Küppenbender ran the Zeiss Foundation and all Zeiss West entities from roughly 1948 until his retirement in 1973.
-- Küppenbender recognized the advent of the miniature-format SLR was causing a great shift in both amateur and professional photography. Zeiss Ikon made a profit out of very few of its Postwar products, but the Contaflex SLR always sold magnificently while even the Contax IIa and IIIa lines barely broke even. By 1955, every element of what was to become the mature 35mm SLR had appeared, though not in a single brand (instant-return mirrors, interchangeable lenses, metering, even motor drives). So, Küppenbender approved the decision by Zeiss Ikon to shift its strategy from the Contax RF to a new top-of-the-line SLR, the Contarex, to be introduced in 1958. It was to be a world-beater. The absolutely finest 35mm technology could produce in that sixth decade of the 20th century.
-- It has been noted by many that "marketing" and "Zeiss" are words which should only be used in the same sentence with a lot of caution and restraint. As events developed, the approval of the Contarex was possibly the dumbest decision ever made by Herr Dokter Heinz Küppenbender. The development costs were immense. The work was so intense that the camera only appeared several months after the Nikon F, whose appearance was well known in advance -- Ehrenreich was a VERY smart cookie! In the end, the Contarex died in the marketplace despite its many really fine features. (I only own two, a Cyclops and a Super -- the Cyclops is simply unkillable and I often use it to drive nails into oak planks. The Super is overdue for a Depot Rebuild -- the electronic circuitry on the meter has developed some sort of intermittent contact problem, though the mechanics work flawlessly. The prior owner, a senior member on this List, seems to have used it to test the longevity of the black paint .... Time to call Ken Ruth and to spend a grand hour on the telephone!)
-- Küppenbender STILL wanted the Contarex to be a world-beater AND to sell well, so he started looking beyond the Cyclops. And then he found out that the minor Zeiss Ikon camera company, Voigtländer, had done a significant amount of work in developing electronic shutters, then not a common thing outside of the laboratory or shop floor. And, so, he sucked Voigtländer into a shotgun marriage with Zeiss Ikon in 1964 to form ZIV. This was not a smart idea, but could have been, had Zeiss Ikon just axed the Contarex and listened to the Voigtländer guys -- they had managed to make small profits ever since the Zeiss Foundation had bought them out, and they had some really good ideas for future developments.
-- In the end, the merger caused the Zeiss folks to be making lenses in something on the order of eleven different mounts at one time. The Icarex, which was intended for introduction in 1964, was delayed for a fatal 18 months -- it would have been a world-beater if introduced in early 1964 or earlier, it was a dog on the marketplace by late 1965. The merger was ill conceived and ill executed and the result was simple chaos.
-- The Voigtländer guys had been developing an electronic shutter for LARGE FORMAT lenses and, actually, the shutter they produced was eventually adopted by Deckel and improved and was a profit-maker for Zeiss for the next fifteen years. As this tragedy played out, though, the Voigtländer and Zeiss Ikon engineers had to do a CRASH project (think of producing ME-262 jet fighters in April, 1945 ... ) to get together, to share technology and terminology, and to crank out the electronic Contarex which came out in 1965, and which did not work well for the next two years due to its having been rushed into production. That was possibly the least supportable business decision by Zeiss Ikon.
-- In any event, by 1968, Zeiss Ikon was in shambles. It had two lines making a profit, the Contaflex SLR and the Contessa point-'n'-shoot. And not one other camera line was producing anything other than a HUGE bleeding of VERY red ink over the balance sheets. So long as Küppenbender was in charge, the Zeiss Foundation would subsidize ZIV -- but he had already announced that he wanted to retire by the end of 1973.
-- The ZIV guys did a brainstorming session and, for once, a LOT of thought, and came up with this final game-plan. Starting in 1973, they would market a line consisting of the SL 2000F as the successor to the Contarex, a new SL 725 as the successor to the Contaflex SLR, the SL 706 as the successor to the Icarex, and the Contessa 310 P&S and the 312 with an integrated RF. It was a grand plan. It was a shame no one had suggested this in 1965.
-- Zeiss, in the meantime, had simply abandoned all interest in ZIV and was actively working with Asahi to get them to produce a Japanese-built SLR camera. They shared a lot, including multi-coating technology (Zeiss beat Pentax to the marketplace by six months, but that was on industrial and military gear) and the K-mount but Asahi backed out after Zeiss made it certain that the insisted the lenses for the new camera be made in Japan. They parted friends -- but Asahi made its reputation on cameras with two Zeiss-designed lens mounts, the 1938 CZJ designed M42 and the 1966 Oberkochen-designed K Mount. That is probably unique in the modern history of cameras!
-- In the end, the plug was pulled and ZIV was reduced in 1973 and most of its assets were either shut down or closed off. In the end, the SL 706 and SL 2000 F and the two Contessa models were passed on the Rolleiflex Fototechnik, or whatever it was calling itself that week. The SL 725 was passed to a new concern called Wolf who showed the camera twice, at the '74 and '75 Photokinas, but who was never able to get the Zeiss Foundation to grant them start-up money as had been promised (orally, and not in writing!) The SL 706 was developed nicely by Rollei for a number of years and, eventually, ended up with an electronic shutter as the SL 35 E. The two Contessas were produced by Rollei under the Voigtländer badge for a few years.
-- Rollie students often get this tale wrong, as Rollei spent decades claiming that THEY invented the SL 2000 F. Such is not the case: Zeiss Ikon had produced a working SL 2000 F both to the Foundation Board and at the 1972 Photokina. This camera is identical in all regards to the later Rollei product save for its use of the Contarex lensmount. Zeiss Ikon sold Rolleiflex a working prototype and it took Rolleiflex six years to get it into production. Please, understand: Zeiss Ikon did make a few handbuilt functioning cameras. Rolleiflex was suffering from plummeting (er ... non-existent?) TLR sales at the time and from the huge development costs for its 600x family, so, in the end, they did a smart thing and learned how to do their own electronic shutter, working from what Zeiss Ikon had given them, in the SL 35 E, a really elegant and capable camera which Rollei introduced when it was on the skids and close to bankruptcy.
-- The 2000F had reliability problems but, in the end, these were overcome and we have a number of members who are happy with their cameras. The 3003 was quite reliable -- our membership seems to include the only six owners to have ever experienced reliability problems. <he grins> The 3003 enjoyed the Contarex lens line, a line still not matched today for its optical quality. And, yes, quality costs money: buy cheap, get cheap. As I have said before, I do not ever want to own anything other than the closest I can get to perfection. I am willing to accept compromises -- but not schlock, and Rollei has rarely done schlock. (The MOST expensive Army in the universe, after all, is the SECOND-BEST Army ... ask the Germans.)
-- I have no production figures but I suspect that 2/3 of the 3003 cameras were produced with Riseau (sp?) plates for photogrammetric purposes. The 1990's Canadian rephotographing of the Dominion was all done with Rollei gear, some 600x and some 3003. And, for that matter, with some close-up shots with the photogrammetric version of the Rollei 35.
Again, I am not trying to get into a fight. But we really have to understand that the Rollei 3003 was a camera with a LONG history and, in the end, it is really the last survivor of the Contarex.
Carlos, I know that Prochnow disagreed with this analysis. I had meant for years to write him a lengthy letter pointing out the real situation, but I had not yet gotten around to it when I heard that he had died. Carpe Diem, lads, carpe diem! Tommorrow may well be too late!
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