A few weeks ago i purchased a Contax 139 and was very impressed it came with a 50 1.9 Yashica lens i have never used Contax/Yashica before and was surprised at the sharpness and quality of the pics it produced .So last week i grabbed the chance of a Contax RTS with a 55 1.2 for £25 and wow what a camera i have just got the test pics for the RTS and they are excellent. These cameras are ridiculously cheap for the quality (i paid £12 for the 139 ) why dont we hear more about these bargains
Some RTS and RTS II cameras had electrical problems, so they are given a bad reputation. Never had a problem with with either of mine. The upside to their lack of popularity is you can get them cheap. The lenses on the other hand are still pricey but worth it in my opinion. There is an RTS group on flikr that has lots of great images taken with that system.
I had one of each and both died on me with no-one able to repair. So I can see why they are so cheap.
It sounds like the OP got a crazy deal on the lens though.
Sorry for being misleading the 55mm lens is a Yashica DSB 55mm 2 .I purchased the 139 from a charity shop that apart from the plether covering is in great condition and the RTS came from ebay
I've had three Contax bodies in the past: a 139, a 137 (built in winder) and an RTS. The 139m and 137 were both faultless, but the RTS had an intermittent electronic fault which made it unreliable and it was refunded under warranty. The lenses were just so beautiful though... Zeiss made in Japan, but Zeiss all the same, and no wonder they still bring high prices on the used market.