Contarex I

The Contarex , also known as the Bullseye and the Cyclops, is a 35mm SLR camera launched by Zeiss Ikon in 1959 as their contribution to the professional photographer, meant to carter for any task what so ever. It is extremely heavy and beautifully made. It weighs almost net 1.2kg and is so complicated that it requires a skilled person even for the simplest repair. Event removal of the top cover is a major task involving removal several complex assemblies. A simple matter of winding the film back into its cassette involves two gear trains and three axels, in addition to a complex rewind knob with wind lever in order to avoid the meter movement visible in the finder, and it is even likely to break down, due to a missing support close to the winding gear.

The Zeiss Ikon AG, closely associated with the famous Carl Zeiss lenses, was once the world's largest camera maker. ZI, always wanting to make cameras for every kind of customer, had little concern whether each investment actually made any net returns, and the Contarex no exception. Despite the fact that the Contarex cameras never sold in any appreciable quantity, a huge amount of lenses and accessories were made available, including Contarex Special and the fixed lens Contarex Hologon cameras.

A little more than ten years after the introduction of the king of all 35mm SLR cameras, both the camera and the manufacturer was history. The reason was the cameras from the land of the rising sun, which in a little more than a decade had developed reasonable priced camera systems for both amateurs and professionals alike.

The Contarex "Bullseye" was launched in 1959, the same year as also Nikon and Canon, among others, introduced their 35mm SLR cameras, but only the Contarex has a built-in external exposure meter, and the meter is coupled to the aperture wheel by means of an aperture simulator, as well as to the shutter and film speed settings. The lens aperture wheel is situated at the front of the camera, a familiar place for a focusing wheel on the rangefinder Contax and its derivates. There is no aperture ring on the Contax lens itself. It is set on the camera. The aperture simulator is an iris replicating the lens iris opening in front of the selenium meter cell. The cell is in the Bull's eye, at the front of the finder housing. The meter movement is visible in an aperture to the right in the viewfinder and on left top of the camera in a window. It is only when close to correct exposure.

The camera body is clutter free and quite easy to use, once the small scale for film speed is found at the circumference of the shutter speed dial. It is at the bottom of the wind-lever complex. To set the film speed, the shutter speed dial has to be lifted and the thin serrated ring under it rotated until the correct number appears opposite a black triangle at the edge next to "2" on the shutter speed dial. The chrome shutter speed dial has thin black numbers running from 1 through 1000 and a green B. The dial is difficult to read if no bright surface is reflected from it, to contrast the black numbers. The speed is set against protruding black triangle on the edge of the wind lever. The dial on the rewind knob is a film reminder with tree alternative film types indexes against again tiny numbers on the edge of the rewind knob. The large serrated outer knob is a fixed knob for easier camera grip. It does not rotate. The lens aperture is read off a scale on top of the meter in front of the accessory shoe.

The Contarex has a removable back replaceable with an accessory film magazine back with dark slide, enabling mid-film change. The camera back is release by turning two keys at each side at the bottom and pulled off downwards. Each magazine has its own frame counter. Using the magazine requires the proper procedure and it is best explained reading the user manual.