Contarex Bullseye Manually
My father has gotten into the habit of giving me old Zeiss cameras over the years, and I have managed to accumulate quite a few lenses, accessories, etc. Most of the cameras have been serviced.
I was given a Zeiss Contarex Bullseye for Christmas. I had read many great things about the camera that now in hindsight seems to be heavily influenced by nostalgia. I must admit, this camera has an amazing amount of potential. I don't mind the fact that there is no aperture ring on the lens or the lack of information displayed in the screen.
Or the fact that the camera prevents you from using certain shutter speeds (can't use a shutter slower than 1/125 on ISO 1300, defeating the purpose of low light photography). I can look past all of this and just deal. For a vintage camera, I have found that in all it's crazy gears and magic calculations, the meter is reasonable for C-41 film, and for B&W, is more than adequate. I enjoy a camera with good glass where I can shoot in daylight without a handheld meter. I use older emulsion films to get that gritty dreamy look. However, I have heard similar complaints about focusing. The screen is almost too clear.
The screen is bright, much brighter than my Contax (of course) and better than my Contaflex (screen is slightly larger. I am blind in one eye but I have good days and bad days in the other.
I find my Contax rangefinder to be a breeze for focusing, my Contaflex SLR even (as the screen is somewhat different). Focusing on still objects is easy enough, but anything moving (my wife or my St. Bernard Charlemagne) to be difficult to do quickly. Leaves or branches can be dizzying. I find myself wanting to stop up to f/11 and just guess the distance sometimes. I have other manual focus cameras that have not presented this level of difficulty. Anyone familiar with the Contaflex will know what I mean.
Any suggestions? I want to make sure I'm not missing out on sharpness or the legendary Planar. Danke, Bonifaz Eckstein. I's not a bug, it's a feature. In the beginning, there were no high speed lenses for the Contarex (the first 35mm wideangle and 135 mm telephoto lenses were no faster than f4,0), so they used a clear screen to get a very bright image in the finder with these lenses, the downside being that you could only use the split-image prism and the prism-ring in the middle of the screen for focusing. DSLR manufacturers still do it today - just try to manually focus a Digital Rebel using the screen.
Later Contarexes had interchangeable screens so you could also have a full focusing screen at the price of a much darker finder image. Zeiss wanted to sell Contarexes to those who had originally bougtht Contax RF cameras; those users were used to using only the middle of the finder image for focusing. Zeiss severely underestimated the importance of being able to use all of the screen. Same problem with the fist Leicaflex. I just mentioned my father because he considers the cameras heirlooms. It is very special, I am very appreciative.
However, when he gave me the first one, he shattered my world. I had a Nikon N90s and a few nice prosumer lenses. I had never known the abilities of the rangefinder or glass that has what seems like, a personality of its own.
That's my main frustration, I could have been happy just snapping away on an auto focus system with matrix metering and electronic shutters and TTL fill flash. But no, now I know the difference. I have to worry about separation and lens formulas, handheld meters, selenium cells, shutter accuracy.
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I posted a while ago about using a Contax and Contaflex on a photo outing and everyone freaked. Classic cameras tend to be viewed as unreliable and screwy. Sometimes I tend to agree. I've been working with the Contarex a little today. I have a bad tendency to assume that infinity is sharpest of the focal settings when I am focusing 10ft. I see it now that it's kind of an illusion that it's in focus. When the foreground is out of focus (focusing at infinity at an object 10 feet away), it appears different than when the background is out of focus (blurriness, focusing at 2 feet when the object is 10 feet away).
So, practice. Makes perfect.
I would have to agree about the older lenses and bodies. Modern cameras have brought the good (mostly) of the older lenses to the modern consumer. My time with my Nikon is well spent and often provides less frustration, more ease, and better shots.
I'm still learning whether or not my older cameras have a permanent home in my shooting bullpen. Some of my best pictures were taken with a Quantaray 28-90 f/3.5-5.6. Vignetting, not always super sharp, but the contrast was spot on as were the subjects. Bonifaz, First, please take good care of this camera. I have had mine for nearly 50 years.
Do you have a copy of the owners booklet? You can find them on Ebay rather frequently; if you need my help, I will copy mine and mail it to you. I mention that because you should understand the linkage between the ASA setting and the light meter.
I shoot mostly 100 speed film all the time at every aperature and speed. Check the manual if you have it, or I will send you the copy as offered. You may not have noticed, but the brightness of the viewfinder image is depedent on either the f/number setting or the status of the cocking mechanism. If the camera shutter is not cocked, and your f/ setting is smaller than f/2, the image will be much fainter. Cock the shutter, and the lens will remain at full aperture (f/2) until you take the picture.
Zeiss Contarex Bullseye
I don't have the best eyesight either, so I made a corrector lens that fits inside the rubber viewfinder eyepiece. That helped me a lot. I have copies of lens tests and statements by several people who test lenses; the one you have, some say, is the best regular lens ever made! (I don't want to get into a debate over this, but I sell lots of 24x36 landscape photos taken with the Contarex.
When I tell people they were taken with a 35mm camera, they don't believe me.) FYI, I have several backs; so I can change from Velvia to Provia, Reala, to black & white. They are somewhat complicated, but for my purposes, I am glad to have them. I also have several lenses; the 85mm F/2 is incredibly sharp. Check out the things I have mentioned, and I think you won't have any more problems with the focusing/brightness issue, or the ISO and speed settings. I am one of those old timers; my kids will have to wait a while!! Brent www.brentonbennett.com.
All settings can be read from the top of the camera image by The cell is in the Bullseye, at the front of the finder housing. It has a wide acceptance angle corresponding approximately to the standard lens. The meter movement is visible in an aperture to the right in the viewfinder, and also in a small window on top of the camera.
Contarex Bullseye Manually Open
All exposure parameters are coupled to the meter, even the lens aperture. This is accomplished using an aperture simulator. It is an replicating the lens aperture setting, placed in front of the selenium meter cell, and operated by the aperture wheel. To set correct, an appropriate shutter speed is selected, and the aperture wheel turned until the meter needle is centered at the meter index mark. If no needle is visible, a different shutter speed might help, or possibly too little light is available.
The meter baffle could be removed for incident readings in low light, giving a four-stop increase in sensitivity. The shutter speed dial has speeds engraved in thin numbers from 1 through 1000 and a green B on the rim of the serrated chrome dial. The speed is set against a protruding black triangle on the edge of the wind lever. Flash synchronisation is automatic, provided the correct speed is set.
The speeds on the shutter speed dial is colour coded for correct synchronisation: Black 1 - 1/30 sec. And B for fast M-bulbs. Yellow 1/60 sec. For electronic flash. Red 1/125 - 1/1000 sec. For slow FP bulbs. The dial is difficult to read if no bright surface is reflected in it to contrast the numbers, and the colour coding is hardly visible for anyone not having acute vision.
The film speed dial is below the shutter speed dial. To set the film speed, the shutter speed dial is lifted and the thin serrated ring under it rotated until the correct number appears opposite a black triangle at the edge next to the number '2' on the shutter speed dial. Note that setting the film-speed to anything else than the green mark at the beginning of the ASA scale will limit the range of speeds available. In consequence, shutter speeds between 1/1000 and 1/15 sec. Is available for the 100ASA setting. In low light, a second meter range is available by removing the light-baffle in front of the meter and using the Yellow index mark instead of the black triangle, in which case 1/1000 to 1 sec.
Is available for a 100ASA film. Diagram from the 1960 instruction book image by The finder is extremely bright and clear with a split image rangefinder in the centre, surrounded by a very fine micro prism collar.
The rest of the area has fine Fresnel rings. To the right is the meter index window, but the pointer is only visible when settings are very close to correct exposure. There is no way to tell where the pointer is without trying other settings. When the camera is wound, the lens is wide open, while after exposure it is closed to the preset aperture. Here is a quite remarkable thing: Even when the lens is closed down to F22, the screen is just as bright as many contemporary low cost SLR camera finders at full aperture. There is no way to believe this but to see it. It is a technological tour d'force.
The standard lens is the Carl Zeiss 1:2 f=50mm in bright aluminium finish with a chrome 49mm thread filter ring and an outer bayonet for ZI filters. The latter tends to be too loose, with the resulting possibility of filters being lost.
The lens focuses to 30cm, which is closer than most other optics of the time. The focusing helical is remarkably smooth and precise. There is no aperture ring on the Contax lens itself.
It is set on the camera aperture wheel. The basic Contarex System originally was the camera, a bellows unit and six lenses. The lenses were the 21mm f/4.5 Biogon, 35mm f/4 Distagon, 50mm f/2 Planar, 85mm f/2 Sonnar, 135mm f/4 Sonnar and 250mm f/4 Sonnar. The super-wide-angle Biogon had an impressive 90º angle of view.
Its rear section extended into the camera body so it had to be mounted with the mirror locked up. An accessory viewfinder was needed, it was mounted in the accessory shoe. The removable back is replaceable with an accessory film magazine back with dark slide, enabling mid-film change.
The camera back is released by turning the two keys at each side at the bottom and pulled off downwards. Each magazine has its own frame counter. Using the magazine requires the proper procedure and it is best explained reading the user manual. Second version The first version Bullseye was Zeiss No.10.2400; the next version, Model D (No.10.2400D) was released in 1964 with a few minor changes. The meter baffle was altered to make it more secure and was now unlocked by a small release tab. The ASA range had been extended to 5 to 1600.
Interchangeable focussing screens were an added feature. Also in the area near the viewfinder eyepiece there was now a 6mm slot that enabled a plastic data strip to be inserted and the written data recorded on the film.
As the Contarex system was also aimed at the technical and scientific user this was another unique sales feature, along with the interchangeable film magazines. Another lens was added to the range at this time, a 50mm f/2.8 Tessar; it is almost identical in size to the 35mm Distagon. Links. on Notes. Journal of the Zeiss Historica Society, Volume 8, Number 1, Spring 1986, p. 14. The Journal of the Zeiss Historica Society, Volume 14, Number 2, Autumn 1993, p.
Contarex Lenses
6. Journal of the Zeiss Historica Society, Volume 23, Number 1, Spring 2001, p. 4. Journal of the Zeiss Historica Society, Volume 29, Number 1, Spring 2007, p. 6. Westdeutsche Kleinbildcameras - wie sie gegen die Japaner verloren.
Journal of the Zeiss Historica Society, Volume 15, Number 2, Autumn 1993, p. 6. The Journal of the Zeiss Historica Society, Volume 14, Number 2, Autumn 1993, p. 4. Journal of the Zeiss Historica Society, Volume 8, Number 1, Spring 1986, p.
12. Journal of the Zeiss Historica Society, Volume 15, Number 2, Autumn 1993, p. 4. Journal of the Zeiss Historica Society, Volume 15, Number 2, Autumn 1993, p. (Photo-Porst) Der Photohelfer 62.
Auflage. Journal of the Zeiss Historica Society, Volume 24, Number 1, Spring 2002, p. 15. Journal of the Zeiss Historica Society, Volume 24, Number 1, Spring 2002, p.