Roughly 35 years ago, Yashica (which is actually the Yashima Seiki Company founded in Nagano, Japan in 1949), introduced the Contax RTS; it turned the photographic world on it's ear. Not only was it a tour de force of industrial design with none other than F.A. Porsche handling the ergonomic and styling aspect, but the ultimate coup, which as the collaboration of Carl Zeiss for the optical end of this amazing product. It was the ultimate marriage of Japanese electronic know-how with German optical and design engineering. As a 15 year-old aspiring photographer, the feeling it gave as indescribable! I remember being in a camera store the first time I saw one "in the flesh" and not even asking to "see" it. Merely standing there and staring at it on the glass shelf was enough.
Around that same time (1974), Minolta, which had started cooperating with the other German optical giant, Leitz, introduced the XE-7. This camera would be the basis of which Leitz/Leica would create the R3 SLR camera which it sold into the 80's.
For me, it was pretty much like having Farrah Fawcett, in your class, but you're not being in her class! They were absolutely the most beautiful cameras of their time. Sure the Nikon F2 and Canon F1 were amazing and to be lusted after, but where as those were 4-Wheel drive military vehicles, these were Ferraris and Porsches.
So, 35 years or so later, even the most stunning girls turn into twice divorced middle-agers with some mileage on them. Virtually the entire Contax line ended up struggling with a covering that didn't wear very well! And what I came across a few months ago was the "little sister" of that Prom Queen. The Contax 139 Quartz. Same genes, same looks, more compact body. Actually what happened was this: of course I've always wanted to add an RTS into my collection of old film cameras, and to that end, I'd periodically look at them on eBay and other places.
What I came across was this; the Contax 139 Winder, complete with the little vinyl case for just a few dollars. Obviously, you can imagine what happened: I bought it, then proceeded to find a Contax 139. For around $15, I picked up a condition "untested", but of course, ugly (skin blight) Contax 139. After new batteries, it turned out that the camera worked fine. It felt great, but a quick survey of Contax/Zeiss lenses showed that they were still ridiculously expensive (at least for me)! So, for the last several months, the 139 has adorned my office bookcase lens-less, while my digital life went on with computers and digital cameras.
Then last weekend happened. If you've been following this blog, you're already aware that I found a Minolta MC Rokkor-X 50mm/f1.4 lens for around $10 bucks at the computer flea side-walk sale. You may ask yourself; what does that have to do with the Contax 139!?! Well, it started me down into the analog photography rabbit-trail.... that's what! First came, the search for a suitable Minolta body for that lens, and of course, this awakened the distant memory of my high school crush on the XE-7. While in pursuit of that, I realized that maybe I should chase down an Adaptall 2 mount for my Tamron lenses. Then, while doing that, it occurred to me that maybe I should go ahead and pick up an Adaptall mount for the Contax as well. A trip to the KEH Cameras website netted me both of those at a very reasonable $11-12 apiece. On Thursday, they arrived on my doorstep while I was away for a school function. But that night, for the very first time, I was able to handle my Contax the right way, complete with a lens attached! Wow!!! It was an epiphany. The sound of it even got my 8 year-old daughters attention, who wanted to know what "that was"! I think I'm going to take her out with me to shoot some photos with it, this weekend.
This afternoon, the XE-7 is going to be delivered, and for the first time, after a 35 year wait; I'm going to take that girl out for a dance.
