It's spring, so that means...

[P C Headland]

Breeding season! Or at least that's my excuse as to why a few cameras and lenses have somehow appeared...

A common theme has been the cameras are all rangefinders. This time it's a 35mm Zeiss Ikon Contessa LKE. It's in lovely cosmetic condition, and seems to be operationally top notch too.

It's got a full information viewfinder. Apart from the central rangefinder spot of course, the aperture and shutter speed are also shown via a small window at the bottom. At the top of the viewfinder window is the exposure meter indicator, which is also visible through a window on the top plate. The meter is quite "sharp" in that it really snaps into the correct exposure.

The lens is a 50mm f2.8 Tessar. The lens barrel has helpful tabs on each of the focus, aperture and speed rings, making it easy to adjust by feel. It feels pretty well made, though nothing like the solidity of a Voigtländer Vitomatic IIa (which also has a humungous viewfinder).

I had a short roll of Adox CHS 100 II to test with. I souped it in some 11 year old PC-TEA, 1+50 for 10 minutes. I was quite pleased with the film's tonality, as well as the accuracy of the meter and rangefinder.

Focussed on the shoe:

Power lines

Love the tones on this

[scott]

Holy crap - what a sturdy camera. How much does that thing weigh?

Wonderful review. Love the images. When I read this without my glasses this morning when I first got up I thought that last caption read, “Love the lines on this.” I agree with both statements.

Hmm - it’s fall here. As I’m accumulating more and more cameras, can I just say it’s a fall migration?

[titrisol]

The rigid Contessas are outstanding, the LKE and the Contessamatic E are the best of the bunch

That one seems to be in great shape, enjoy it!

[P C Headland]

Holy crap - what a sturdy camera. How much does that thing weigh?

It weighs quite a bit less than the project camera sitting next to it. The Zeiss Ikon weights 548g (in proper units ), the Voigtländer weighs in at a hefty 770g. The latter is physically smaller but with a much larger (1:1) viewfinder. I believe they built it from chrome plated Osmium.

Voigtländer Vitomatic IIa with Zeiss Ikon Contessa LKE

Some more shots from the Contessa:

The Vitomatic, while cosmetically very nice, had a few issues. I've fixed most of them. The last problem to be fixed (the winding on) I can work around until I work up the courage to delve into.