History
the Contax brand finds its originside in a series of pre-war Zeiss-Ikon rangefinder cameras that were the independent competition to the Leica. All told terzetto system were produced: the original Contax, an improved Contax II & a Contax III (a Contax II by owning a atomic number 34 exposure meter added).

Fallowing a 2nd Globe War, a German Zeiss-Ikon company was split between East & West Germany. Virtually all of a manufactory were around East Germany, which became Carl Zeiss Jena VEB, however the West German Zeiss corporation managed to resume production of cameras & lenses. Among a post-war cameras by a West German Zeiss Ikon were variants of a Contax II & Trio; called a Contax IIa (forswearing integrated photometer) & the IIIa (by using meter). the post war cameras come distinguised from either a pre-war variants by a shorter range finder, & different lockup mechanism.

An additional camera branded Contax was introduced inside East Germany, a Contax S. Unlike its pre-war range finder forbear, a Contax S was one-lens reflex camera using an eye-level pentaprism. a Contax S was renamed Pentacon when a trademark dispute sustaining the West German Zeiss company.

Facing increased competition from either Japanese cameramakers, the West German Zeiss company was once more split into deuce corporations: the camera manufacturer, Zeiss-Ikon AG, & a lens & optical glass manufacturer, Carl Zeiss AG.

Using a Zeiss lenses' reputation for superiority, Carl Zeiss AG managed to sustain profitableness by selling the children to Zeiss-Ikon & more camera manufacturers & by diversifiyng into producing various optical products. On a other side, Zeiss-Ikon AG failed to introduce the mass-produced SLR to rival the freshly Japanese system, & went smash within 1971.

Fallowing the bankruptcy of Zeiss-Ikon AG, Carl Zeiss AG uncovered itself while forgoing a little format camera-maker to sell its lenses to. An agreement was processed using Yashica to build SLR cameras in Japan that can healthy Zeiss eye under a Contax brand.

Zeiss Lenses

Technically, it is branded Carl Zeiss, however typically shortened to Zeiss for brevity.

Zeiss lenses for Contax camerwhen come referred to by their optical project besides as focal length & maximal aperture:

Distagon lenses come wide-fisheye retrofocus lenses. F-Distagon lenses come fish-eye lenses. PC-Distagon lenses come wide angle lenses that use tilt & shift features for correcting perspective convergence. Hologon & Biogon come non-retrofocus wide angle lens designs. Two-dimensional lenses come fixed focal length primes of super big utmost aperture that range from either medium wide angles to short telephotograph. Sonnar & Tele-Tessar lenses come telephoto lenses, & Tele-Apotessar & Aposonnar lenses come apochromatic telephotograph. Vario Sonnar lenses come zooms. Makro-Sonnar & Makro-Planar lenses come macro lenses for extreme close-higher operate, according to a Sonnar & Two-dimensional designs. Tessar lenses are Iv element lenses of medium focal length, another time known as the "Normal" lens. Mutar lenses come teleconverters. Mirotar lenses come mirror lenses.

Virtually all Zeiss lenses have a designation T*. This refers to their T* coating (pronounced "Tee Star"), the extremely developed Zeiss multi-coating run. A 'T' comes from either the German word 'Tarnung, which means 'camouflaging', when around making invisible, utilized on text inside information to making flare & chromatic abberation invisible.

A optical glass elements come a lot made & multicoated within Germany by Schott Glass, so near completely Zeiss oculus for Contax come T* lenses. (A Mirotar lenses, existence mirrors, don't own nor involve T* multicoating.)

Zeiss lenses can be assembled inside Germany or even within Japan... a few lens models were produced around each. When these are rumored there are differences inside build quality, this is unproved: a sole way to tell the Japanese-manufactured lens from either a German-processed 1 is to view the united states of origin label. Nonetheless, German-made lenses come considered other collectible & so sell for extra on the utilized market.

Zeiss oculus come held around super high regard by numerous lensman, noted for their sharpness, first-class direct contrast, smooth bokeh, brilliant color fidelity & a "3D Effect", which makes occasionally images seem most triad miscreate.

Contax 645

A Contax 645 is an autofocus medium format SLR formulas, featuring an array of Zeiss lenses & interchangeable film & digital backs. One of its unique features occurs as film back equipped using a vacuum formulas originally developed for the 35mm RTSIII SLR. Contax claims this increases sharpness by keeping a film perfectly flat in the plane of focus.

Lenses presently available for the Contax 645:

Distagon 35mm f/3.5 Distagon 45mm f/2.8 Distagon 55mm f/3.5 Vario-Sonnar 45-90mm f/4.5 Planar 80mm f/2 Apo-Makro-Planar 120mm f/4 Sonnar 140mm f/2.8 Sonnar 210 f/4 Tele-Apotessar 350mm f/4 Mutar Ace.4x

Additionally to 120 & 220 medium format backs using film inserts for fast loading, including the antecedently mentioned vacuum back, numerous manufacturers offer a kind of interchangeable digital backs for the Contax 645 models:

Imacon Leaf Kodak Jenoptik Sinar-Bron Megavision Phase One

Contax N Series

A Contax North Series is an autofocus 35mm SLR models. There are deuce-ace system of camera, a N1, a NX & a N Digital, an ill-fated & currently discontinued early Digital SLR. It apply a newly North-Mount lenses, & this means a patterns is non compatible by owning a older counterpoint focus SLR body. Contax does sell aNorth adapter that allows lenses from either their 645 medium format models to become utilized in N bodies.

Lenses presently available for the North Series:

Vario Sonnar 17-35mm f/2.8 - Noted for the outstandingly high speed for this nature and severity of lens. Vario Sonnar 2 dozen-85mm f/3.Five-Four.0 Vario Sonnar 28-80mm f/3.Five-Five.6 Planar 50mm f/1.4 Vario Sonnar 70-200mm f/3.Five-Four.5 Vario Sonnar 70-300mm F/4.0-Five.6 Planar 85mm f/1.4 Makro-Sonnar 100mm f/2.8 Tele-Apotessar 400mm f/4

Contax SLR

This is a original Contax camera line by Kyocera & Zeiss, beginning using the RTS inside 1975, & is however around production. It's an SLR patterns designed for manual focus lenses.

A tercet camera body therein system presently come a RTS III, a RX2 & a Aria. a RTSIII is notable because of its vacuum backplate, a feature a manufacturer claims improves sharpness by keeping the film perfectly flat in the image plane. It besides introduced the flash player exposure mensuration body that was particularly utile to studio lensman.

More leading light, however discontinued Contax SLRs include:

AX - This got a unique autofocus rules that worked sustaining manual focus lenses by moving a film plane within the camera. a side profit of this arrangement is that it allowed the Axe to feature the macro mode which worked tremendously rather the built-inherent 10mm extension tube, provide a magnification ratio higher than 1:1 while forgoing the utilize of bellows or even extension tubes. RX - a rugged, completely-metal camerthe using a focus-help formulas that would indicate an indicator weak inside the finder whilst the center circle was in hone focus. A RX2 doesn't use at times this feature. S2 & S2b - Titanium-bodied mechanical SLRs that single called upon a battery for the photometer models, non the operation of the camera, & was deliberately designed forgoing exposure automation. the S2 experienced a spot meter, & was popular by using occasionally Zone Rules lensman, when the S2b experienced a traditional centerweighted meter favorite by a few photojournalists.

These cameras choose "Y/C" mount lenses, short for "Yashica/Contax"... Yashica being the online-prevent consumer brand SLR patterns mass produced by Kyocera that shared its lensmount project sustaining Contax SLRs. Zeiss lenses around the Y/C mount come in either AE or even Millimetre varieties. Millimeter lenses come other recent, & have a setting that allows a camera to choose a aperture when a portion of its autoexposure models, patch a older AE lenses don't. There exists typically there are no difference between an older AE & the recently Millimeter lens apart from either this feature. Another time, a older AE lens is worth supplementary on the utilized market because it is a German-manufactured lesson, when the recently lens is Japanese-processed, despite an monovular optical formula & build quality.

Several one lenses develop unique features or even exemplary qualities non noticed around extra recently intentional challenger.

MM Lenses presently available:

Distagon 15mm f/3.5 F-Distagon 16mm f/2.8 - Noted for its remarkably high speed. Distagon 18mm f/4 Distagon 21mm f/2.8 - Noted for its unusual project & sharpness. Distagon 25mm f/2.8 Distagon 28mm f/2.8 Vario-Sonnar 28-70mm f/3.5 Vario-Sonnar 28-85mm f/3.Three-4 Distagon 35mm f/1.4 Distagon 35mm f/2.8 PC-Distagon 35mm f/2.8 - Noted for its tilt & shift capabilities. Vario-Sonnar 35-70mm f/3.4 Vario-Sonnar 35-135mm f/3.Three-Four.5 Tessar 45mm f/2.8 - Noted for its unusual "pancake" project, existence super thinly & lightweight. Planar 50mm f/1.7 Planar 50mm f/1.Four - Noted for its sharpness. Makro-Planar 60mm f/2.8 - Offers a higher magnification ratio (1:1) than the more Millimeter macro lenses. Makro-Planar 60mm Hundred f/2.8 Planar 85mm f/1.2 Planar 85mm f/1.4 Sonnar 85mm f/2.8 Planar 100mm f/2 Makro-Planar 100mm Hundred f/2.8 Sonnar 135mm f/2.8 Sonnar 180mm f/2.8 Aposonnar 200mm f/2 - Noted for its unco high speed & an iris sustaining more blades for smoother bokeh & circular highlights, designed for portrait & fashion operate. It accompany the placed of drop-inside purification. Vario Sonnar 80-200mm f/4 Tele-Apotessar 300mm f/2.8 - Noted for its sharpness & stratospheric price. Tele-Tessar 300mm f/4.0 Vario Sonnar 100-300mm f/4-Five.6 Mirotar 500mm f/8 - The fixed-aperture catadioptric "mirror" telephotograph. Mutar I personally - 2x teleconverter Mutar II - 2x teleconverter of superiority, designed to mate by owning hanker telephotograph. Mutar III - One.4x teleconverter

More lenses of note that come there is no yearn around production include a Tele-Apotessar 600mm f/4 AE, of which simply a handfull were manufactured extirpate, the Mirotar 1000mm f/5.Hexad AE, & a Vario Sonnar 70-210mm f/3.Phoebecome AE, which is reputed to be a lens to virtually all clearly exhibit a Zeiss "3D effect", & fetches big sums on the utilized market because of this.

G Series

A G Series occurs as unique 35mm autofocus range finder models by owning interchangeable lenses. Like than displaying the average range finder focussing patch & brightlines, the number 1 G1 got the zooming view finder by having a focus confirmation weak activated per autofocus rules whenever counterpoint focus was compulsory. a actual AF technique, unlike AF for SLR cameras, does indeed utilise a twin-window range finder, however the alignment determination is electronic.

the G2 is the 2nd camera system in the series, & could display counterpoint focus few feet away directly in a view finder LCD. A G2 is typically considered supplementary rugged & governable than a earliest G1. An additional improvement on top a G1 is the G2's fully parallax correction finder. a limited edition dog of nigrify G2 bodies & lenses were produced, differing from either the standard atomic number 22 finish uncovered on the orginal G1 & G2.

A lenses apply optical formulae non typically utilized by Zeiss, which got specialized inside SLR photographic lenses for numerous decades before a G Series. (These formulae come out to become repeated in the late Zeiss Ikon Leica-mount rangerfinder.) the G series besides boasted the exclusively avowedly zoom available for a range finder technique, processed imaginable per electronic coupling of the camera's finder & a lens.

Available G Series lenses come:

Hologon 16mm f/8 - Comes by owning an optical view finder & the center purification to control vignetting. Noted for its super great distortion. Biogon 21mm f/2.8 - Comes by owning an optical finder. Biogon 28mm f/2.8 Planar 35mm f/2 Planar 45mm f/2 - Noted at a instance of its release when a acutely available lens for 35mm photography Sonnar 90mm f/2.8 Vario-Sonnar 35-70mm f/3.Five-Five.6

Electronic Flash Units

Completely of Contax's flash player units come cross-compatible by using completely Contax camerthe systems, & Metz makes a Contax-compatible control unit for its strobes too.

Flash player units presently available:

TLA200 (GN 68) - Compact flash player unit originally designed for the G Series. TLA280 (GN 98) TLA360 (GN 138) TLA480 (GN unknown) - Bracket-mounted flash player patterns.

Metz SCA adapters:

SCA3802 SCA382 - Works by using a older cameras, however won't act on the Contax 645.

Related Links
List of digital camera brands