Glass Bodies a variant-level encyclopedia of vintage lenses and cameras by iwillpat

Contarex Bullseye

Zeiss Ikon Β· Contarex mount Β· 24Γ—36mm on 35mm film; fully removable back, replaceable by an interchangeable film magazine Β· 1959

Known as β€œBullseye”, β€œCyclops”, β€œBullaugen-Contarex”, β€œContarex I”

Also known as: Contarex Bullseye Β· Contarex Bull's Eye Β· Contarex Bulls Eye Β· Contarex Bulls-Eye Β· Contarex Cyclops Β· Contarex Cyclope Β· Contarex I Β· Contarex BULLZ Β· Bullaugen-Contarex Β· Bull's Eye Contarex Β· Bullseye Contarex Β· コンタレックス ブルズをむ Β· コンタレックスブルズをむ Β· コンタレックス Iεž‹

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
First type (10.2400) Contarex 1959–1964 T 85001–T 95000 β€” 10,000 cameras, 1959–60
Y 6001–Y 11000
Z 16001–Z 21000
Z 46001–Z 50404 		camera-wiki, citing the Zeiss Historica journal (Spring 2002), gives the first run as T 85001–T 95000 in 1959–60, then Y 6001–11000, Z 16001–21000 and Z 46001–50404. It calls each later run 5,000 cameras, but the last block holds 4,404 numbers. Together the four blocks hold 24,404 numbers.
Model D (10.2400D) Contarex 1964–1966 D 20501–D 21096 and D 21101–D 23604 β€” 1963–64
E 12001–E 15000 and E 92001–E 94500 β€” 1964–65
G 30501–G 33500 β€” 1965–66 		camera-wiki, citing the Zeiss Historica journal, lists these as 'later runs, with minor changes to the camera's features' and does not itself call them Model D: 11,600 numbers in all. Pacific Rim Camera dates the changes to 'after 1964'. Leitz dates D20741 to 1965, D23330 to 1964 and E14999 to about 1964.
Black paint (factory special order) Contarex 1962–1964 β€” No count published. Pacific Rim Camera says 'a small handful' were finished in black, 'reportedly over the chrome finish'; Leitz says 'only very few examples' were made. Eckman, citing Zeiss Historica (Fall 2002), says black could be ordered from the factory at a 185 DM premium, could be applied to cameras already sold, and that a very few were painted before chrome plating.
  1. The variant split is the collectors' first type and Model D. camera-wiki lists the D, E and G serial blocks as 'later runs, with minor changes' without naming them Model D, so reading a block as a version is an inference; the data-strip slot and the baffle tab are what to look at.
  2. The display 'Explosion Model', a dismantled Bullseye and Planar mounted in a frame (Leitz Auction 21, €1,920 including buyer's premium), and Bullseye-based microscope set-ups are not cameras for use and are kept out of the price figures. The viewless Contarex microscope camera has its own page.
  3. The 32,000 is given by camera-wiki, citing Zeiss Historica, as cameras sold in 1960–67; Pacific Rim Camera, Harrisson and Eckman (who takes it from Jason Schneider in Modern Photography, 1978) give the same figure as the number built.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • The round selenium-cell window above the lens: no other Contarex has it. The Special has no meter window and takes interchangeable finders; the Professional, Super and Super Electronic carry CONTAREX in block letters on a black panel on the front of the prism housing (English Wikipedia)
  • 'Contarex' in script on the front plate, as on the Special: the second-generation bodies replaced it (English Wikipedia)
  • Aperture wheel on the front right of the body, and no aperture ring on the 35–135mm lenses (Harrisson); the aperture is read in the window on top of the meter cell
  • Film-speed scale under the shutter-speed dial, which is lifted to set it; the dial round the rewind knob is a film-type reminder
  • Back slides off after the two keys at the base are turned; magazine backs carry their own frame counter

First type (10.2400):

  • Round selenium-cell window centred above the lens on the front of the prism housing, with the aperture read in a window on top of it; 'Contarex' in script on the front plate beside the mount (Commons photographs; English Wikipedia on the first-generation script logo)
  • No data-strip slot beside the eyepiece on the back (camera-wiki and Harrisson, describing what the Model D added)
  • Meter baffle held without the small release tab of the Model D; Leitz catalogues black body Z47278 as 'an early version without meter baffle release'
  • Film-speed scale ASA 10–1300 (Harrisson) and a fixed focusing screen
  • Serial in a T, Y or Z block

Model D (10.2400D):

  • A 6mm slot beside the eyepiece on the back for the plastic data strips that print written notes onto the film (camera-wiki; Harrisson; Pacific Rim Camera)
  • The meter baffle is secured by a small release tab (camera-wiki; Harrisson)
  • Interchangeable focusing screens
  • Film-speed scale extended: ASA 5–1600 per camera-wiki and Harrisson; Mike Eckman reads DIN 10–33 (ASA 8–1600) on his own Model D
  • Serial in a D, E or G block

Black paint (factory special order):

  • Black paint over the whole body, top plate and back, where every standard body is satin chrome
  • Known bodies: Z47236 (1962, black-painted brass back engraved 'Made in Germany'), Z47278 (1962, without the meter-baffle release tab) and Z47408 (illustrated by Eckman), all inside the Z 46001–50404 block; Breker sold a black Contarex I dated 1964

Serial-range notes

T 85001–T 95000 through G 30501–G 33500
Nine blocks in camera-wiki's list from the Zeiss Historica journal (Spring 2002), which totals them at 36,004 cameras from September 1959 to October 1966. Zeiss Ikon's postwar letter prefixes run out of alphabetical order, so the letter is a batch, not a year; a body outside these blocks is worth questioning.
T 85001–T 95000
The first run of 10,000, 1959–60. Leitz dates T88382 to 1959, T92865 and T93040 to 1960 and T85939 to about 1960; the Commons photograph shows a T87xxx body with Planar 2370xxx.
Y 6001–Y 11000
Leitz dates Y8835 to 1961. Its Y8928 lot came with a copy of a sales invoice from August 1964, so a sales date is no guide to the year of manufacture.
Z 16001–Z 21000; Z 46001–Z 50404
Leitz dates Z20159 to 1962. All three black-paint bodies named here (Z47236, Z47278, Z47408) are in the second Z block. The Contarex collection Christie's sold as one lot in 1997 (sale 7752, lot 288) included Z20652, Z46586 and Z49000, and Z49117 mounted on a Carl Zeiss Tessovar microscope stand.
D 20501–D 23604
Leitz dates D23330 to 1964 and D20741, catalogued as a 'late version', to 1965; camera-wiki dates the D runs to 1963–64.
E 12001–E 15000; E 92001–E 94500; G 30501–G 33500
Leitz dates E14999 to about 1964. The Christie's 1997 Contarex collection (lot 288) includes G32851, from the final run of 1965–66.

Specifications

Format
24Γ—36mm on 35mm film; fully removable back, replaceable by an interchangeable film magazine
Finder
fixed eye-level pentaprism; split-image centre in a microprism collar, Fresnel field
Shutter
focal plane, mechanically timed Β· 1s–1/1000 and B, on a dial at the hub of the wind lever Β· flash sync Selected automatically with the speed and colour-coded on the dial: black 1–1/30 for M bulbs, yellow 1/60 for electronic flash, red 1/125–1/1000 for FP bulbs (camera-wiki) Β· self-timer
Film advance
single-stroke lever, 180Β°, which also cocks the shutter and reopens the diaphragm; the load rises noticeably over the last third of the stroke, where the mirror and iris join the cocking (camera-wiki). The frame counter around the release must be set by hand when film is loaded
Back
fully removable: two keys at the base are turned and the back slides off downwards. It can be replaced by the interchangeable magazine 20.0304, which has a darkslide and its own frame counter, so a film can be changed mid-roll (camera-wiki; English Wikipedia, citing the 1968 Zeiss Ikon catalogue). Magazines were not available at launch (Harrisson)
Meter
coupled selenium cell behind the round window above the lens, coupled to shutter speed, film speed and, through an iris in front of the cell that copies the lens aperture, to the aperture wheel; match-needle in the finder and in a top-plate window. A removable baffle adds four stops for low light and incident readings (Zeiss Ikon Trade News, 1960; camera-wiki). Film speed limits the usable shutter speeds: at 100 ASA with the baffle on, 1/15 to 1/1000 (camera-wiki)
Designed by
Sauer Edgar β€” designed the camera; work began in 1954, when the internal name was still Contax IV (camera-wiki, citing the Zeiss Historica journal; Eckman, who also credits him with the Contaflex SLR and names US Patent 3,034,411, filed 21 August 1959)
Weight
926 g
Dimensions
about 64 Γ— 102 Γ— 152 (2Β½ Γ— 4 Γ— 6 in, body, 1961 US catalogue) mm
Country
West Germany
Original price
US$450 list with the Planar 50mm f/2 in April 1960, against a dealer net of $274.65 plus $27.47 excise (Zeiss Ikon Trade News no. 25). In the confidential dealer price list of Carl Zeiss, Inc., New York, effective 1 May 1961, whose figures are list prices (discounts and net prices were in a separate schedule), $499 with the Planar and $346 for the body alone, Eveready case $27.50. In Germany, 1450 DM with the Planar 50mm f/2 around 1962–63 (a Photo-Porst catalogue, via camera-wiki; Eckman gives the same German list price); German Wikipedia quotes Contarex models at 1224 DM with the Tessar 50mm f/2.8 and 1660 DM with the Planar 55mm f/1.4 from an advertisement in Die Yacht (1960), without naming the body. AU$490 in Australia in 1967 (Harrisson) (today $4,770)
Accessories
Interchangeable film magazine 20.0304, with darkslide and its own counter, in chrome and black (Leitz lots); German Wikipedia says the magazines also fit the Hologon Ultrawide Β· Eveready case 20.7520 ($27.50 in 1961) Β· Accessory-shoe finder for the 21mm Biogon, which is mounted with the mirror locked up (finder no. 435 in Leitz lots) Β· Bellows 20.1617, microscope adapter 20.1616, right-angle finder 20.1634, monocular adapter 20.1639 (Leitz accessory lots) Β· Interchangeable focusing screens for the Model D; Leitz accessory lots list screens numbered 20.1310–20.1320 Β· Plastic data strips for the Model D's slot beside the eyepiece

camera-wiki: very bright even stopped down, with the meter needle in a window at the right of the field, visible only when the settings are close to correct exposure. The first type has a fixed screen and the Model D interchangeable screens. The 1960 Trade News bulletin calls the image 'life-size, upright, unreversed and parallax-corrected'.

Figures we worked out rather than found: dimensions_mm converts the 1961 catalogue's 2Β½ Γ— 4 Γ— 6 in to millimetres; the 907g in disputed converts its 32 oz Β· The block sizes (24,404 numbers in the T, Y and Z blocks, 11,600 in D, E and G) are counted from camera-wiki's list of ranges

Where sources disagree

Production
  • 32,000 β€” camera-wiki's sales figure for 1960–67, citing Zeiss Historica; Pacific Rim Camera; Harrisson; Eckman, from Jason Schneider (1978)
  • 36,004 β€” the sum of camera-wiki's own serial blocks, September 1959 to October 1966, also citing Zeiss Historica

The two may measure different things, cameras sold against numbers allotted. camera-wiki also calls Z 46001–50404 '5000 units' when the block holds 4,404.

Last
  • 1966 β€” German Wikipedia, Pacific Rim Camera, and camera-wiki's serial runs, which end in October 1966
  • 1967 β€” Eckman; camera-wiki's sales figure runs 1960–67; Harrisson says it was still on sale in Australia in 1967

Better supported: 1966 for manufacture

First
  • 1964 β€” camera-wiki, Harrisson; Pacific Rim Camera dates the changes to after 1964
  • 1963 β€” Eckman

camera-wiki's D runs are dated 1963–64, which fits either.

Model-d film-speed range
  • ASA 5–1600 β€” camera-wiki, Harrisson
  • DIN 10–33, which Eckman gives as ASA 8–1600, on his own Model D
First-type focusing screen
  • Fixed β€” camera-wiki lists interchangeable screens among the Model D's added features, and Pacific Rim Camera dates the screens to after 1964
  • Interchangeable β€” English Wikipedia, which says the Contarex I has an interchangeable focusing screen, by default a split image inside a microprism collar, without distinguishing the two types

Better supported: Fixed on the first type

Neither camera-wiki nor Pacific Rim says in so many words that the first type's screen is fixed; both put interchangeable screens with the later camera.

Catalogue number
  • 10.2400 (first type) and 10.2400D (Model D) β€” camera-wiki, Harrisson; Christie's lists a March 1960 repair manual for 'Kat nr. 10.2400'
  • 10.2401 for both versions β€” Pacific Rim Camera, English Wikipedia, Flashback Camera

Better supported: 10.2400 for the body

The May 1961 US list settles it: 10.2400 is the body alone and 10.2401 the body with the Planar 50mm f/2.

Weight (grams)
  • 926g body, 1160g with the Planar 50mm f/2 β€” Eckman
  • 32 oz, about 907g, body β€” 1961 US catalogue; 909g for body T87xxx in its Commons description
  • 1241g with the 35mm Distagon β€” Harrisson; 'almost 1.2kg net' β€” camera-wiki
Parts count
  • over 1,100 parts β€” the October 1959 Zeiss brochure as quoted by Harrisson; 'nearly 1100' in English Wikipedia
  • more than 1,200 parts and almost 4,000 operations β€” camera-wiki, citing Zeiss Historica (Spring 1986)
Announced
  • US shipping begins April 1960 β€” Zeiss Ikon Trade News no. 25, dated 1 April 1960
  • Generally available in the US from March 1960 β€” English Wikipedia, citing that same bulletin
  • First shipments in early 1960 β€” Eckman

Better supported: April 1960

What reviewers say

History

The first Contarex, sold simply as the Contarex and known to collectors as the Bullseye, the Cyclops or the Contarex I, is the one with the round selenium-cell window in the middle of the front of the prism housing. Zeiss Ikon in Stuttgart began work on it in 1954 under Edgar Sauer, when it was still called the Contax IV internally, showed a working model at Photokina in 1958, and had it in dealer catalogues by September 1959; the American distributor’s bulletin of 1 April 1960 announced that the factory was beginning to ship. It was the Stuttgart company’s first focal-plane SLR and the start of a system meant to do any job a professional or a laboratory could ask of it: a shutter running to 1/1000, a meter coupled to shutter speed, film speed and aperture all at once, a back that slides off to take interchangeable magazines, and six Carl Zeiss lenses at launch from the 21mm Biogon to the 250mm Sonnar (German Wikipedia counts ten).

The aperture is the oddity everything else follows from. It is set by a wheel on the front of the body and read in a window on top of the meter cell, and the lenses from 35 to 135mm have no aperture ring of their own. The 1960 bulletin also claims automatic compensation for the loss of light at close range on the 35mm and 50mm lenses, which Harrisson attributes to a cam that opens the aperture further. The meter reads through an iris in front of the cell that copies the lens aperture; the needle shows in the finder and in a top-plate window, and a removable baffle adds four stops for dim light and incident readings. Because film speed and shutter speed are coupled, some speeds cannot be set at some film speeds: at 100 ASA with the baffle on, 1/15 is the slowest. The mirror returns at once but the diaphragm stays closed until the next wind. Everything about it is heavy and dense: 926g for the body by Eckman’s figure, 32 ounces by the 1961 catalogue’s, about 1.2kg with a lens, and between 1,100 and 1,200 parts depending on whose count is used. In the United States it listed at $450 with the Planar 50mm f/2 in April 1960 and $499 a year later, $346 for the body alone. In Germany around 1962–63 it was 1450 DM with the Planar, when a Leica M3 with a Summicron was 1080 DM.

There are two versions and a finish. The first type, numbered 10.2400 as a body and 10.2401 with the Planar, has a fixed focusing screen, a film-speed scale of ASA 10–1300 and a meter baffle without a release tab, and its serials fall in the T, Y and Z blocks. The Model D, 10.2400D, dated 1964 by camera-wiki and Harrisson and 1963 by Eckman, added a 6mm slot beside the eyepiece for plastic data strips that print notes onto the film, a release tab for the baffle, interchangeable screens and a wider film-speed scale; the later D, E and G serial blocks fit it, though camera-wiki lists them only as later runs with minor changes. camera-wiki and Harrisson say the 50mm f/2.8 Tessar joined the range at the same time, but the US price list of May 1961 already includes it. Black paint was a factory special order, at a 185 DM premium according to Zeiss Historica as cited by Eckman, and only a handful are known, Z47236, Z47278 and Z47408 among them. Eckman says most factory black cameras were chrome bodies finished in a special black lacquer, a few were painted before plating, and owners’ later repaints are of poorer quality. The Special of 1960 is the same camera without the meter and with interchangeable finders. The second-generation Professional of 1966 and Super of 1967 replaced the Special and the Bullseye respectively, with block lettering on the prism housing in place of the script logo. Ed White’s Gemini IV spacewalk camera of June 1965 was a modified Contarex; English Wikipedia identifies it as a Special, and a Leitz lot description says the first camera prepared for the mission was an adapted Spezial.

Production was about 32,000 by the figure most sources repeat, which camera-wiki gives as sales for 1960–67; the serial blocks camera-wiki takes from the Zeiss Historica journal add up to 36,004 between September 1959 and October 1966. Either way it is the most common Contarex by far. Yahoo! Auctions Japan saw about twenty sold between May and November 2026; with the Planar 50mm f/2 prices ran from Β₯32,230 for a camera sold as junk to Β₯94,550 for one with a working meter, and bodies alone went at Β₯14,520–34,999. At Leitz Photographica Auction, where figures include the buyer’s premium, a body with a lens or two has made €408–720, and T92865 of 1960 with the Planar, the 21mm Biogon and its finder €1,020; one 1964 outfit of five chrome lenses made €13,200 against a €3,000–3,500 estimate and is not a guide. The black-paint body Z47278 made €4,560 at Leitz, and a black Contarex I made $11,897 including tax and commission at Breker in 2003.

What to check is mostly what can go wrong inside. Henry Scherer, who overhauled them for $1,250, found a serious fault in nearly every Contarex he received and warned that the outside says nothing about the inside; English Wikipedia and Eckman both say 43 parts have to come off before the top plate can be removed. The rewind runs through two gear trains and three axles to clear the meter movement, and camera-wiki says gear damage is likely for lack of axle support; the wind stiffens over the last third of its stroke, and the frame counter must be reset by hand. Meters drift: a Japanese dealer’s example, serviced in 2019, read two to three stops over, and Leitz describes the meters of T92865 and Y8835 as not accurate. Scherer traced the usual cause to the wires from the selenium cell rather than the cell itself, so a meter that has not been tampered with can usually be restored. The 21mm Biogon goes on only with the mirror locked up, by cocking the shutter and pressing a tab below the mirror; it belongs with this body and the Special, since the instructions for the Super and the Super Electronic say it cannot be used on them. Look for the data-strip slot to tell a Model D, check that the back and any magazines come off and lock cleanly, and judge a black body by the quality of its paint and its provenance, since owners’ repaints exist alongside the factory’s.

Expand Collapse

This history is AI-written, from the sources listed at the foot of the page. Where the record is silent it says so rather than filling the gap β€” but no human wrote these sentences.

Photographs

Contarex Bullseye
Contarex Bullseye, first type (serial T87xxx), with the chrome Planar 50mm f/2 β€” s58y, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
Contarex Bullseye
Contarex Bullseye with a chrome wide-angle lens, showing the meter window and the script logo β€” Xavier LeΓ³n, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

More sample photos elsewhere

These photographers keep all rights to their work β€” enjoy it at the source.

Live listings

The listings collector hasn't run for this family yet β€” check back soon, or search the marketplaces directly meanwhile.

Related: Contarex Special Β· Contarex Professional Β· Contarex Super Β· Contarex Super Electronic (SE) Β· Zeiss Ikon Hologon Ultrawide (Contarex Hologon) Β· Zeiss Ikon Contarex Microscope Camera

Lenses for this body: F-Distagon 16mm f/2.8 (Contarex) Β· Distagon 18mm f/4 (Contarex) Β· Biogon 21mm f/4.5 (Contarex) Β· Distagon 25mm f/2.8 (Contarex) Β· Distagon 35mm f/2 (Contarex) Β· Distagon 35mm f/4 (Contarex) Β· PA-Curtagon 35mm f/4 (Contarex) Β· Planar 50mm f/2 (Contarex) Β· Tessar 50mm f/2.8 (Contarex) Β· S-Planar 50mm f/4 (Contarex) Β· Planar 55mm f/1.4 (Contarex) Β· Sonnar 85mm f/2 (Contarex) Β· Planar T* 85mm f/1.4 (Contarex) Β· Tessar 115mm f/3.5 (Contarex bellows lens) Β· Sonnar 135mm f/4 (Contarex) Β· Olympia-Sonnar 135mm f/2.8 (Contarex) Β· Olympia-Sonnar 180mm f/2.8 (Contarex) Β· Sonnar 250mm f/4 (Contarex) Β· Tele-Tessar 400mm f/5.6 (Contarex) Β· Mirotar 500mm f/4.5 (Contarex) Β· Mirotar 1000mm f/5.6 (Contarex) Β· Vario-Sonnar 40–120mm f/2.8 (Contarex) Β· Vario-Sonnar 85–250mm f/4 (Contarex)

Sources (37)

Every page here is assembled from public sources, and the gaps are real ones. If you own this camera, know a serial number I'm missing, or can see where I have it wrong, tell me β€” corrections, serials and sample photos are all worth having.