Contax RTS with the usual trouble...

[belgiumreporter]

I finally was able to buy a contax RTS for a reasonable price.Problem was it was sold "as is" with "probably" only a battery problem. In my experience people who sell camera's with such a problem know very well it isn't the battery, as that would be an easy fix and would put the working camera in a totally diffrent price range. Because this RTS looked not to battered i thought i would give it a chance as i wanted a RTS for quite some time now. I'm not planning to use it, it is going to serve the sole purpose of completing my collection. Still even if it is only for shelve display i would like the camera to somehow work. The problem with this RTS however seemed a bit more complex as the mirror was blocked in the upright position so you can't look trough the viewfinder, film transport was blocked as well. Putting in a battery ( the dreaded 6v type) obviously didn't solve the problem. When i pushed the depht of field lever inside the lensmount the mirror came down but didn't want to stay down. Next thing i did was to remove the bottomplate wich is fairly easy with the right screwdriver. Nothing wrong there, at least nothing broken as was the case with the 139 i recently bought. I then started looking for gears that did move and if i moved them what did they drive? Now my English falls a bit short to explain wich gear i just moved but after figuring out the right sequence, gently pushing a lever and turning a gear everything fell back in place, the mirror dropped and i was able to cock the shutter.
Now it is ( at least partially) working i noticed the contax is a heavy camera (no problem with that) it has a cloth shutter curtain, for a camera in that price range i would have expected at least metal shutterblades...The focussing screen has only a microprism center circle of wich i find it difficult to focus ( quickly) i know they can be replaced but don't think i'll be doing that.

UPDATE i've put in a battery and the camera is fully functional !!! YIPPEEE !

My collection in the upper segment SLR's is nearing completion, i would only need a pentax LX to make it complete, but here the same story as the contax, LX's are still expensive and are camera's wich can develop a lot of problems, so buyer beware...

[truls]

I think about 90% of faulty cameras can be brought back to life with a modest repair. A seller of a camera had advertised as faulty, but he had inserted the batteries the wrong way... Very nice camera, Contax are kind of classy. Good job rescuing it back from the dead!

[Stephen]

The Contax ended up with the cloth shutter due to costs in production, and licensing problems from Copal or Seiko, to use the metal shutters they made.

Although mainly a German design house project, it rapidly became a Yashica product, and they liked the cloth shutter designs, well developed and cheaper to make. Also 1/2000 is easier to achieve accurately than on a 1970's vertical run metal shutter. Later metal designs overcame the limitations.

The metal shutters from Copal were relatively new in the early 70's, and were not liked by some makers, claiming they were noisy, and too battery reliant etc. The RTS ended up battery reliant anyway, but Yashica were firm on the cloth shutter being cheaper.

All the bodies were made in Japan, at first some lenses came from Germany, but this was gradually stopped as the Yashica produced lenses proved as good or better.

The camera was imported to the UK by Photax, a small importer who were not really able to support a pro system camera. This lead to poor supplies and support, which lowered sales to a very low level.

[lesdmess]

In the manual, the shutter release for the RTS is identified as Magnetic Release. Is this just an electronic on/off switch that simply closes - no partial position like other shutter buttons on manual cameras? TIA.

[Deleted]

I had both the Contax RTS and the Pentax LX at one time of another. I loved the "feel" of the RTS was skeptical of a battery dependent shutter. The LX was a really nice camera but after about a year I never knew for sure if the shutter would release when I pushed the button. It was an intermittent problem and I was never able to finds any pattern so I finally got rid of it.

[lesdmess]

Just got confirmation that the shutter release on the RTS is just an on/off switch just like on my Yashica FR. I understand that this is for the RTS (Real Time System) - no delay on the shutter. I also understand that the intent is to minimize camera shake due to resistance on a typical mechanically coupled shutter release. On both the RTS and the FR, there is another switch used to meter the scene so that there is no partial pressure needed on the shutter. This is the characteristic that is taking me some time to get accustomed to on my FR.