Zeiss Contaflex - World's best 35mm Twin Lens Reflex Camera
Photo thanks to Richard Spitzer
Home page was at http://www.geocities.com/RodeoDrive/3120*
- [email protected]
[Ed. note: * link to home page broken as of 2/2003]

Photo notes: Zeiss Twin Lens Contaflex, with 5cm(50mm)/1.5 Sonnar lens. Perhaps the best of the handful of 35mm Twin Lens Reflexes ever made. Features built-in meter and albada finder...

Date: Mon, 16 Mar 1998 
From: Peter Jonkman [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Twin Lens Contaflex camera

Hi,

Just saw your page and wanted to give you some more information about
35mm TLR cameras. The Contaflex was not the only 35mm TLR camera,
there is also the "Luckyflex" camera from Italy.

The Luckyflex measures 125mm x 65mm x 75mm and weighs 750 grammes.
The shutter has speeds from P (actually: B) and 1/20 to 1/300s. The
diaphragm is adjustable from f/3.2 to f/18. The minimum focusing
distance is "metri 1.5". Both the viewing and taking lenses are
"Solar Anastigmat 50mm f/3.2" lenses.

The camera was made by the Italian "GGS" company from 1948 on.
Only 2000 examples of this camera have been built.                

Hope this helps,

Peter Jonkman

Want to know more about the Spotmatic and its extensive
system? Then visit the Unofficial Asahi Pentax Spotmatic Home Page
on http://home.worldonline.nl/~pjonkman   

Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2000
From: Jaime Gonzalez Tejeria [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Contaflex Twin Lens

Robert:

not only Zeiss (Contaflex) and Italian GGS (Luckyflex) make a 35mm Twin Lens Reflex Camera. AGFA make a 35mm Twin Lens Reflex Camera in 1950...

best regards
Jaime

Date: Mon, 6 Mar 2000
From: Frank Agerkop [email protected]
To: "'[email protected]'" [email protected]

Hallo Robert,

To continue the list of Twin Reflexcamera's for 35 mm, I add the following camera's:

First, Agfa made two camera"s, The Flexilette and the Optima Reflex.

Not mentionned yet are the Bolsey (C3?) and the Samoca , two beautyfull little gems.

With best wishes....
Frank Agerkop

From Rollei Mailing List:
Date: Wed, 3 Nov 1999
From: "Lieberman, Dave (Dave)" [email protected]
Subject: [Rollei] question on other 35mm TLRs

Hello all. I saw a question on the digest regarding other 35mm TLRs like the Contaflex. Well, outside of a Rollei with a Rolleikin in it, the only other ones of reputable quality that I know of are from Agfa and Bolsey. The Flexillete and Optima Reflex are from Agfa and are highly thought of... and the Bolsey C is also a pretty cool camera. Both look more like regular SLRs, and look nothing like a Rollei TLR or the Contaflex TLR..

Hope that saves you from reading McKeowns from front to back searching for other such cameras!

- DL

[Ed. note: thanks to Lynne C. for providing this information! ;-)]
Date: Fri, 20 Jul 2001
From: lynnec [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Contaflex 35mm TLR

Hi

I saw the photo of the Zeiss Contaflex TLR and noted you were a mite sparse on details about this beast.

According to the booklet 'Contax Photography', the TLR Contaflex is a 35mm interchangeable lens Twin Lens Reflex.

It has an upper 80mm f 2.8 viewing lens ( non-interchangeable ) coupled to the bottom bayonet mount. Focussing is by lever.

The focusing screen is 2x the size of a 35mm neg and gives parallax correction for the 50mm standard lenses.

The shutter is a vertical-travel metal focal-plane shutter: the same type that went into the Contax I, II, and III, Super Nettel I and II, Nettax . The Speed range is the same as the Contax I: 1\2 second to 1\1000

Winding the film, setting the shutter and changing shutter speeds is carried out using the knob on the side of the camera (LHS as viewed in the photo).

As to the important part, the lenses, the Contaflex could take;

a,  35mm f2.8 Biogon
b,  50mm f2.8 Tessar
c,  50mm f2.0 Sonnar
d,  50mm f1.5 Sonnar
e,  85mm f4.0 Triotar
f,   85mm f2.0 Sonnar
g,  135mm f4.0 Sonnar

My father saw one of these rarities in a camera shop in London in the 1950s, priced above the Contax II and IIIs even then, and has enthused about it ever since.

Many thanks for including this truly classic camera on your website

Cheers

PLC

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