Just Bought My “Grail” Camera, Contura Stereo Camera!

[Ray Morgenweck]

I’ve been seriously collecting postwar Stereo Cameras, and making and viewing stereo slides. This IS a World apart from “ 2D”, and a lot of really Beautiful and Unique Cameras were built from 1945 to the early ‘70s. ••••• Seton Rochwite, the inventor of the Realist, also designed two other cameras. The mid priced Kin Dar, and the Contura. A Real Beauty, built in 1955, it was a late in the stereo craze attempt to produce a real masterpiece, Information is scarce, but apparently the company (Stereo-Corporation. Milwaukee Wisconsin) ran into financial trouble, and the few cameras built were made to satisfy investors in the company. As few as 150 (or 130) were built. Serial numbers start with an A or B, this one is B1012.. The covering is high grade polished calfskin, by Perrin. The only bad part of the deal is a past owner put three strips of labelmaker tape with exposure instructions on that beautiful calfskin back! It will take care but I’m sure I can get it off. •••••. An “innovation” of sorts, aimed at making stereo photography ‘easier’ was the Gold Bar which ran across the front. Given the ideal stereo exposure iof the era was 1/50 at F 6.3 (Kodachrome,sunshine and blue skys) ....when the Bar was all aligned you were doing it “Right”. A lot of Stereo Realist concepts still remain, such as the bottom viewfinder and left side shutter release. Rochwite never gets the credit due him. In Many ways he equals Oskar Barnack (imho).

 

[Sirius Glass]

Enjoy. Beautiful.

Where does the stereo headphone plug in?

 

[iandvaag]

Congrats, what a great find! Stereo photography is amazing. Hope you make some great slides with it!

 

[AndyH]

That's an amazing find! Grail is a suitable description for it. I saw one at a show many years ago, but the metal finish was in much worse shape. I hope you'll share some high resolution shots of it once you've cleaned it up and gotten it working.

Andy

 

[Ray Morgenweck]

Oh What a Beauty! Arrived today, just So Unique, BIG! 1/2” longer than a Realist.

 

[outwest]

Gorgeous!

 

[Steve Roberts]

A fine looking camera! Is it me or does stereo photography not seem to get the interest it deserves on this forum?
I have three stereo cameras and produce colour slides and monochrome print pairs for a Holmes viewer. The results can be amazing. I've yet to experiment with monochrome slides.
Look forward to an update!
Steve

 

[Ray Morgenweck]

I think Stereo doesn’t get much attention now is because you need to do more “work”. Lazy people don’t have the ability to see it through. One look through a viewer though, you SEE the magnificent difference between 3D photography and not 3D.

 

[BAC1967]

Beautiful camera Ray! The only stereo cameras I use are for ViewMaster reels. They produce great stereo images on a very small format, I can only imagine what yours will do. I’m often tempted to try a larger stereo format.

 

[hsandler]

That’s a beauty! I started with a Kin-dar and then a Realist 3.5. I make stereo cards on 4x6 paper and view with an Owl viewer. I have some on line stereo pairs (mostly parallel) here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/hsandler/albums/72157674884839827

 

[Marco Gilardetti]

The only bad part of the deal is a past owner put three strips of labelmaker tape with exposure instructions on that beautiful calfskin back!

He must have surely been one belonging to the infamous "c'mon it's just a tool" gang.

I'm glad you finally catched it, I hope that using it will bring as much excitement as the chase for it!

 

[Ray Morgenweck]

The Absolutely Amazing Astonishing Accomplishment was getting this frightfully expensive toy past my Wife. She thinks it’s “pretty”. Wow. I don’t know if this will work with the Next Camera I want to buy, a Graflex Model 0 , (quite an ugly thing) :/(. The First owner of the Contura was the sellers late Grandfather. He bought it New, one of the very few sold to the public. This camera was the 12th one made.

 

[quixotic]

Is it me or does stereo photography not seem to get the interest it deserves on this forum?
Steve

Part of the problem is that the truly stunning results can only be seen in a stereo viewer. I have a geoscope which I use to view 4" x 6" stereo pairs, but only one person can look through it at a time. Anaglyphs look crappy in comparison.

(Just came back from a holiday in which most of my shots were either cha-cha's with a Nikon Df and a Contax Aria, or a Fuji W3 for the shots with moving elements in them (amazing little unit)).