C41
Kodak Portra 400
Kodak Portra 400 is a professional C-41 color negative film known for flexible exposure latitude, natural skin tones, and fine grain.
View profile →slr-35mm
The Zeiss Ikon Contaflex (1953) is a 35mm single-lens reflex camera built in Stuttgart, West Germany, using a Synchro-Compur leaf shutter mounted between the lens groups rather than behind the mirror — a configuration that allows flash sync at all shutter speeds (up to 1/500s) but requires a unique "interchangeable front element" lens system where only the front optical cells, not the entire lens, swap between focal lengths. The standard fit is a Carl Zeiss Tessar 45mm f/2.8 — a four-element lens of legendary sharpness and contrast. A selenium light meter cell surrounds the lens mount on early models, reading incident or reflected light without batteries.
Reference
Recommended film stocks for the 35mm format your camera takes.
C41
Kodak Portra 400 is a professional C-41 color negative film known for flexible exposure latitude, natural skin tones, and fine grain.
View profile →BW
Kodak Tri-X 400 is a classic black-and-white film known for strong tonality, visible grain, and documentary character.
View profile →C41
Kodak Gold 200 is a daylight-balanced C-41 color negative film with warm color, moderate grain, and a classic consumer-film look.
Develop 35mm film
Labs in our directory that process 35mm film.
Before you buy used
About this camera
West Germany's first SLR answered the question: what if Zeiss Ikon put a Tessar inside a Compur shutter inside an SLR body? The answer was beautiful, technically complex, and slightly impractical.
| Field | Value |
|---|
| Format | 35mm |
| Mount | Contaflex bayonet (interchangeable front cells) |
| Years | 1953–(model I discontinued ~1958; line to 1972) |
| Shutter | Synchro-Compur leaf: 1s – 1/500s + B |
| Flash sync | All speeds (leaf shutter) |
| Meter | External selenium (no battery required) |
| Modes | Manual |
| Viewfinder | Pentaprism SLR |
| Lens (standard) | Zeiss Tessar 45mm f/2.8 |
| Weight | ~630 g |
In 1953 the SLR market was still dominated by the Exakta, which used a focal-plane shutter and limited flash sync to its X-sync speed. Zeiss Ikon's solution was architecturally different: build the leaf shutter into the lens mount between the front and rear optical groups, enabling full-speed flash sync and a quieter, smoother shutter action. The trade-off was complexity — because the mirror had to retract behind the shutter blades, the lens could not be removed completely (the rear group remained fixed). Instead, only the front optical cells were interchangeable, limiting the focal length range to a small set of Zeiss-designed supplementary cells (35mm, 85mm, 115mm wide-angle and telephoto fronts for later models).
The Contaflex line competed directly with the Voigtländer Bessamatic and Kodak Retina Reflex — all leaf-shutter SLRs built in West Germany in the 1950s–60s. By the late 1960s, the market had shifted decisively to focal-plane SLR systems (Nikon F, Canon F-1, Leicaflex) and the Contaflex line was discontinued around 1972.
The Contaflex matters as a historical artifact of West German precision optics manufacturing at its peak and as a technically elegant solution to the flash-sync limitation of focal-plane shutters. A Contaflex with a clean Tessar 45/2.8 delivers images of outstanding micro-contrast and resolution — the Tessar formula optimised for 35mm use is among the finest lens designs of its era. For collectors, the Contaflex represents the intersection of Zeiss optics, German mechanical craft, and SLR design innovation.
For shooting, the Contaflex is a slow, deliberate camera: no quick lens changes, a leaf shutter's limited speed range, and a non-TTL selenium meter that must be checked against a reference. Its historical and optical merits are real; its practical shooting merits are for patient, methodical photographers.
Contaflex front-cell bayonet. The rear group stays in the body; only front cells interchange on models IV and later (Contaflex I has a fixed Tessar and does not support cell interchange). Available front cells: Pro-Tessar 35mm f/3.2, Pro-Tessar 85mm f/4, Pro-Tessar 115mm f/4. Standard lens: Zeiss Tessar 45mm f/2.8 (or f/2.8 Pantar on budget variants). Later Super B and Super variants offered a Zeiss Planar 50/2 as an upgrade. Accessories: bayonet-fit close-up lens, flash sync contacts (X and M), Zeiss accessory shoe finder.
BW
Ilford HP5 Plus is a flexible ISO 400 black-and-white film with classic grain and strong push-processing tolerance.
View profile →C41
Kodak Ektar 100 is a fine-grain C-41 color negative film with saturated color and high sharpness.
View profile →Zeiss Ikon Contaflex
Image coming soon