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Thursday, April 19, 2018
Zeiss Ikon Contessa 35
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| Corner Color |
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| Alternate Albuquerque |
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| Shooting Pansies in a Barrel |
|
| Vacancy |
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| Rustic Comfort |
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| Parade |
10 comments:
The birdhouse shot I think shows this lens's capabilities best: great sharpness and good blurred background. But I'm also impressed with how well the Color Plus renders purple. I find that films sometimes struggle with that color.
I played a bit with the SilverFast settings for the ColorPlus. Kodak Gold seemed a logical choice, but I like the Fuji profile better for the warmer tones it provided.
For some reason the Zeiss system of coupling the RF has always appealed to me aesthetically. I have never owned one, so I don't know how they work practically. It seems that if the sun is in front of you, it might be harder to get focus with a low contrast image in the RF. How do you find that it works in the field?
The contrast of the rf in my Contessa 35 is actually as good as that in any of my old rangefinder cameras. The focusing is achieved through a rotating wedge prism in that round structure over the lens. The medium format cameras from the company featured the same focusing system. I bought a Super Ikonta 532/16 from a shop in Phoenix when I first got interested in using old film cameras. My idea at that point was to get something of uncompromising quality and I spent a couple hundred dollars on the camera. For reasons I never really figured out, I could not get pictures I liked from the camera. The lens was uncoated, but I think any deficiencies in performance were most likely the result of operator incompetence. A curious feature of the camera was that it had auto frame advance and counting, but it only knew how to count to 11.
Mike, the Contessa is certainly a magnificent example of mid-century German photographic engineering. And it is a mechanical device of beauty.
1. Where did you buy/borrow/find yours?
2. Did you need to have it professionally overhauled or repaired?
3. If yes, where did you send it?
I really do not "need" another camera, and I have a Leica IIIC of the same era, so I have my mid-century piece of engineering already. But the Contessa is so nice.....
I found my Contessa 35 on ebay and paid about $30 for it. They often go for more, but there are still some bargains if you look out for them. The seller said that the meter was inoperative, so that may have discouraged some bidders. As it turned out, I was able to get the meter working by following Mike Elek's instructions. The shutter and rf on mine work accurately. Once in a while the double exposure prevention fails to properly engage the advance, so one of these days I'll try to take a look at that. I don't know who might work on the Contessa; it is a bit complicated for diy repairs. The mechanism under the bottom plate is easy to get at for fixes to the frame counter, and there may be a connection to the double exposure stuff there as well. It is a really nice camera and worth quite a lot more than I paid for a good working one.
Mike, did you ever sort out the frame counter issue? My Contessa 35 has a frame counter problem where it only advances when it feels like it. I’m hoping it still allows me to accurately advance the film, I suppose I can get used to it or manually advance it a frame when I notice the counter hasn’t moved. Was just wondering if you’d repaired yours.
I haven't used the Contessa 35 in a while. I don't think there was a problem with the counter. The only issue was with the shutter release which would sometime not work. I think that is due to the double exposure prevention feature not working quite properly unless I remember to very firmly press down on the release. I can get around the problem by recocking the shutter and releasing, but removing the bottom plate to clean and lube the gears there did not solve the problem. I am reluctant to try getting into the shutter because of the complexity of the rf linkage.
My first camera was a Zeiss icon contessa from my granddad. The camera has the transport problem causing double exposures. Repair attempts were never successful. To make it work, I trained myself to cover the lens during the second exposure. Bit of a hack, but worked nicely for years.
How nice to have something like the Contessa handed down in the family. They are extremely well made, but the complexity can still cause some problems.
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