This camera was a purchase of the heart not the head! After all, it is a
purely mechanical camera, is over 70 years old and was expensive. But it
is in mint condition, works perfectly and is a beautiful piece of engineering.
It is a black dial version No. S 27802 made around March 1951. I have no idea
whether it has been serviced but it has a hand written mark #237- between the
film guide rails. This could either be a makers mark or a service mark.
It is the joy of handling and operating machines like this that make me a film
photographer. There is a great temptation to handle it like a precious piece of
bone china but it is all metal and quite robust. It feels good in the hand and
a delight to use. Having had Zeiss lenses in my spectacles for many years I was
easily drawn to the quality of the glass. During the 1950s it was competing with
the Leica III but many reviews put the Contax IIa ahead on quality and ease of
use. It has a Zeiss Ikon Sonnar 50mm f2 lens and a metal roller blind shutter
that will operate up to 1/1250 sec. Although it is a rangefinder with a relatively
small viewfinder, its long baseline and auxiliary focusing wheel make it easy,
quick and accurate to focus. The split image is confined to a small gold coloured
box at the centre of the viewfinder. Its infinity lock is a reassuring starting
point.
Be aware that if you do what I did and buy from a Japanese dealer you will have to
pay import duty of 20%. But when the camera arrived safely into my hands I didn't
regret a single penny. It seems to me that with many film cameras Japanese dealers
seem to hold the most units in mint condition. It does of course mean that the
cameras probably haven't been used very much which could affect reliability.
But not, it seems, in this case.
Removing the back is easy with two rotating keys in the base but be aware that the
film take up spool will fall out when the back is removed unless the camera is held
upside down. Not a problem and it seems to align easily with the base when put back
into position. With the keys in the open position the back slides away from the top
along two side rails.
Loading film is easy and the film leader sits in a secure slot in the take up spool
but the tight curl the slot imprints on the leader can sometimes be caught on the
film pressure plate edge when rewinding. Winding on the film is a very tactile operation.
The suggested method is to hold the winding knob in the right hand whilst holding the
camera body with the left ( or if you are left handed......) and then rotate the hands
in opposite directions to complete one frame advance in one operation. Much like
the old press photographers would quickly advance the film on a vintage Speed Graphic
camera.
Close focussing off the infinity lock can be a bit slow but who is in a hurry with
this type of camera? You can always use the focussing ring but it does couple too
tightly to the aperture ring which must be held in place when rotating the focussing
ring. I often use Sekonic L-308S light meter to set aperture and speed but sometimes
it is a delight to go truly retro and use Weston Master V which still works very well.
When choosing the Contax IIa over the IIIa I assumed that the selenium cell on a
Contax IIIa would be well past its use by date.
The shutter operates with a discrete satisfying click which for a roller blind focal
plane shutter I find amazing. You will also get a feel for the sound of each shutter
speed with the 1/1250 exposure sounding much tighter than the 1/25. A shutter delay
timer lever is placed as usual on the front at the side of the lens and will run for
about 12 seconds if fully depressed. It will also run from intermediate positions.
I never take flash photographs but the fully synchonised shutter will work with any
flash unit at all shutter speeds. A range of seven Sonnar lenses from a super wide
22mm to a short telephoto 136mm all fit to the camera using a bayonet mount and most
seem to be readily available.
For my first outing with this camera I chose an
Ilford HP5 24 exposure film being too excited to see the results to use a full 36
frame cassette. The lens is definitely Zeiss quality with the time on the Rame Insitute
clock tower being very readable. Just a shame the sky was so boring! Another detailed
image is The Bay at Cawsand shown in the Portfolio collection. The film was
given a standard development in Ilfotec DD-X using the Ars Imago Lab-Box kit.
Negatives were wet scanned at 4000 dpi using a V750 Pro flat bed scanner driven
by Vuescan. Wet scanning 35mm film gives a slightly sharper result than using a
standard negative holder although the spocket holes on colour negative film will
often induce flare around the holes. All images were subject to a default unsharp
mask process and corrected for brightness and contrast using GIMP, the open
source image processor.
Is there anything I don't like about the camera?
Well, no not really. It's a film camera and it takes photos! But seriously, it
is a classic camera of the old school and I am delighted and feel privileged to
own one in such good condition.
