Recently, I went to visit my grandfather. We were talking and I asked him if he any old cameras around. He proceeded to pull out an old rangefinder from the late 50’s early 60’s called a Zeiss Ikon Contina-matic III. The camera was in full working order, even had a roll of film in it that he had shot not too long ago.

He then proceeded to show me some old Kodak slides taken in the 60’s, which he ran through a Kodak 500 slide projector he also pulled out, in full working order. The images were beautifully shot and tack sharp. All from this what Zeiss themselves had termed “an entry level 35mm rangefinder”.

I asked if I could take her for a test run and he was kind enough to let me borrow it. He had the manual somewhere, but I figured I could just pull it up on the web. Boy was I wrong about that; apparently either not many people have this camera, or no has the manual to scan.

Luckily the camera is fairly simple to use. I tested everything out (shutter, aperture settings, ASA settings) and didn’t even have to clean the lens (in perfect shape I might add). The exposure meter works fine, and is fairly accurate. Even the timer still works.

I haven’t had time yet to run film through it (hopefully I’ll be out and about with it next week), but am looking forward to it. The feel of this camera compared to my 300D is just night and day. The build quality is just magnificent. I’ve never shot a film camera like this so I’m really looking forward to it!

I’ve posted some images of the camera in the photography section.