Tag Archive: Jazz
Most of these images are made in the old days with a film camera: CONTAFLEX
Also there was no build in computer that would do some tricks to compensate difficult environment.
The slide images are later scanned into digital format but of course with the lost of the quality.
Back in those days you could not preview.
Taking pictures back then was a combination of experience, skills,
knowledge about shutter-time and aperture
and also some good luck 😉
Camera used: Contaflex
Some lines from http://camerapedia.wikia.com/wiki/Contaflex_(SLR)
 |
| Picture by Acolla (Image rights) |
The Contaflex family of 35mm leaf-shuttered SLRcameras was introduced in 1953 by Zeiss Ikon, utilising the newly developed Compur reflex shutter. By doing so, a completely new 35mm camera emerged, a concept probably first used in 1929 in the Mentor Compur Reflex. The Contaflex name was made famous and became highly respected due to the spectacular 35mm twin lens reflex Contaflex, introduced in 1935 and only produced a few years.
The Zeiss Ikon factory in Dresden was eradicated at the end of World War II. This was the situation when ZI started designing the Contaflex SLR camera. Zeiss had already developed the pentaprism viewing system in the late 1930s, and being convinced the compact, reliable and easily manufactured leaf shutter could outperform the focal plane shutter, they set out building a compact high quality camera for the masses.
The result was the first 35mm SLR camera equipped with a between-the-lens leaf shutter. Such an arrangement requires the shutter to stay open before the picture is taken, in order to see through the reflex finder. This in consequence, requires a second shutter behind the mirror to stay closed. When the release button is depressed, a series of events must take place very fast: Close the lens shutter, reduce the lens aperture to the preset f-stop, raise the reflex mirror and open auxiliary shutter. Then the exposure can take place by opening and closing the lens shutter. Note that the shutter moves three times. In later models it was also required to open again at the end of the sequence to restore the viewfinder image, and eventually one would also have wished for the lens aperture to open fully again. This is a very complex cycle of operations to accomplish satisfactorily and reliably.
However, the advantages are a compact camera and flash synchronisation at all shutter speeds. The limited number of lenses possible to combine with the shutter, and the mechanical complexity involved, was not considered a great disadvantage. Most amateur photographers at the time would seldom, or not at all, buy an extra lens for their cameras. The complexity would probably be considered more like a challenge than a problem. In the final form, however, no Contaflex model ever acquired a rapid return mirror, and as expected, only a limited range of extra lenses was available, from 35mm to 115mm focal length, deemed sufficient for the advanced amateur. Eventually these shortcomings would be fatal for the concept.
The Contaflex family actually was quite successful, quite reliable and performed well, and large number of improved models and new ranges of lenses were introduced all the way up until Zeiss Ikon itself was closed down.
 |
| Contaflex ad in National Geographic, January 1958(Image rights) |
 |
| Picture by jr55 (Image rights) |
The Contaflex I and II
The Contaflex I, launched in 1953, was equipped with a fixed Zeiss Tessar 45mm f:2.8 lens with front-cell focusing. The very first Contaflex I had a Synchro-Compur shutter with the old scale of shutter speeds (1-2-5-10-20-50-100-250-500), but very soon it adopted the new scale 1-2-4-8-15-30-60-125-250-500.
The Contaflex II, introduced the following year, was the same camera with an uncoupled selenium meter added to one side of the front plate.
Both had a fixed lens but to the front of which could be attached a supplementary lens, called the Teleskop 1.7x.
 |
| Contaflex ad in National Geographic, May 1957 (Image rights) |
Mpathy photo 