Pacific Rim Camera

Photographica Pages

An online guide to collectable cameras and related stuff

Zeiss Ikon

Contarex

Sometime in the 1950's, the most powerful of the camera manufactures in a land with a rich history of camera manufacture, turned loose it's engineers to embark on what must have been the dream project. Design a 35MM SLR, the finest in the world, without regard to weight or cost. And they did. Yes, the result was heavy (910 grams, without lens), and extremely complex (1100 parts, requiring manufacturing tolerances of up to 0.001mm). And yes, they were very expensive.