Detail of winder lever on a 1959 Zeiss Ikon Contaflex Super
The Contaflex Super, launched in 1959, was based on the Rapid and had a coupled selenium exposure meter on the front side of the prism. It is easily recognized by the aperture setting wheel on the front plate. The meter's match-needle instrument is visible in the finder as well as on the top plate from the outside. The Super has a special exposure setting conception. The speed setting ring has two grips to provide lever power for exposure setting which is needed since turning the speed ring automatically turns the aperture ring into the opposite direction. The thumb-wheel around the camera's film speed setting knob is the device to turn the aperture ring on the lens barrel independently and to change its relation to the speed ring so that other speed/aperture-combinations become possible. If this device is used for match-needle metering the speed ring with the grips allows to switch easily to other exposure-setting combinations without getting out of correct exposure values as shown by the meter. The Contaflex Rapid and Super could take the same supplementary lenses as the Contaflex III and IV. The cameras had also the same focusing concept, with two extra grips on the focusing ring which moves the whole lens forwards and backward when turned. Info from
Size: 3264px × 4928px
Photo credit: © Jonathon Short / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: 1959, 35mm, button, camera, circle, classic, collectible, contaflex, counter, detail, engineering, film, german, icon, ikon, lens, lever, milled, reflex, single, slr, style, stylish, super, vintage, winder, zeiss
