Contax IIIa black dial and russian lens jupiter 12

[george_verbryck]

I have a contax IIIa and all this time I have thought that this

camera and the russian keiv cameas were the same i.e. the keiv was a

copy of the contax . So after some good experience with the jupiter

12 in ltm mount I thought it would be great to get one for the

contax. The problem is that I can not seem to get the russian lens to

mount on the camera,am I missing something is mounting particularly

difficult? Any help would be appreciated. Cheers George

[michael_linn]

Dear George:

 

The Contax IIIa is a post-war West German camera from Zeiss Ikon in Stuttgart and very different from the pre war Contaxes and the Kiev series successors, which, in their earliest versions were dead copies of the pre-war Contax cameras. Post war lenses will fit pre-war Contaxes and post war Kievs but your camera will not accept pre-war lenses and their USSR copies.

[andrew_hall1]

>your camera will not accept pre-war lenses and their USSR copies.

 

Make that "some pre-war WIDE ANGLES....". The Jupiter 12 was a copy of the pre-war Biogon.

 

See http://www.cameraquest.com/conrf.htm

[george_verbryck]

Thanks for the help, a bummer that the the russian lenes only fit the pre war models. My IIIa is in great condition recently cal'd ,the repair guy told me even the 1250th is accurate and it was my first rangefinder so I will just slog along using it with the 50mm/1.5 sonnar. I can not be sure which is better the sonnar or my DR summicron both are great but different lenses. Cheers George

[richard_oleson]

The Jupiter-12 and its alter ego the prewar Carl Zeiss Jena 35/2.8 Biogon are the only Contax-mount lenses that will not fit on the postwar Contaxes (unless there is some obscure lens that I'm not aware of, in which case you're unlikely to come across it anyway).

 

But these lenses will not fit any Contax IIa or IIIa, black or color dial. Wide angle lenses that WILL fit the a-series Contaxes tend to be very costly, and there seem to be fewer of them around than the incompatible prewar ones (and certainly fewer than the Jupiters).

 

The cheapest solution is to pick up a Kiev 4a body to go with your lens. You'll be able to use your other Contax lenses on it too, and it will give you a usable X flash synch which your black-dial doesn't have. In addition, the Kiev (like the prewar Contax) is not prone to the rangefinder alignment and shutter-fade issues that can occur in the IIa/IIIa.

 

rick :)=<div></div>

[winfried_buechsenschuetz1]

"Thanks for the help, a bummer that the the russian lenes only fit the pre war models."

 

The russian Kiev cameras and many of their lenses actually are pre-war designs manufactured on original Zeiss equipment brought to the soviet union. There is a prototype of a redesigned ContaxIII made in the old plant in Dresden which looks pretty similar to the later west german Contax IIIa but this one never went into production.

[andrew_hall1]

Wide angle lenses that WILL fit the a-series Contaxes tend to be very costly, and there seem to be fewer of them around than the incompatible prewar ones

 

This is no longer true - see http://www.cameraquest.com/nrfVClens.htm

[richard_oleson]

You're right Andrew, I'd forgotten about those. At the price I'm afraid it still doesn't change the equation for me though....

 

:)=