I am not sure if any other manufacturers attempted this. I know Nikon has at least four cameras with the shutter button on the pivot of the film advance lever. I don't know how the mechanism works but I am thinking it must be more complex than a separate shutter button but yet it is on Nikon F3, one of the most reliable camera from Nikon. In fact I really like Nikon F3's design because of the shutter button.
View attachment 386003
And if you ever take a Contax apart- watch out for the Spring Loaded Parts as you take the Set Screws out...
RIMG0749 by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr
Contax IIa and IIIa are the same for this part.
That is the 1950s Contax IIIa
And if you ever take a Contax apart- watch out for the Spring Loaded Parts as you take the Set Screws out...
RIMG0749 by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr
Contax IIa and IIIa are the same for this part.
Nikon stole all kinds of stuff from Zeiss. Their entire rangefinder design is prime example.
Yeah - that's a photo I got from ebay quickly. I went off my own Contax III (not IIIa). They're almost identical, anyway.
The Nikon F100 has the same shutter in the film advance lever. I find it intuitive and easy to use. If one were to need to dissect it, and choose to, what would percentage of the camera's entire life time would that take? Not much above zero. If confronted with the needed repair, I would just take it to Samy's Camera or send it off to KEH.com and use my saved time on something more time and cost efficient.
and what is that tiny gear that seems to rotate in different axis orientation?
F100?
Nikon stole all kinds of stuff from Zeiss. Their entire rangefinder design is prime example.
The shutter of a Nikon rangefinder w/horizontal travel shutter curtains is completely different from the shutter of the Contax rangefinder w/vertical travel shutter blinds. To my understanding the Nikon rf shutter is more like the older Leica rf shutters - I have looked inside a Nikon rf and it's definitely simpler than the Contax shutter. (I haven't taken apart a Leica rf, but reliable internet sources make this comparison.) The Nikon looks somewhat like a Contax on the outside - ironically given this thread, the Nikon rf does not have its shutter button inside the wind knob. But the Kiev is much more of a literal copy of the Contax AFAIK.
I’ve never owned a Nikon RF, but as I understand it the F is basically an SLR version of the SP. In fact if I’m not mistaken, some very early Fs(like the first couple hundred made, or maybe not that many) had cloth SP curtains. In turn, some late SPs had metal F curtains.
The F and I think also the SP follow the shutter button placement of Barnack Leicas with the button toward the rear of the top plate. The rotating shutter collar to set rewind is also Barnack.
Of course Leica by that time has moved to the shutter in the rewind pivot with the M3 and M2.
I think in this side discussion, it’s worth mentioning that there’s no one single innovative feature in the F. With that said, it was an innovative camera by combining a bunch of features from elsewhere(instant return mirror, automatic aperture, interchangeable finders, provisions for coupled metering, and a few others I’m forgetting) into a single camera and, probably more importantly, offering a full system from the beginning. By 1960, they’d covered 21mm to 300mm in rectilinear(plus an 8mm fisheye somewhere along the way), macro, and some other special purpose uses. That’s what made it such a game changing camera.
I’ll also mention that I will take a Canon Barnack clone over a real Leica Barnack any day. If the Leica IIIc was my only interaction with the brand, I’d not own another, and I’m hard pressed to think of a way a Canon IVs isn’t better. The M3 and subsequent M cameras are a different story, although the Canon 7 is a worthy match in a lot of ways. The 7 is the only RF I’ve been personally owned that combines a huge number of frame lines with the ability to only display one at a time…
The shutter of a Nikon rangefinder w/horizontal travel shutter curtains is completely different from the shutter of the Contax rangefinder w/vertical travel shutter blinds. To my understanding the Nikon rf shutter is more like the older Leica rf shutters - I have looked inside a Nikon rf and it's definitely simpler than the Contax shutter. (I haven't taken apart a Leica rf, but reliable internet sources make this comparison.) The Nikon looks somewhat like a Contax on the outside - ironically given this thread, the Nikon rf does not have its shutter button inside the wind knob. But the Kiev is much more of a literal copy of the Contax AFAIK.
It was once a common argument that the Japanese camera and optics manufacturers had stolen / copied a lot of their material from European makers (as I understand it, many German patents were voided after the war, so it was copying not stealing). But in retrospect, many of the supposed copies quickly surpassed their models, so one wonders if "copy" is even the right word.
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