Contax II - Which take up spool?

I picked up this sweet Contax II a couple months ago and I finally went to shoot a roll of Tri X through it and realized I need the take up spool. Can anyone advise the proper one and where I might locate one. I believe the camera is a 1936.

 

Thank you for any advise, I'm new to the forum.

 

Regards,

Rod

 

Congratulations on your camera-- it's actually a black dial Contax IIa from the early 1950's. Zeiss used a plastic take up spool for the Contax IIa, IIIa and Contarex. These spools turn up on eBay from time to time, and one seller (Petrakla) sells 3D printed copies. Zeiss also made reloadable cassettes for the Contax and these contain the same plastic spool that the camera comes with.

Yep, definitely a IIA Black Dial (mechanical flash sync). If you go to the post linked below over at Rangefinderforum.com and scan a few posts down, you can find a listing of all IIA and IIIA serial numbers and the year they were made, which dates yours to a batch constructed between April and October of 1953.

 

Dating Contax IIa/IIIa bodies??? - Rangefinderforum.com

 

Early post-WWII West German Zeiss lenses were marked Zeiss-Opton. Later (around 1954 and later) West German lenses, the ones I am putting together with my IIA, just say “Carl Zeiss”. I can’t tell for sure, but that looks like a later 50mm f2 Sonnar. Really nice optic.

Edited September 13, 2019 by Greg M

Thank you both for all the valuable information. Yes. It's the Sonnar. I look forward to picking up the spool and seeing what little bit of magic she and I can do together.

Have a great weekend!!!

 

Is it firing well on all speeds? Contax IIA's and IIIA's that have sat for a long time without being used can develop issues that requires a service by someone who knows the camera. Namely, the shutter fires OK as far as the sound goes, but the shutter will not actually be open to expose the film at the faster 1/500 and 1/1250 shutter speeds. Take off the back, open the lens up to f2, point the camera at a bright light source and fire the shutter when set to those higher speeds and see if you see a complete circle of light for the split second the open shutter slit travels across the frame. If all you see is darkness or a partial circle, the shutter will require servicing before it'll fire correctly and expose film properly at the higher speeds. Contax cameras that have sat unused for long stretches of time can be a frustrating device.

 

Even if it is firing correctly, 1/1250 second could actually be something more like 1/350 second or 1/500 second. A repair shop with a shutter tester could run it through the range and tell you what the marked speeds are actually producing. Color negative or black & white film will have enough exposure latitude to handle extra exposure from a slow shutter, but if you shoot slide film and the shutter is slow, the images will be grossly overexposed.

The Contax shutter was always its weak link, even in the improved Contax IIa. It was, however, ahead of its time.

 

Sometimes, a sticky shutter can be reanimated by dry firing it repeatedly until it loosens up. It is a good idea to do warm-up exercises before using a Contax.

 

I lost my original Contax take-up spool, and have used a plastic spool from contemporary 35mm film with only a little inconvenience (like the original, it can fall out when the camera back is open). The originals (probably for this reason) are fairly pricey.

I suspect for all older cameras one should question the higher shutter speeds.

 

The question, though, is faster or slower?

 

I have a Chinese made (and named) TLR with speeds up to 1/300.

It seems that often it goes for 1/300 (as close as I know) on all speed settings.

 

I haven't tried to open it up.

 

I did put a roll of film through it, exposed in daylight and assumed 1/300, and all

came out well exposed.

 

For the Contax, one solution is not to use the higher speeds.

Thanks. It appears everything above 125 seems good and fast, lower speeds seem to freeze a bit. This is just eyeballing through the lens, not using any kind of measuring device.

I meant 100 and up.

I can usually tell by listening if 1 second is close.

 

Then as they go up, they should be proportionally faster,

which usually works to about 60.

 

Past that, look through the lens from the back, and the light

should get dimmer as the speed increases.

 

Obviously not the most exact test for shutter speeds, but

also isn't so bad. Often the slower speeds are way off,

sometimes just staying open. As above, the higher speeds

might not open at all.

 

A favorite home shutter speed test in the old days, was to shoot

a TV screen. The horizontal scan rate was accurately generated

by the TV broadcaster, at 15734Hz. (15750Hz in black and white.)

This works well from about 60 on up. With a focal plane shutter,

you get a diagonal stripe, leaf shutter a horizontal stripe.

Count the scan lines in a vertical slice through the stripe,

and divide into 15734Hz.

 

But today's TV sets might not work so well for this test.

The Contax shutter was a work-around to Leica's iron-tight patents on their elegant focal plane shutter. Same with the lens mount's rangefinder coupling, work-around to Leica's patent on the cam.

(snip on Contax spools)

The originals (probably for this reason) are fairly pricey.

 

More expensive than whole cameras (with spool) in poor condition?

 

I suspect that i have seen 620 spools priced more than some 620 cameras,

and probably other sizes, too.

 

(Many) years ago, I was working on networking projects for schools, and

often found that I could get 10 of some Ethernet interface for less than the

price of one. People who want only one, don't bid on 10.

 

I have seen that in cameras, too, though less often. Some like Goodwill

will put a few cameras in a bag and auction it as one item.

 

(snip)

The originals (probably for this reason) are fairly pricey.

 

It seems that the solution is to either 3D print new ones:

 

Custom Petrakla film take up spools for Contax I, II, III, IIa, IIIa (1 spool). | eBay

 

or buy Kiev spools. (Many eBay sellers)