What is there to know about Contax cameras?

I know nothing about non-digital cameras.

I am taking a photography course, and I am using a legacy camera that was my SO’s dad’s college camera. It is a Contax RTS from 1975 and is apparently the first Contax camera made. I assumed it was some sort of wierd off brand, but looking on the Internet has made me wonder. Information on the 'net is strangly sparse, and is apparently limited to a couple mailing lists and a lone professional photographer that uses Contax bodies.

First off, it is Japanese or German? It seems to be related to some sort of Japanese camera company, but it also seems to be related to Germany in some way.

What is with Carl Zeiss lenses? Apparently the are associated with Contax cameras and seem to be some sort of lens heroin. I don’t have a CZ lens (I have a Panagor…does that mean anything to anyone?) but I think I could find the original lens if it will work mad magic. Are they worth it?

How good is my camera? Is my teacher laughing at me for using this or is he wondering where I got it? Is there anything special I should know about it? Should I cover up the name in duct tape or parade it around proudly?

Why so much silence regarding them?

I thank you pre-emptivly for helping to eliminate my ignorance!

http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/hardwares/classics/contax/

"There are three RTS SLR camera models, the RTS (Real Time System) models are usually referred as the top-of the-range flagship model within the Contax line-up.

The original CONTAX RTS was introduced in ,highly advanced electronic SLR system camera developed by mutual cooperation of Carl Zeiss, West Germany, and Yashica, Japan. It offers the advantage of one of the most sophisticated fully automatic through-the-lens exposure control available during the late seventies. The RTS was serving for 6 years, supplemented by three mide-range models with 139Q ,137MD and 137MA before its next vastly improved model, the RTS II that introduced in 1982."

etc etc
http://www.cdegroot.com/photo/contax/rts/

"The first modern Contax SLR was called Contax RTS for “Real Time System”. It was presented at the Photokina 1974 as a result of the cooperation of Carl Zeiss (Dr. Erhard Glatzel), Yashica (Prof. Dr. Katsuiko Sugaya) and F.A. Porsche. Parts of the German press were infuriated because they thought of that product being a sacrilege by bearing a traditional German name. This is the only Contax camera designed by F.A. Porsche, as all others have been designed independently. It is a handsome camera to behold and the input and participation of the Porsche Group is immediately clear when the RTS is used. The RTS is traditional in construction yet the features were at the time on the cutting edge of 35mm photography. It is a wholly electronic camera with aperture preferred and manual exposure modes; bolt on optional five frame per second motor drive with intervolometer or a two frame per second winder. A step-less electronic shutter is used with up to 1/2000 second shutter speed available. The RTS also incorporates exposure compensation. The RTS was designed from the beginning to be an electronic camera and therefore featured some novelties like the LED’s displayed in the viewfinder and the innovative electromagnetic shutter release which was so sensitive that it was necessary to place the meter activation into a separate button on the camera’s front. (This is one of my favorite features of many of their cameras. When you press the shutter release, it fires! No waiting, no sudden opportunity missed.) "

etc etc + comments

I like photography as a hobby, but am no historian, so can only give partial answers. But here goes:

Contax, IIRC, was a German company, but the brand is now owned by the Japanese camera company Yashica, which is in turn owned by the conglomerate Kyocera. It’s a good brand. Contax and Leicas inspire much drooling amongst photographers. I don’t know about specific lens models, but Carl Zeiss optics is indeed, as you mentioned, lens heroin (along with Leicas, once again). I have a pair of Zeiss binoculars (made in Germany) and love them.

That’s all I care about. A camera is just a lighttight box with a little hole in front. What you do with it is what matters.

I shoot professionally for newspapers, school yearbooksn as well as fine art black and white. I used Pentax cameras and lenses, as well as Tamron, Sigma, and Toyo lenses. I knew a guy once who had over $8,000.00 worth of Nikon equipment, he couldn’t shoot for shit.

Zeiss lenses, however, are worth their weight in gold. Fabulous optics.

It sounds like a great camera. Consider bringing it to a pro photo shop for a good cleaning.

There are lots of lenses available in the Yasica/Contax mount. Zeiss are definitely the very best, but you don’t need to spend the long dollars unless you’re a gear freak. Yashica optics are pretty good, as well as Tamron and Sigma. I’ve never heard of Panagor. If you’re in the market, you should find plenty of good used lenses on e-bay. Try B&H’s used department, too. Never buy a used lens in less than mint or very very good condition. Busted, worn or dirty optics are not worth the trouble.

It’s all about the lens, everything else is just a box (or “house,” from the Latin). Zeiss lenses have the the most striking contrast, and few competitors can even hold a candle to their quality. Contax has been around for a long time, I have a Contax from the fifties, and I still use it occasionally, happily. It’s built like a steel brick, and for portraiture it does all I need–exclude light from the body, open and close the shutter (how accurately, I don’t know, if you bracket, you don’t care), and it has that super-contrasty, super-fast Zeiss lens.

I few years ago, I had become kind of jaded about lenses. Gods teeth, my enlarger has a Zeiss lens, and my throw away lenses are all Rokkor on the Minolta equipment. I was shooting a garden in Japan, and half way through a big roll of Pan-X, I decided I wanted to shoot in color. Stupidly, I mentioned something about burning the last of the roll, as I had only brought one back for the 35mm camera. A friend of mine, who is an artist, offered to let me use her Canon. I looked at it, and knew there was something wrong with the lens, slow for one thing, but the light was bright, so I declined saying that I could never get beyond all the bells and whistles on the camera. When she said she could put it in full manual mode, I felt like it would be an insult, and oh so very un-Japanese to not accept her kind offer, and thought “what could it hurt.”

Well, through the viewfinder, It all looks the same, and it wasn’t until I saw the film that I realized that there wasn’t a single exposure that was usable. This garden, so breathtaking, that the “thousand words” you ought to have, couldn’t even come close to describing it’s beauty, was flat, boring and lifeless. Everything, everything. everything was bilirubin brown and over-cooked spinach green. Except for a few frames I shot on the Rollie (2 1/4 format, but still the wrong film) the entire shot was wasted. From then on, if I drop a Rokkor off a cliff face, I’ll watch where it drops (bad manners to litter) but I’ll hit the ground before a Zeiss. In your photography, you’ll find you can compensate for a lot of things, on the shoot, or in the darkroom, but a crappy lens is a crappy lens, and if you can’t get the image on the film, you won’t be able to put it on the paper.

Re-acquaint that lens and body, I think you’ve got a real gem there. Outside of “Bob’s House 'o Cameras” Contax is a well respected and venerable name, truly a “pro” box. Never, use duct tape on a camera, properly, you use gaffer’s tape. If your trying to protect it from theft, mark it up in bizarre places with tape, and complain loudly about having to frame wide, to crop out the light leaks. An amateur probably won’t steal your Contax, but a pro would be sorely tempted.

Thanks all!

I got my first roll of film developed and things look pretty darn good! I also found out that the original lens is still in the pocession of the original owner, and he is pretty far away so I might not be able to get ahold of it.

All the same, my first set of pictures worked out well, and I am going to take the camera in for some minor repairs (the film doesn’t rewind right) and a good cleaning. I am very excited about the whole deal, but I sure have a lot to learn about this strange non-digital world.

Good luck, sven. Photography is fun!

And with all due respect to Mentor and Liar, I seriously doubt that anyone but a professional or a highly-critical advanced amateur would be able to tell the difference in results between a Zeiss lens and good quality modern lens from any of the other major lens manufacturers. Unless you’re a successful professional or a wealthy hobbyist, don’t waste your money.