Contaflex SLR
family of 35mm SLR cameras
The Contaflex series is a family of 35mm Single-lens reflex cameras (SLR) equipped with a leaf shutter, produced by Zeiss Ikon in the 1950s and 1960s. The name was first used by Zeiss Ikon in 1935 for a 35mm Twin-lens reflex camera, the Contaflex TLR; for the earlier TLR, the -flex suffix referred to the integral reflex mirror for the viewfinder. The first SLR models, the Contaflex I and II (introduced in 1953) have fixed lenses, while the later models have interchangeable lenses; eventually the Contaflexes became a camera system with a wide variety of accessories.
History
The Mecaflex was presented at photokina 1951 and launched two years later as one of the first SLRs, fitted with a leaf shutter behind the removable lens and a waist-level viewfinder with a reflex mirror that swings out of the way during the film exposure. Compared to twin-lens reflex cameras, the SLR offered several advantages: photographer would be able to view the scene exactly through the same lens that would be used to expose the film, and only a single lens was required, reducing costs. The later Hasselblad 500C, introduced in 1957, is a similar SLR design that uses leaf shutters; for the Hasselblad, each of its interchangeable lenses has a shutter.
The first Contaflex SLRs were introduced in 1953, following the general design of the Mecaflex using a Compur leaf shutter and reflex mirror, but the Contaflex cameras were equipped with an integral eye-level finder and a fixed lens. The advantages of using the leaf shutter are low manufacturing costs, compactness, quieter operation, and flash synchronization at all shutter speeds. However, using a leaf shutter in an SLR requires additional mechanical complications to cock the shutter and return the mirror after the shutter is released and the film is wound; these were seen more as a challenge than a drawback at Zeiss Ikon, but no Contaflex model ever got a rapid return mirror.
However, only a very limited range of interchangeable lenses became available.
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This entry incorporates text from “Contaflex SLR” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.