![]() Unfortunately the problem is rather common. I'm told they are the result of a chemical reaction between the leather and brass. Shown here are what many Zeiss collectors call 'Zeiss Bumps.' These can inflict just about any pre-war Zeiss metal framed camera. Zeiss corrected this problem with a much higher quality chrome on the post war Contax IIa / IIIa. Leicas hardly ever brass through the chrome, but it is not that unusual on Contax II and III's. ![]() Likewise Contax chrome seems to be thinner than Leica's. While Zeiss used quality morocco leather, it simply did not age as well over the years as Leica's harder and nearly impervious vulcanite body covering. While the Contax II and III were well finished, frankly I find their chrome and their leather body covering distinctly a notch below their contemporary Leica's very high level. No production model Leica or Contax left the factory with flash sync until after the war. Also notice the modern style push button rewind button on the baseplate. Apparently Zeiss did not consider a camera resting on its nose very dignified for a Zeiss product. Note the hinged 'foot' around the tripod socket which would steady the camera and keep it from falling forward. The double lock back is cumbersome, but a welcomed relief if you have ever spent 10 minutes trying to load a screw mount Leica. The advantage of collapsible lenses was considerable space savings and easier carrying - too bad this concept is seldom used by today's camera designers. I wonder how today's F5 and EOS1N will be viewed in 60 years as new photogs ask: 'Photographers really used long rolls of flexible animal based backing for latent image storage as late as the 1990's?' Yet by 1936 eyes, the III's built in meter was a technological tour-de-force, a very modern feature. Shooters today usually prefer the II due to the III's larger size and relatively useless by modern standards exposure meter. ![]() With its built in meter and combination rewind knob/exposure calculator, the Contax III was noticeably larger than the Contax II. Like the pre-war Leicas, the Contax II and III did NOT have TTL metering, factory flash sync, large built in viewfinders, or parallax correction. ![]()
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