LENS-DB.COM

Specification

Manufacturer description

NOW - A Revolutionary NEW Contax by ZEISS IKON

THE CONTAX-S

First EYE-LEVEL Automatic Reflex Camera!

Zeiss-Ikon opens a new era in 35 millimeter photography with the introduction of the Contax-S. Gone is the twin-image coupled rangefinder. In its place is a single viewer - the Prisma-Scope - which enables you to sight directly through the camera lens. It yields a life-size, upright image that focuses with the precision of a studio camera! Now, for the first time in a single lens reflex, all focusing and viewing takes place at direct eye level! Without sacrificing the compact qualities of the miniature, the nuisance of parallax is forever eliminated... accessory lenses require no coupling with special and costly rangefinders... close-up photography requires only the addition of extension tubes. Here is the most versatile camera ever created!

Made in the original plant of the Zeiss camera works, the Contax-S bears the stamp of the world's greatest camera craftsmen. Because it can never be mass produced, the Contax-S will be available only in limited quantities.

THE CONTAX-S Prisma-Scope

By means of a precision Zeiss lens and ingenious prism arrangement - product of 15 years of research - an always-upright, life-size image is transmitted to the eye of the viewer.

• Parallax is entirely eliminated. No special rangefinders ever needed. What you see, you get!
• Focusing sets new standards in speed and precision.
• Direct visual control of depth of field now becomes a reality for the miniature camera user.
• Close-up photography and copy work require only the addition of extension tubes. Ideal for scientific work.

All These New Features

• Built-in flash synchronizer concealed in tripod socket.
• All shutter speeds - fast and slow - from a single control. 1 second to 1/1000th.
• Fully automatic! Single knob transports film, winds shutter, and moves exposure counter. Prevents double exposures.
• Equipped with "T" coated Zeiss Biotar F/2 lens (equivalent to T/2) in a universal mount; a full line of accessory lenses and filters available.

From the monograph "The CONTAX connection" (1990) by Peter Dechert

By 1948 the East German Zeiss group had completed design work on their own version of a 35mm SLR camera, and examples of the prototype Contax S camera were shown publicly at a Swedish exposition during the autumn of that year. The camera itself, with the addition of a delayed action train that had not been included on the prototypes, was marketed in 1949. It was based on a cloth focal-plane shutter which bore no likeness to the slatted metal one of the prewar rangefinder Contax family, and was the first production SLR from any maker to incorporate a pentagonal roof prism finder, through the Italian Rectaflex followed almost immediately thereafter, also in 1949, with the same feature.

The Contax S was a landmark camera in several other respects as well. The Zeiss designers pioneered the 42mm threaded lensmount flange that is now called the Universal Thread Mount, the one later adopted, as we have seen, by Yashica. Perhaps even more important, they set the basic working configuration used by most 35mm SLR cameras until the very recent industry-wide redesign trend of which Canon's T-cameras were early examplars. The Contax S, with its offset prism housing and general body shape, still does not look particularly dated today; Kine Exaktas, Alpa Reflexes, and Praktiflexes do.

From the monograph "The CONTAX S camera family" (1991) by Peter Dechert

This was the first model in line. The earliest examples had no delayed action lever ("selftimer") under the shutter release housing. Slightly later examples, made during 1949-50, were supplied with a circular blanking plate where the self-timer would later be mounted. From at the latest 1951 onward, starting with serial numbers near to or earlier than 4000, all Contax Ss had the self-timer itself.

The Contax S provided flashbulb synchronization through a very unusual connection at the bottom of the 3/8" tripod socket well on its baseplate. The "S" model designation was never engraved anywhere on the outer shell of a production Contax.

From the editor

Developed by Mechanik Zeiss Ikon VEB Dresden. The prototype was presented at the Leipzig Spring Fair 1949, while the mass production began in September 1949.

Along with the Praktica, released in the same year 1949, it was the world's first 35mm SLR camera with the M42 screw mount. It was also the first German 35mm SLR camera with pentaprism used in the viewfinder.

The first batches had intermediate shutter speeds of 1/25 and 1/250th of a second, but due to problems with the accuracy of these shutter speeds, they were replaced with 1/20 and 1/200th of a second settings.

Similar cameras (122)