Contax rangefinder lenses
The Zeiss Ikon Contax I introduced a new lens mount in 1932, today known as Contax rangefinder mount. The Contax II and Contax III used the same mount, as well as the postwar Contax IIa and Contax IIIa models.
This mount was also used by the Kiev followers of the Contax, from the first models to the Kiev 5.
Nikon copied the mount for their own rangefinder cameras just after the war but, being this a voluntary difference or a simple mistake, their lens mount is slightly different and only the wide angle lenses are interchangeable, the standard and tele lenses having a wrong focus coupling. See Nikon rangefinder lenses.
This mount is in fact the combination of two bayonets. There is a focusing helical built in the body and the standard lenses mount directly in that focusing ramp via an internal bayonet. So the standard lenses have no focusing ring of their own. The other lenses mount on an external bayonet and have their own focusing ring, only the rangefinder coupling is done via the body's focusing ramp.
Carl Zeiss Jena lenses
- Tessar 2.8cm f:8
- Biogon 3.5cm f:2.8
- Sonnar 5cm f:1.5
- Sonnar 5cm f:2
- Sonnar 8.5cm f:2
- Triotar 8.5cm f:4
- Sonnar 13.5cm f:4
