[Driline]

Out of the 20 working Rangefinder,Scale focus, SLR film cameras that I own this little guy wins on sharpness and overall rendering. I don't know how he did it but he did. I purchased this 1963 Scale Focus camera off of eBay for the tidy sum of $31 dollars and 5 cents. It was in mint condition when it arrived and I have done nothing to it. I just put in some Fuji 100 color 12 roll film and let the photo's speak for themselves.

The camera is the Zeiss Ikon Contessa LK with the 50mm F2.8 Carl Zeiss Tessar lens.

[luftfluss]

These look excellent!

[ismaelg]

A winner indeed! Those images are gorgeous!

[sergysergy]

very sharp and beautiful colors.

[Driline]

So what cameras did this little guy win out over you ask? All subjective of course

Pentax Program Plus
Canon AE-1 Program
Canon A-1
Nikon FM
Minolta X-370
Olympus OM-2N
Zeiss Ikon Contina II
Zeiss Ikon Prontor SVS Contina 1A
Ansco Super Memar Pronto SVS
Miniolta HI-Matic 9
Yashicaflex A
Kiev 4
Voigtlander Vito II
Voigtlander Vito C
Voigtlander Vito B
Zeiss Icon Contina IIa
Zeiss Contessamatic SBE
Zeiss Contaflex SuperB

Since I've found "The One" should I sell all of these sub-par models?

[ismaelg]

Send me all of those Zeiss and Voigtlanders and I'll dispose of them properly. Heck, I'll even pay for shipping

[UncleVanya]

So what cameras did this little guy win out over you ask? All subjective of course

Pentax Program Plus
Canon AE-1 Program
Canon A-1
Nikon FM
Minolta X-370
Olympus OM-2N
Zeiss Ikon Contina II
Zeiss Ikon Prontor SVS Contina 1A
Ansco Super Memar Pronto SVS
Miniolta HI-Matic 9
Yashicaflex A
Kiev 4
Voigtlander Vito II
Voigtlander Vito C
Voigtlander Vito B
Zeiss Icon Contina IIa
Zeiss Contessamatic SBE
Zeiss Contaflex SuperB

Since I've found "The One" should I sell all of these sub-par models?

Given that many are slr’s what lens was used with them?

[Driline]

Given that many are slr’s what lens was used with them?

Fast 50. Mostly 1.8's.

[UncleVanya]

Fast 50. Mostly 1.8's.

Fun! I would like to see some of the losing images too. I imagine most were still good - just not as good?

[arnold]

The camera is the Zeiss Ikon Contessa LK with the 50mm F2.8 Carl Zeiss Tessar lens

So there you have it, a simple four element lens design some 80 years old still produces pictures of modern quality standards. I Like the camera, very similar to my Retina 1BS.

[Driline]

Fun! I would like to see some of the losing images too. I imagine most were still good - just not as good?

Yep. All are on my flickr page here... frankweiser?s albums | Flickr

Just look for the photo of the camera you are interested in and view the pictures associated with it.

[martin42mm]

Yep. All are on my flickr page here... frankweiser?s albums | Flickr

Just look for the photo of the camera you are interested in and view the pictures associated with it.

Very interesting photos-you certainly got through some film there! Looking at the images, I find it very difficult to choose a definite winner. The cameras fitted with the Novars produced decent images, albeit with some fall-off in quality at the edges as would be expected with a 3-element lens. The Skopars look the equal of the Tessars, not suprising given their similar construction and reputation. One shot looks less sharp, but looking at the image beyond the central subject, so I suspect focus error rather than any lens issue! The joys of rangefinder/scale focus cameras!
I remember the late Ivor Matanle making some comparisons between a number of standard lenses from different manufacturers, and there was very little to differentiate between them-even the Domiplan produced very decent images, albeit with weaker edges. However in a later article he updated his findings since he had not processed all the negatives when he had done the first comparison, and the sharpest images were produced by a 50mm f1.8 Olympus screw-fit lens made for their first full-frame SLR, the FTL! I sometimes think there are very few really poor multi-element camera lenses out there, although they do exist. More photographs have been spoiled by camera shake than a poor lens.

Thanks for the post-quite thought-provoking.

[Driline]

Very interesting photos-you certainly got through some film there! Looking at the images, I find it very difficult to choose a definite winner. The cameras fitted with the Novars produced decent images, albeit with some fall-off in quality at the edges as would be expected with a 3-element lens. The Skopars look the equal of the Tessars, not suprising given their similar construction and reputation. One shot looks less sharp, but looking at the image beyond the central subject, so I suspect focus error rather than any lens issue! The joys of rangefinder/scale focus cameras!
I remember the late Ivor Matanle making some comparisons between a number of standard lenses from different manufacturers, and there was very little to differentiate between them-even the Domiplan produced very decent images, albeit with weaker edges. However in a later article he updated his findings since he had not processed all the negatives when he had done the first comparison, and the sharpest images were produced by a 50mm f1.8 Olympus screw-fit lens made for their first full-frame SLR, the FTL! I sometimes think there are very few really poor multi-element camera lenses out there, although they do exist. More photographs have been spoiled by camera shake than a poor lens.

Thanks for the post-quite thought-provoking.

And thank you for your insightful view as well. I am merely a traveller having some fun shooting film in some fine pieces of mechanical marvel that I find fascinating.
I've decided to sloooooow my vintage camera purchases a bit so that I can actually enjoy what I have and delve a little deeper into each cameras idiosyncrasy.

[martin42mm]

And thank you for your insightful view as well. I am merely a traveller having some fun shooting film in some fine pieces of mechanical marvel that I find fascinating.
I've decided to sloooooow my vintage camera purchases a bit so that I can actually enjoy what I have and delve a little deeper into each cameras idiosyncrasy.

You can never have too many vintage cameras, and lenses, of course.
Although when I decided to get myself at least one example of every 35mm SLR many decades ago, it did get a bit overwhelming since I believe in 'exercising' all my cameras regularly ( as a repairer I know the havoc that inactivity can cause, both with mechanical and electronic components-I shudder when I am given a near-mint camera that is decades old to repair!). In the end I parted with most ( 12 apple boxes full...) and just kept my Pentax mechanicals, which have also been slimmed down in the past few years . At least they take up less room than a stable of vintage cars! Plus if you have too many cameras, by the time you decide which to use, the bird has flown, so to speak..

[bs8402]

Lovely colors. Can you share how you developed and digitized? I’m learning to develop color film and I am not yet getting lifelike results as you did.