Contax IIA shutter problem at 1/1250

Ben Sakas said:

Did you ever get this figured out? I’m having the same issue with my IIIa that I just recently picked up. The camera and lens are in absolutely mint condition and every shutter speed seems to be working flawlessly, but from what I can tell, 1250 isn’t opening the shutter at all. I haven’t developed the roll I just shot with it yet, but I’m pretty sure my frames are going to be completely unexposed. Any help would be super awesome

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This is a common problem.

Long story short, most technicians can fix it but the fix will involve setting a shutter tension (spring tension) so high that it will reduce the useful life of the camera, and make it noisy. Not good at all. Plus, most likely, will throw the calibration of the 1/25-1/100 speeds way off.

To hit 1/1250 speed without doing this, that means, without setting a high shutter tension but using normal (gentle) shutter tension, needs the entire mechanism to be very clean and lubricated and then adjusted. This can be done by a technician who is familiar with the IIa/IIIa.

My best advice, as an owner of these cameras and tech, is to forget the top speed and ask your technician to set the minimum tension needed to reach accurate 1/25, 1/50, and 1/100. This will give you the gentlest working of the shutter, softest noise, and will prolong the life for decades to come.

guangong said:

where other new camera manuals advise that cameras be sent to “authorized repairman”, my manual for IIa says to send to any competent repairman. The complexity of this shutter is highly exaggerated. Both of my IIa cameras work like new after service.
On the other hand, I have never heard a kind word about the Contarex SLR regarding repairs.

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Correct. The camera is simple to service if you want to make it work again, however reaching accurate speeds and top 1/1250 speed while keeping shutter tension low requires thorough attention to detail, many things need to be right.

The shutter isn't complex at all, it just requires understanding, and proper lubrication of everything. Which isn't so easy.

I have a contax IIa, from serial no. mfg in 1953. I had the same problem. I fixed it by removing the shutter, releasing the tension, and carefully retensioned it until the 1/1250 was working properly. I used Rick Oleson's excellent notes and other sources. You really need a shutter speed tester to know when it is right. I made one with a photocell in a tube with a 1mm hole and a digital oscilliscope - it works very well. I don't know if my shutter tension is too high, I have not been able to find anything on how to measure /test it, other than you use the lowest tension that will give good shutter speeds. All mine are good from 1 sec to 1/1250, and btw the 1/1250 is spot on. Rest are within 15%. My camera was very clean, I did have a tech clean and adjust the low speed shutter speeds before I reset the curtain tension - and the low speeds remained spot on.

It's a feature.

I treat 1/1250th as ~1/1000th, but I am not sure what my actual speed is. I rarely shoot that thigh. Usually 1/30th - 1/250th, occasionally higher. I just had my shutter (Contax iia) replaced by a "new" one (I guess an old, unused one is more apt). My old shutter was getting pretty frazzled (repairman showed it to me afterwards).

abruzzi said:

Does the IIa have a vertical or horizontal shutter? I had a similar problem with my Spotmatic. The Spotmatic has a horizontal shutter, and at the fastest speed, the distance between the leading and trailing shutter was small. The leading shutter was dragging a bit, so the trailing shutter would close the gap as the shutters moved across the film plane. At the top speed, the trailing shutter would catch up with the leading shutter about 75% of the way across, so the remaining 25% wouldn’t get any exposure. That would leave the left side of the frame (the right side of the image) would be black.

On a vertical shutter you could get a similar effect, but it would be the top portion of the image.

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Old Spotmatics are known for capping at 1/1000th.

GRHazelton said:

...Interesting that he used Contax rather than Leica cameras...

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Up to the M-series, Contax was largely considered the professional choice. The M-series put Leica at Contax quality level, with additional features (multi-focal length brightlines, crank film advance, etc.), and since Leica continued producing professional rangefinder cameras after ~1960, and Zeiss Ikon did not, Leica became the standard (plus Zeiss Ikon never improved the Contax as Leica and Nikon did with their rangefinders). Nikon and Contax went to SLRs as the choice moving forward, but Nikon won, and Zeiss Ikon could not keep up.