Contax IIa any thoughts?

[Pioneer]

That is different. I am certainly not an expert but have and use several Zeiss Contax IIa and II cameras as well as various Russian Kievs and have never seen anything like that. Send that picture to Mark Hansen at ZeissIkonRolleiRepair.com and see if he has any ideas.

 

[Kodachromeguy]

Zeiss pulled out of camera market because it couldn’t compete with Japan

I have read in several sources that the spectacularly expensive, complicated, and unreliable Contarex camera and its accessories largely bankrupted the camera division of Zeiss (West Germany). As Guangong noted, there was no way Zeiss could compete.

 

[GRHazelton]

I have Contax and Kiev cameras, and it's obvious that the Contax is of superior construction. I have shot my Contax with the Zeiss 21mm, 35mm, 50mm and 135mm lenses, and all produce excellent results that compare well with what I get with Leicas using similar-era glass. The Contax finder is less sophisticated than an M-series Leica, but using external viewfinders never bothered me much. In terms of reliability, I bought my Contax probably 12-15 years ago, had Eddie Smolov do a CLA on it (no idea what happened to Eddie, sorry to say), and it soldiers on without a hitch. The Voigtlander lenses produced to fit Nikon RF cameras will fit the Contax IIa, but as noted it's best to stick with the wide angles; I have never used my 25mm or 85mm Voigtlander lenses on my Contax so I can't report results -- but they do fit OK.

I have a Contax IIa with the f1.5 50mm Sonnar. A lovely camera; the fit and finish are exquisite. Do note that while Nikon "copied" the Contax mount for its line of rangefinders there is a small difference which makes lenses longer than 50mm incompatible in terms of accurate focus. See this excellent article in CameraQuest https://cameraquest.com/conrf.htm
I treated myself to the Voigtlander 21mm f4 and the 35mm f2.5. They are excellent lenses, properly all metal and optically superb. They are wonderful complements to my Nikon S2.
Note that the black dial Contax IIa requires a klutzy flash synch adapter to use either electronic flash or FP flash bulbs. I found one for electronic flash, since I don't intend to use FP bulbs. The color dial IIa has a proper synch cord socket.
Since all Contax cameras use a metal slat shutter - much like a roll top desk - they are immune to the fate of a fabric Leica focal plane shutter if the lens is at a wide aperture and pointed toward the sun. A fast 50mm at infinity and full aperture will rapidly burn a small hole in a Leica's rubberized fabric shutter curtain.
BTW, if you don't have an instruction manual for your Contax, see what Mike Butkus has to offer:
https://www.cameramanuals.org/zeiss_ikon/contax_iia.pdf
Do send him a few dollars to help him continue this wonderful resource.

 

[Bill Burk]

@Neil Morgan let me know if those photos are clear and helpful! Anybody know what that black smooth metal cover between the focus ring and the shutter is? Haven’t seen it on any other contax ii’s

Thanks for any help all!

That thing needs to come out. I don’t know what it is. Guess it’s an attachment for microscope, telescope or binocular. You will want to remove it to attach a normal lens.

 

[yogurt]

Thanks all. I tentatively tried the bulb method a while back but didn’t want too push to hard. After hearing y’all’s feedback, I felt a little more confident. I have a press with both thumbs and voila! It popped out! Thanks so much everyone! Excited to start shooting!