Syntax - Zeiss' prewar prism SLR - an informational post

Syntax - Zeiss' prewar plans for a prism SLR - an informational post<br>

On another thread about the Contax D camera, a question was asked about the reported prism single-lens-reflex camera that was planned before WWII. To wit:</p>

<blockquote>

<p>BTW I've seen so much "reference" to lost plans and a pre-war design. I get the feeling this is more hearsay than fact. Is there any evidence? The terrible bombing Dresden destroyed so much etc is always given as the reason we know so little. Doubting Thomas here... Is there a source for this so oft repeated analogy?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>I started this answer to that question at that place (<a href="../classic-cameras-forum/00XFGW">http://www.photo.net/classic-cameras-forum/00XFGW</a>), but as I worked on it, it became rather long and off the topic of the Contax D model, at least. So here it is.<br /><br />One of the overall best sources on the "Spiegel-Contax"- arguably the first production prism 35mm SLR -is Alexander Schulz's 2000 book by that title issued by Lindemanns Verlag. If you don't read German, and even if you do, there is a revised second edition in English entitled <em>Contax S</em> (2002). What follows is a summary of some of the discussion of the roots of the post-war camera as presented in the latter book<br /><br />The plans drawn up before the war were for a camera called the Syntax. The process of its conception came from Zeiss personnel's examination of the Ihagee Kine-Exakta and the KW Praktiflex of 1939.<br>

The design leader for Zeiss was Hubert Nerwin at Zeiss Ikon Dresden. A mockup of the camera was a Contax with a prism on it. The viewfinder was considered to be too dark, so a fresnel lens was added. Finally, from 1943, Zeiss worked on these developments for post-war production, but everything was destroyed on February 13, 1945 and several of the design team were killed. <br />After September, 1945, the Contax II and III production line was moved to Kiev where the line was continued as the Kiev camera. <br /><br /><br />Documentation of the Syntax camera, as it was called, comes from</p>

<ul>

<li>a 1981 letter of Herbert Nerwin. </li>

<li>There was also a patent application prepared on 1 September 1941 (see below).</li>

<li>Finally, a 1994 letter from Siegfried Boehm, one of the designers, details some of the project. </li>

</ul>

<p>Boehm himself was moved by the Soviet occupation authorities to KW where he helped to design the Praktica, successor to the Praktiflex (not to be confused with a Praktiflex FX of later times which was simply a re-branding of the Praktica FX).<br>

<br />At some point it became obvious that the vertical Contax shutter was impractical, and the solution of a horizontal shutter was adopted.<br /><br />For more discussion, it's best to go directly to Schulz's books, as well as to similar discussion in that landmark book on Reflex cameras from Dresden, Richard Hummel's <em>Spiegelreflexkameras aus Dresden</em>. Edition Reintzsch Leipzig (1995, especially see S. 57 u. 205-6, for a brief discussion of the Syntax design.<br /><br /></p><div></div>

Edited October 19, 2022 by JDMvW

<p>By the way, the patent application shows a built-in meter as well.</p>

<p>That's it.</p>

<p>Thanks for the time and effort put into this for all those who will read this bit of history on those cameras:</p>

<p>Thanks for stepping up to the question. I'm familiar with both sources given indirectly. That is, I know of the book and I know who Nerwin is.. Does Nerwin's letter also appear in the later edition of the book? This is the first time I heard about a patent .. that's very cool, and a project name Syntax! Hmm marketing a la 1941 eh? I guess I'll have to get the book and read up on it! Ok ..there is more there than I thought. IT just seemed so convenient to refer to all was lost etc....</p>

<p> </p>

<p>The letters are excerpted rather than reproduced, although there are extensive direct quotations in both editions.<br /> The German 1st edition has some slightly different illustrations and the text is not exactly the same, but since the English edition was "revised," I assume it represents later thinking on Schulz's part.<br /> Schulz also interviewed Böhm (=Boehm) in person in 1993 as well as having corresponded with him later on, which is the 1994 letter referred to above.</p>

<p>The illustrations below are from Schulz's books. The top may be the prism-on-a-Contax body referred to above, and the other two are plaster models for the final look of the Contax S.</p>

<p>Typo above: it's Hubert Nerwin, not Herbert in the second reference to him.</p><div></div>

<p>That Contax IIa with a grafted prism surely couldn't accomodate a working mirror.</p>

<p>JDM, the topmost Contax with prizm looks like a prism on the top of the Kiev IV body. The rewind knob and the dials of the exposurmeter looks like on the model which came only in 1957.</p>

<p>Kozma, you may be right. The prism is also suspiciously like the Praktica prism made by Zeiss and shown at the end of the post at <a href="00XFGW">http://www.photo.net/classic-cameras-forum/00XFGW</a>.</p>

<p>The illustration was from the original edition, and was not repeated in the English one, so may have been somebody's effort to "simulate" the original mockup which was described as simply being a prism on a Contax II body. It was just 'presented' in the German edition without any obvious title or label.</p>

<p>The drawing seems to be made after the one shown in a Zeiss Ikon French patent description of the 1st September 1941 and depicts the patent drawing very well. So guess it's genuine information</p>