10-13-2016, 08:00 AM
(This post was last modified: 10-13-2016, 08:05 AM by Arthur Macmillan.)
This Contax III rangefinder I am pretty sure was made only during 1933-1936. I understand Jena became part of East Germany after the war, and that mainly M42 screw mounts were made following the war that were originally close to the original lenses in design, but evolved over time.
Joju - yes, the lack of coatings is my biggest concern. I have three uncoated but very good condition Olympus OM lenses: 50/1.8, 75-150/4, and 135mm. When I tried the 50mm on my Canon 70 During the morning hours, and indoors I thought it was amazing reproducing very fine detail. Then I tried all three on a sunny summer California day and I couldn't get any kind of contrast no matter what I did.
I have other uncoated and singly coated lenses. Some are very good. But 1936! Could they even make a sharp lens then? I was given the kit to look at and asked if I was worth $200 dollars to me.
At this point I'm just mostly repeating myself, but I was fascinated that the shutter still works. It is constructed like a series of brass slats that are stacked edge to edge. I'm not sure how it works but the complexity is fascinating. My guess is at 1/1250 of a second what is happening is the slats separate a little and the brass shutter moves up slightly unstacked. I took the back off of the camera and watched it, but unless I go geek and video it, it appears to the eye as a very brief opening.
As for the mount. My assumption is that one would have to have a mirrorless camera. I saw one mount for $200 (yes, the same as the price of the rangefinder plus the lenses) to convert to Sony mirrorless. Actually it appears to convert several type lenses?!
This strikes me as probably too ambitious for me, however, I have zero knowledge of this type of lens. My assumption is they are uncoated. I don't see any strange colors reflected in these lenses. Since I did not start photography mainly until the digital era there are tons of questions in my mind. Were any film era 35mm lenses really as good as a modern lens? It seems as though there were, but probably not that old, and probably with coated lens elements. It is super hard to get a feel for this without actually using the lenses, but I thought I'd try.
Since the camera appears to be functional, I may get it for a B&W film class. I realize I would be making the class harder by far, than necessary, but it would be fun. (I don't think the built-in meter works, but I have a working hand held light meter. I tried it to enter manual settings for my DSLR, and was surprised to see proper exposure result!)
As to adapting to what...well, I don't have any immediate plans to own any mirrorless digital. I have access to MFT if I can find an adapter. The ideal camera would probably be a FF Sony MILC but I don't know of anyone with one. They are popular, but most popular with the younger crowd around here.
I meant to give the link to the Contax/Nikon Rangefinder to Sony alpha:
https://www.cameraquest.com/amedeo%20nrf%20crf%20se.htm
Joju - yes, the lack of coatings is my biggest concern. I have three uncoated but very good condition Olympus OM lenses: 50/1.8, 75-150/4, and 135mm. When I tried the 50mm on my Canon 70 During the morning hours, and indoors I thought it was amazing reproducing very fine detail. Then I tried all three on a sunny summer California day and I couldn't get any kind of contrast no matter what I did.
I have other uncoated and singly coated lenses. Some are very good. But 1936! Could they even make a sharp lens then? I was given the kit to look at and asked if I was worth $200 dollars to me.
At this point I'm just mostly repeating myself, but I was fascinated that the shutter still works. It is constructed like a series of brass slats that are stacked edge to edge. I'm not sure how it works but the complexity is fascinating. My guess is at 1/1250 of a second what is happening is the slats separate a little and the brass shutter moves up slightly unstacked. I took the back off of the camera and watched it, but unless I go geek and video it, it appears to the eye as a very brief opening.
As for the mount. My assumption is that one would have to have a mirrorless camera. I saw one mount for $200 (yes, the same as the price of the rangefinder plus the lenses) to convert to Sony mirrorless. Actually it appears to convert several type lenses?!
This strikes me as probably too ambitious for me, however, I have zero knowledge of this type of lens. My assumption is they are uncoated. I don't see any strange colors reflected in these lenses. Since I did not start photography mainly until the digital era there are tons of questions in my mind. Were any film era 35mm lenses really as good as a modern lens? It seems as though there were, but probably not that old, and probably with coated lens elements. It is super hard to get a feel for this without actually using the lenses, but I thought I'd try.
Since the camera appears to be functional, I may get it for a B&W film class. I realize I would be making the class harder by far, than necessary, but it would be fun. (I don't think the built-in meter works, but I have a working hand held light meter. I tried it to enter manual settings for my DSLR, and was surprised to see proper exposure result!)
As to adapting to what...well, I don't have any immediate plans to own any mirrorless digital. I have access to MFT if I can find an adapter. The ideal camera would probably be a FF Sony MILC but I don't know of anyone with one. They are popular, but most popular with the younger crowd around here.
I meant to give the link to the Contax/Nikon Rangefinder to Sony alpha:
https://www.cameraquest.com/amedeo%20nrf%20crf%20se.htm