Vintage Contax Camera: icon of a storied past

In this age of digital technology, many still treasure out-of-production cameras that have become the icons of a bygone era. Among these prized collections, some of which are kept lovingly in their own glass display cabinets, is the vintage Contax camera. This camera traces its roots to pre-World War II Germany having been introduced by the manufacturing firm Zeiss Ikon, a subsidiary of Carl Zeiss Foundation fabled in the manufacture of specialized lenses.

Contax was the top-of-the-line product of Zeiss Ikon and utilized the legendary planar photographic lens still being used in some cameras today. The early versions of the vintage Contax camera almost have the same features as the contemporary rangefinder cameras we see today. For instance, the original Contax had a dial from which shutter speeds of up to 1/1000th of a second could be set. Its back is detachable to facilitate film changing, and interchangeable lenses are mounted bayonet-like. Up to 12 interchangeable lenses, ranging from 28 mm to 500 mm were already available then, all coming from the vaunted Carl Zeiss lens production facilities.

There were also Contax vintage camera models with light meter built-in atop the camera body. In 1936, Contax gave the word the first range/viewfinder cameras featuring shutter speeds of up to 1/1,250th of a second, as well as a self-timing mechanism. Around that same year, Carl Zeiss engineers started working on a new model that would later become the forerunner of today’s modern single lens reflex system. Their design was based on a freshnel lens coupled with a pentaprism to capture a correct image reading from right to left and right side-up. Such reflex viewing was adopted for the 35 mm film camera with a focusing ring attached to the lens, and included the revolutionary coated lenses from the Carl Zeiss glass factories.

After World War II, the first Contax 35 mm single eflex camera was introduced at the 1949 Leipzig Spring Fair. From its bayonet-mount type mounting of interchangeable lenses, this vintage Contax camera featured a screw-mount design. Because Germany was split into two after the War (to be reunited much later), there were actually two German establishments manufacturing the now vintage Contax cameras. The production facilities on the East concentrated on the single reflex cameras, while that on the West focused more on the improvement of the Contax rangefinder models. But whether it has been manufactured in the East or the West, the Contax cameras continued to be treasured works of exquisite craftsmanship that could still deliver quality photographs up to this date.