I am a virgin regarding old film cameras. Please help

[Cameraman]

Hi guys

I am new to film cameras, coming from shooting digital. I have a big collection of old Nikon glass which I use on my Nikon digital camera. Recently I came across some old cameras, and I decided to buy it, because I fell in love with how they looked. They feel so solid, and everything is mechanical.

The following is the camera I bought. Again, I have no idea what to pay for these cameras, so I paid 10 dollars for this.



The lens on it is beautifully crafted, and very clear.
Now, onto my questions if I may.
I got some film, and would love to shoot this camera. However, this is where I have some problems. I am not sure how to! I do not understand how the metering system on it works, The aperture I can set on the lens, but shutter speed etc etc I don't know. I guess I could guess the settings and just shoot, but I at least want to try and get some results on my first roll of film.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[kansalliskala]

here is probably best place to start

http://www.butkus.org/chinon/zeiss_ikon.htm

[luisalegria]

Metering - don't trust the meter.
This is an old selenium cell job. Lots of these are no longer working or very inaccurate these days.

Check the meter vs "sunny 16"

"Sunny 16" is that on a normal sunny day, on a normal sunlit image, you should expose, if aperture = f/16, at a speed equal to the ISO of your film. Or as close to it as you can. Say you are using ISO 200 film, expose at 1/250.

Of course this is a rough rule, but useful because film has a very wide latitude compared to digital. You can get your exposure pretty badly wrong and still get a good picture.

Some old timers have developed an "eye", partly from long application of "Sunny 16", that they can guesstimate exposure by eye.

BTW, these Contaflexes had a rather confusing way of setting apertures, etc, and readings from the meter, using the EV values. That manual is your best bet.

Also worth testing is whether the shutter mechanism is working. These Contaflexes had inter-lens leaf shutters that flash synced at all speeds and "automatic" aperture operation. These features were advanced for the day, and even now digital cameras cant match the flash sync feature. The price was a complex mechanism, which has a bad habit of failing with age.

Test -
- DONT put any film in it yet.
- Wind the camera
- set aperture to something small, like f/16
- set speed to 1/500
- Open the back and look at the shutter (actually its a flap covering the film gate). It should be shut tight
- Trip the shutter
- If you saw a momentary flash of light through a VERY SMALL hole, its working. If you saw anything else, it isn't.

[Cameraman]

Thank you so much for your advice mate. I really appreciate it.
I tried your instructions, and it is exactly like you said. Wind it up and a little curtain drops at the back. Fired the shutter and for a split second i saw a little light. Tried it at different shutterspeed and aperture settings and the light definitely gets bigger or smaller according to aperture.
So excited now knowing its working correctly. This weekend i will take it and shoot a roll of film. I will post results here if i may.
Again thanks so much.

[philslizzy]

[paulhofseth]

I presume that you are aware that if you unmount the Pro-Tessar you will have a normal focal length Tessar.

A long time ago I briefly used this and compared with my then Pentax. It seemed to have better contrast, but the limited interchangeablility of the optics led to its being traded away.

p.

[Elmar Lang]

The Contaflex, in its time had a great success, although being an expensive camera.

Your one is an early type, always capable of excellent results in general photography, especially thanks to its fine Tessar lens.

The 85mm. Pro-Tessar is very good and I think it would still make good photos, although I see in your picture that it shows that lens separation, quite often happening to those Zeiss lenses (don't worry, it happens to the expensive Zeiss Sonnar 135/4 for the Contarex too...)

Back to your Contaflex, a good thing is that any good camera repair laboratory can give it a proper control or adjustment.

Best wishes,

Enzo (E.L.)