The Contax cameras

This 1930's Zeiss Ikon catalog cover page shows the original black Contax I camera that was rushed to market in 1932. There were many problems with many of the components of this camera and a great many were sent back for repair. Hubert Nerwin took the basic design from Heinz Kueppenbender and refined and perfected all of the components into the Contax II in 1935.

The resulting camera had the most developed family of Carl Zeiss lenses and accessories. Nerwin even incorporated the octagonal shape inherent in Zeiss Ikon cameras and had the camera fit perfectly in the hand of the user. A few months later, the camera was further improved by the addition of a built-in exposure meter. This second model was named the Contax III.

Under Nerwin's leadership, Zeiss would develop a large family of high quality 35 mm cameras that would out number the rest of the market combined for many years.

These included the two Contax cameras mentioned above as well as two models of the Super Nettel, the Nettax, two Tenax cameras and the Contaflex twin lens cameras.

Tenax II

The Tenax II was a beautiful camera that used an especially designed Compur shutter built into the body of the camera to give the user and alternative to the metal focal plane shutter of the Contax family of cameras and still allowed the use of a series of interchangeable lenses.

Unfortunately, this camera came to market in 1938 when production was slowed to support the German war effort in Europe and so it never received the exposure that it deserved and the plans and production lines were destroyed in the bombing of Dresden. Nerwin had designed into this camera a space for a future exposure meter but the post war world did not allow the immediate development of a full family of cameras. All of the 35 mm production staff in Dresden were dispersed by the war and a restart in Stuttgart of such production was not financially feasible. In spite of this, It influenced the design of many postwar cameras

Ikonta 35

During the days of World War II, Nerwin was constantly working on designs for the war effort. For example, he adapted the Tenax II into a camera to make copies of X-rays in a miniature format.

However, he was also interested in what would happen to Zeiss Ikon and his fellow employees in the days following the war. So, in his private hours, he defined a new inexpensive 35 mm camera that would be simple to manufacture and would appeal to the market. He developed a small camera that would slip into almost any pocket. This camera became the first new camera for Zeiss Ikon after the war. It was a great hit in the US Military PX system and could use the simple Novar lens as well as the famous Zeiss Tessar. Since it took Carl Zeiss a number of years to reestablish their manufacturing efforts, early examples will have a Schneider Xenar lens.

Simple as it looks, this camera moved all of the advance and rewind controls to the bottom of the camera which simplified the design and made for a sleek and modern look. It could be cocked and fired without bringing it from eye level. It still maintained the octagonal shape of Zeiss Ikon family of cameras.

The name was altered to Contina for the later models. The earliest models did not have an accessory shoe built into the camera.

Contina (Contina II)

The Contina name was first used for a variant of the Ikonta 35 that added an uncoupled short rangefinder to the top of the camera. Notice that all of the advance and rewind controls are still on the bottom but the rangefinder control knob was placed on the top and an enlarged film reminder wheel on the other side of the top. Both were raised to the level of the rangefinder housing.

It was still quite light and pocketable and easy to use. The camera name was later rethought and the Ikonta 35 became the Contina and this camera became the Contina II.

The Contina trademark was used for later rigid lens models similar to this camera but these were not designed by Nerwin and did not have the characteristics of being easy stored in a pocket and the style of a Nerwin camera.

Contessa 35

The total fulfillment of Nerwin's design of the small 35 mm camera was met with the Contessa camera. While it was the logical extension of the Ikonta/Contina 35 design, it surpassed most contemporary designs in functionality as well as being a beautiful camera.

The camera was named for the Zeiss Ikon predecessor camera firm of Contessa Nettel and was named after the Contessa factory in Stuttgart.

The built-in rangefinder is controlled by focusing the lines using the wedge rangefinder system. The design was limited to a single lens since the company was looking forward to the redesigned Contax which was to be reintroduced in 1951. The light meter was built into the configuration of the camera much as the Tenax II would have been.

This camera was a great success selling throughout the world and enable the company to be profitable soon after World War II and enabled the company to underwrite the further development of the Contax IIa and IIIa and the Contaflex SLR cameras.

The camera had one of the most effective ever ready cases ever designed for a camera. This is a must item for the Zeiss collector.

Contax IIa & IIIa

Nerwin had worked on redesigns of the Contax cameras during all of the war years but all tools and models were lost in the bombing of Dresden. He completed the redesign before leaving for the US in 1947. The lack of funds and assets delayed the reintroduction of the trademark until 1951.

This camera was typical of a Nerwin design and a great improvement over the prewar design.

Combat Graphic Camera

(KE-4 Still Picture Camera)

Once Hubert Nerwin came to work for Graflex in the US under a military contract, one of the first assignments that he received was to produce a non-bellows, large format camera for combat use. The result was this Contax like 70 mm film format creation that had interchangeable lenses and a viewfinder that adjusted for the Telephoto lens. About 1,500 of these cameras were made but the construction was not as easy in the US with the significantly diminished precision manufacturing skills of the day.

The normal lens was a 4 Inch F2.8 Ektar. The wide angle was 2.5 inch F 4.5 Ektar and the telephoto was an 8 inch F4 Ektar.

You can compare the camera to the Contax IIa above and notice that there was no longer a need for the octagonal shape and so Hubert rounded the edges instead.