Contax IIa

[GeneW]

My new Contax IIa arrived yesterday from Australia. I took it to the coffee shop today to give it the ritual dunking ...



Body is 1959, Sonnar 50/2 lens is 1958.

Gene

[doubs43]

Only CLASS in that picture! What a beautiful example of a Contax IIa.

Walker

[PeterW]

That looks very nice, Gene.

I've never had a west-German Contax IIa or IIIa because I haven't found one at the the right price - well, at my price anyway. I understand they are quite a lot different inside from the pre-war Contax II and III, and very sweet to use, so I'm still looking.

Returning to Kievs, I hope your 4a soldiers on for as long as you want it to. My main collecting field is German cameras, but I like the Kiev 4 and 4a because they are, as near as dammit, German cameras made in Russia.

For the same reason I also like the earlier FEDs and Zorkis.

Zenits? I think I've got every model of the 'heavy metal' Zenits, duplicates of some, but only because I came across so many of them at such silly low prices that I couldn't resist. They were, of course, developed from the Zorki, which was developed from the FED, which was developed from the Leica, so in a roundabout way they've got a German heritage. Come to think of it, I haven't seen any around for some time at flea markets and car boot sales, so perhaps the last of them has crawled out of the woodwork for a time.

They're quite well engineered, even if they do feel a bit agricultural in use, and they're reasonably easy to work on but, like most Russian cameras, they suffer from high production quotas and over-hurried assembly, plus foam padding over the pentaprism that mutates to a sticky, gooey mess after a few years.

One of the main faults with the auto stop-down versions is a heavy, jerky shutter release. But if you follow the factory instructions for setting up the release mechanism it's quite easy to get them a lot lighter and smoother.

The main reason I keep them, though, is that I haven't yet come across one that hadn't got a good Helios lens. In fact, the ones I've got are more than good, they're da@mn good. And they take excellent pictures.

They're just not as nice for everyday use as my Canons. .

PeterW

[GeneW]

Thanks Peter. This one seems to be in fine fettle. BTW, know what you mean about those M42 Helios lenses. I have a 44-M that I use on my Spotmatic and Bessaflex that is one of the finest shooters I've used.

Here's another view of the Contax.



Gene

[GeneW]

Thanks Ron. Yes, it's a user. I like RF's and shoot with them quite often. I like SLR's too. Each makes a good change of pace from the other -- I find each requires a different mindset.

Gene