WWII German Kreigsmarine 35 cameras

<p>Surviving real Leica cameras used by the Luftwaffe or other arms of the military are rare enough. Even rarer are the Zeiss Contax II cameras used by the Kriegsmarine. They exist but again, it takes a real expert to validate the camera as genuine. Probably a good number went down with destroyed U-Boats.</p>

<p>People might want to take a look at the "mystery" Leica (?) at<br>

http://www.cameraquest.com/kriegsma.htm<br>

A Google for "Kriegsmarine Contax", however, shows an incredible variety of <em>claimed</em> Kriegsmarine markings on old Contaxes.<br>

I sincerely doubt that they are all genuine. A doubt that is not allayed in that that some are being sold out of former Soviet territories.<br>

Even if a camera is a genuine Contax II or III, not a Kiev, markings can be engraved by any competent craftsman at pretty much any time after it was made.</p>

<p>I have a couple of beautiful examples of such things (posted at http://www.photo.net/classic-cameras-forum/00cNWM ).</p>

<p>With D-Day's 70th anniversary in less than three months, what became of perhaps the most famous Contax of all, the one Robert Capa used for his D-Day landing pictures.</p>

<p>Capa probably destroyed it when he used it to beat the s**te out of the darkroom technician that fried his film when drying it, leaving him with just a few barely usable frames that he had risked his life to get.</p>

<p>The darkroom technician who fried the film was David Douglas Duncan. DDD was luckier than Capa, he survived Vietnam.</p>

<p>Correction to my last post, it was Dennis Banks who, under pressure from his boss cooked all but 11 of the 100+ shots that Capa took on D-Day. My apologies to DDD.</p>

<p>The "fried 11" have now been transported into the world of "art," for good or for bad.</p>

Robot Luftwaffen Eigentum

"LUFTWAFFEN EIGENTUM stamped at Robot camera back

The lens, a Schneider Kreuznach Tele Xenar 75mm , also has "LUFTWAFFEN EIGENTUM" stamp