The definitive equipment listing for Prakticas on the internet
	Main  |  Camera Bodies  |  Lenses  |  Accessories  |  Photo index  |  Contact  Cameras -> Contax/Pentacon -> Contax S The 1949 Contax S is historically important as it defined the basic idiom of 35mm reflex camera which is still seen today. Only a few years after the introduction of the Contax rangefinder camera, work started at the Dresden headquarters of Zeiss Ikon on converting it into a reflex camera, but its vertical shutter employing rollers above and below the film gate made it an impractical proposition, and the war slowed down progress considerably. After the war, Zeiss Ikon Dresden started with a clean sheet of paper, thus resulted in the Contax S; the "S" in its appellation has never been marked on the camera, but stands for "Spiegel" (mirror) for distinguishing it from the rangefinder Contax. The M42 x 1mm screw mount made its first appearance in this camera, which was to be known as the Praktica mount. Built around a new horizontal cloth focal plane shutter giving two ranges of speeds from 1/1000s to 1s, the Contax S has a fixed pentaprism to offer an unreversed viewfinder image. Shutter speed is set by pushing the setting knob down, turning counter-clockwise until the desired speed is set against one of two index pointers, selected from a sliding switch at the back, and the front-mounted inclined shutter release button started a trend which was to be inherited by the Praktica line some years later. It is generally said that the Contax S was produced until 1952 when it was succeeded by the Contax D, but according to Pentacon the camera was known to be Contax C from 1950 onwards. There is a possibility that the model change refers to modifications including the change from a disc-shape shutter speed setting dial to one of a truncated shape as used in successive models. Back | Index