Zeiss Ikon Hologon Ultrawide (Contarex Hologon)

Zeiss Ikon · Fixed lens · 24×36mm on standard 135 cartridges of 20 or 36 exposures (October 1971 US price list). Mike Eckman found that the rear element sits so close to the film that the image runs under the edges of the film gate, so adjacent negatives touch. · 1969

via machine translation — corrections welcome our own finding

Also known as: Zeiss Ikon Hologon Ultrawide · Zeiss Ikon Hologon Ultra Wide · Hologon Ultrawide · Hologon Ultra Wide · Hologon Ultra-Wide · Hologon 8/15mm Ultrawide · Contarex Hologon · Contarex Hologon Ultrawide · Hologan Ultrawide · Zeiss Ikon Hologon · ホロゴンウルトラワイド

Variants & identification

Variant	Mount	Years	Serial ranges	Production
First batch (P serials)	Contarex	1969	P75501–P76500	1,000 numbers, P75501–P76500 (Pacific Rim Camera). No source says how many were actually used; see `original_research` for what the total implies.
Last batch (R serials)	Contarex	—	R97001–R98000 (block not completed)	Pacific Rim Camera says this last batch of 1,000 numbers was not completed. It says separately that cameras were assembled from remaining parts after Zeiss's camera production ended, without tying that to this block. No source gives a count for the block.

Leitz Auction 8, lot 531, describes P75567 as having its "back door in chrome", with lens 4814554, filter, grip, cable release, special case and instructions. Every other documented camera is black, and Pacific Rim Camera says the model was made in black only; a chrome back on one camera could be a fitted Contarex back rather than a factory version.
Leitz Auction 8, lot 532 (P75609, lens 4814480) shows a hammer price of €1 against an estimate of €2,800–3,200 and a starting price of €1,600, so it cannot be a real result; it is left out of the price figures.
Auction results at Leitz Auction (hammer prices including buyer's premium; the lot pages give the premium as 24% within the EU and 20% for third countries under the margin scheme, except Auction 41, where VAT at the destination country's rate is added on top of hammer and premium within the EU): €1,560 for P75983 with cap only (Auction 27); €2,400 for P75567 (Auction 8), R97236 with cap, grip and release (Auction 10) and P75724, Pierpaolo Ghisetti's own camera illustrated in his Contarex book (Auction 26); €2,640 for P75954 boxed with filter and papers (Auction 9); €2,880 for R97079 with two extra magazines (Auction 41); €3,120 for R97020 complete and mint (Auction 24); €3,124 for P75612 with filter (Auction 6); €3,840 for R97394 with a spare magazine back (Auction 25); €4,320 for R97204, near mint and complete (Auction 20). P75940 went unsold at Auction 35 against an estimate of €2,800–3,200.
The camera's prototypes are known here from Mike Eckman's account of the Photokina 1966 and 1968 shows, which draws on a February 1967 press report and a July 1968 Modern Photography preview; no prototype or Holorex-marked camera has been documented, so neither is a variant here.
The graduated filter's thread is given as a "56mm screw-over mount" in the October 1971 US price list and as an internally threaded 57mm "S57" by Leonard Foo; a dealer listing titles it "S57 4x Verlauffilter". The 4× factor matches German Wikipedia's statement that it takes the working aperture to the equivalent of f/16. Mike Eckman notes that the front fittings are proprietary, so ordinary filters and caps do not fit.
English Wikipedia says the Hologon used the same stripped second-generation chassis as the Contarex microscope camera; the 1971 price list calls it a "modified Contarex camera housing". The two descriptions do not conflict, but neither source says which parts are shared with which body.

How to tell them apart (expand)

No mirror box and no prism: a flat-topped Contarex-shaped body about 45mm deep, with the Hologon sunk almost entirely into the front (Deutsches Museum; Leonard Foo)
Large optical finder centred above the lens, with a spirit level on top of it
'Hologon ultrawide' at the top front and a Zeiss Ikon logo at the right of the top front (Leonard Foo); not marked 'Contarex' (Pacific Rim Camera)
Black only (Pacific Rim Camera; Leonard Foo)
Shutter-speed dial with T, B and 1–1/500, no 1/1000
Body serial with a P or R prefix on the tripod-socket base plate; the lens is engraved Carl Zeiss with its own seven-digit number
Usually sold with a pistol grip that screws into the tripod socket and carries a cable release to the shutter button
Listing trap: the Leica M Hologon 15mm f/8 (Leitz 11003), lenses removed from these cameras and adapted to Leica M, and the Contax G Hologon 16mm f/8 are different items that share the name

First batch (P serials):

Serial with a P prefix, engraved on the metal base plate of the tripod socket (Leonard Foo's photographs)
Bodies seen at auction run from P75567 to P75983 (Leitz Auction lots)
Fixed lenses on these bodies carry Carl Zeiss numbers in the 4814xxx range on six of seven documented examples; P75954 has 4851151 (Leitz Auction lots)

Last batch (R serials):

Serial with an R prefix on the tripod-socket base plate
Bodies seen run from R97020 to R97394: R97020, R97079, R97204, R97236, R97375, R97394 (Leitz Auction lots; Christie's)
Most documented R bodies have fixed lenses numbered 5098xxx (R97020, R97079, R97375, R97394); R97204 and R97236 have 4851xxx lenses
Leitz Auction described R97204 as a 'late Hologon camera'

First batch (P serials): The first and larger of the two serial blocks Pacific Rim Camera records. No published source names a physical difference between a P body and an R body. The only reported oddity is one P body (P75567) that Leitz Auction described with a chrome back door, which is a single camera, not a version (see table notes). Leitz dates its P lots anywhere from c.1969 to 1971, so the house's manufacture years do not fix when the block ended.
Last batch (R serials): The later of the two serial blocks; Leitz Auction described R97204 as a "late Hologon camera". Years are left out because the sources do not agree: Leitz dates R97020, R97079 and R97394 to 1971 and R97236 to c.1969, and the end of assembly is given as 1972 (English Wikipedia's Contarex article) or as small batches through 1975 (Marco Cavina, cited by English Wikipedia's Hologon article). Leonard Foo, in a passage citing Barringer and Small's Zeiss Compendium, says some cameras "may bear 'Zeiss Vertrieb'", marking batches assembled in Oberkochen after the Stuttgart plant closed; no camera with that marking is documented, so it is not a variant here. As with the P block, no physical difference from the earlier cameras is published.

Serial-range notes

P75501–P76500, R97001–R98000: The two body blocks Pacific Rim Camera gives. The serial is engraved on the metal base plate of the tripod socket (Leonard Foo), not on the top plate as on the Contarex SLRs.
Lens 4814xxx, 4851xxx, 5098xxx: The fixed lens carries its own Carl Zeiss number. Three blocks appear on documented cameras: 4814322–4814667 on P bodies (P75567, P75609, P75612, P75724, P75940, P75983), 4851151–4851636 on P75954, R97204 and R97236, and 5098633–5098961 on R97020, R97079, R97375 and R97394. The Deutsches Museum's camera has lens 5098531. Lens numbers do not follow body numbers exactly, so a lens number does not date the body.

Specifications

Format: 24×36mm on standard 135 cartridges of 20 or 36 exposures (October 1971 US price list). Mike Eckman found that the rear element sits so close to the film that the image runs under the edges of the film gate, so adjacent negatives touch. · 20 or 36 (standard 135 cartridges, October 1971 US price list) exposures
Finder: Fixed optical wide-angle finder built into the top plate on the lens axis, seven elements (English Wikipedia; Mike Eckman), with a spirit level visible both on top of the camera and inside the finder (October 1971 US price list) · no rangefinder image
Shutter: Cloth focal plane, mechanically timed, from the Contarex · T, B, 1–1/500 s; the T setting takes the place of the Contarex's 1/1000 (October 1971 US price list; Mike Eckman) · flash sync PC socket for electronic flash and bulbs (October 1971 US price list); 1/60 is the fastest flash speed, marked in yellow on the dial (Leonard Foo); no flash shoe (Mike Eckman's specification lists no flash mount) · no self-timer
Film advance: Lever, with the shutter release and a subtractive exposure counter at its centre (Leonard Foo; Mike Eckman)
Back: Removable Contarex back with a data-strip window; takes the standard 20.0304 Contarex interchangeable magazine backs, so film can be changed mid-roll (October 1971 US price list; Pacific Rim Camera; German Wikipedia)
Meter: none
Designed by: Erhard Glatzel — optical design of the Hologon lens; first inventor on German patent 1241637 (priority 28 September 1966) and US patent 3,661,447 (filed 13 April 1970, granted 9 May 1972) · Hans Schulz — co-inventor on both Hologon patents; listed as deceased on the US patent · Ris Ruth — named after Hans Schulz among the inventors on US patent 3,661,447; the patent does not say what part they had in the design · Heinz-Dieter Schulz — named after Hans Schulz among the inventors on US patent 3,661,447; the patent does not say what part they had in the design
Weight: 752 g
Dimensions: 94 × 43.5 × 163, printed by the Deutsches Museum as height × width × length/depth for object L2006-20; the 163mm is evidently the width and 43.5mm the depth, which matches Leonard Foo's body depth of about 45mm. Foo's own dimensions give about 44.4mm deep and 6in (about 150mm) wide mm
Country: West Germany (engraved 'Made in West Germany', Mike Eckman)
Original price: US list price $825 for outfit 10.0659 (camera with Hologon 15mm f/8, pistol grip, special cable release and carrying case), in Zeiss Ikon-Voigtländer's confidential dealer price schedule effective 15 February 1971, where the dealer net price is $550 for one or two pieces, and again in the US price list of 1 October 1971. The graduated neutral-density filter 20.1213 was $78 list, $52 net. Larry Gubas, as reported by Mike Eckman, gives a catalogue price of $750 in November 1969. All three are US figures; no DM list price is recorded. (today $6,390)
Accessories: Pistol grip with special cable release, screwing into the tripod socket; Mike Eckman says it mounts in eight positions (part of outfit 10.0659) · Graduated neutral-density centre filter 20.1213, $78 list in 1971 · Interchangeable magazine back 20.0304, $96 list in 1971; leather cases 23.7856 (one back, $13.50) and 23.0200 (two backs, $15.00) · Internally threaded front cap, 'IS57' as Zeiss termed it according to Leonard Foo, who says it was not sold separately · Contarex data-recording strips (October 1971 US price list)

Covers roughly the lens's 110°. Mike Elek notes barrel distortion in the finder image and Leonard Foo a very slight amount, although the lens itself has almost none; Eckman compares the view to a cheap plastic camera and a funhouse mirror. The lens is fixed-focus, so there is nothing to focus and no rangefinder.

Figures we worked out rather than found: The width and depth in dimensions_mm are read from the Deutsches Museum's figures, which are printed in an order (H × W × L/D) that does not match the camera's shape.

Where sources disagree

Last

1972, when Zeiss Ikon ceased camera production, with a few cameras assembled later — English Wikipedia's Contarex article; the Deutsches Museum dates its example 1970–1972
Small batches through 1975 — Marco Cavina, cited by English Wikipedia's Hologon article
A single batch of 1,400 made in 1969 — Larry Gubas, Zeiss and Photography, as quoted by Mike Eckman

Pacific Rim Camera gives no end date; it says cameras were assembled from remaining parts after Zeiss's camera production ended and that the last serial batch was not completed, which fits a run past 1972. Mike Elek also says Carl Zeiss completed some cameras after Zeiss Ikon folded. The 1971 US price lists still offer the camera. years.last is left empty.

Production

About 1,400 in a single 1969 batch — Larry Gubas via Mike Eckman
About 1,400 across P75501–P76500 and an R97001–R98000 batch that was never completed — Pacific Rim Camera
About 1,400 — Barringer and Small's Zeiss Compendium via Leonard Foo; the Deutsches Museum

The total agrees everywhere; how it was built does not. The R serials on record argue against a single batch.

Weight (grams)

752g body and lens, 1,112g with grip and release — Mike Eckman
0.73kg and 1.06kg, unexplained — Deutsches Museum
About 750g body and lens — Leonard Foo

Better supported: 752

Depth of field (fixed focus)

20 in to infinity — October 1971 US price list
0.5m to infinity — Mike Elek, cited by English Wikipedia
About 1.5ft to infinity — Mike Eckman
0.3m to infinity — Leitz Auction 41, lot 426

Better supported: 20 in to infinity

The factory list is the only primary figure; 20 in is about 0.5m.

What reviewers say

Mike Eckman (blog) — One roll of Fuji 200 from a camera sent to him by a collector friend who has since died: images he calls glorious, with heavy vignetting (he left the filter off) and some pinhole leaks he puts down to age. The pistol grip kept his fingers out of every frame; the finder is like a cheap plastic camera's. He calls it perhaps the simplest, most impractical camera ever built, an expensive one-trick pony with a very good trick, and advises buying the complete kit.
Mike Elek (blog) — Very wide and very good: flare is present but not objectionable if you watch the sun, the finder shows barrel distortion, and the camera works best on a grip with the hands below it, held level. A camera that demands your attention, and one of the most expensive point-and-shoots ever made.

History

The Hologon Ultrawide is a camera built around one lens. Carl Zeiss in Oberkochen designed the Hologon 15mm f/8 under Erhard Glatzel in 1966: three thick glass elements, the outer two almost hemispherical, covering 110 degrees on 35mm with almost no distortion. Zeiss Ikon in Stuttgart built the camera to carry it. They took a Contarex housing, removed the mirror, mirror box and prism, fixed the lens in the front, and put a large seven-element optical finder with a spirit level on top. The camera is not marked Contarex anywhere; it says “Hologon ultrawide” and carries the Zeiss Ikon logo. Pacific Rim Camera notes that collectors group it with the Contarex; it shares the body, the cloth focal-plane shutter and the interchangeable magazine backs, and this catalogue does the same.

The lens decided almost everything about the camera. Mike Eckman and Leonard Foo both put the rear element about 4.5mm from the film, so it could never sit behind a reflex mirror. There is no room for an iris either: the stop is a notch cut into the middle element, so the aperture is f/8 and nothing else. Focus is fixed too, with depth of field from 20 inches to infinity according to the 1971 price list. That leaves the shutter speed as the only exposure control. The dial runs T, B and 1–1/500, with T in the place of the Contarex’s 1/1000. A wide symmetrical lens loses a lot of light toward the corners, so Zeiss offered a centre-graduated grey filter that is darker in the middle. It costs two stops and brings the working aperture to about f/16. Eckman records a prototype at Photokina 1966 and a near-final camera at Photokina 1968, to have been called the Holorex. Sales began in spring 1970.

It was expensive and it sold slowly. In Zeiss Ikon-Voigtländer’s US dealer schedule of February 1971 and its price list of October 1971, the outfit (camera, pistol grip, cable release and case) lists at $825; the February schedule gives the dealer’s net price as $550. Both lists price the filter separately at $78, and Mike Eckman describes it as an optional extra, although Mike Elek and English Wikipedia’s Contarex article say it came in the kit. The Deutsches Museum, which owns one, says plainly that it was not a success. About 1,400 were made. Pacific Rim Camera, Barringer and Small, Gubas and the museum all give that figure, and Pacific Rim calls it the least common model of the Contarex line. From 1972 the lens was also sold for Leica M, with its own finder and filter; Leitz showed it at Photokina that year (German Wikipedia). The sources disagree on where those lenses came from: Pacific Rim Camera says unused lenses were marketed in Leica M mount, Mike Eckman that Carl Zeiss filled a Leitz order for 400, and English Wikipedia that an additional 225 were made, with estimates of the total running from 225 to 1,000. That lens has its own page in this catalogue. It is the same three-element design, but in a focusing mount that goes down to 0.2m. The Contax G Hologon 16mm of 1994 is a different five-element design that keeps the name.

There are no versions in the usual sense. Pacific Rim Camera records two serial blocks: P75501–P76500, then R97001–R98000. It says the second block was never finished and that cameras were still being assembled from leftover parts after Zeiss ended camera production. English Wikipedia puts the end at 1972; Marco Cavina has small batches into 1975. Leitz Auction’s manufacture years for individual cameras do not follow the serials in order, so they cannot settle the question. No source describes a physical difference between a P camera and an R camera. Leonard Foo, in a passage citing the Zeiss Compendium, says some may be marked “Zeiss Vertrieb” for batches assembled in Oberkochen after the Stuttgart plant closed, but no such camera is documented. The serial is on the base plate of the tripod socket. The lens carries its own Carl Zeiss number in one of three blocks, 4814xxx, 4851xxx or 5098xxx, and the blocks do not follow the body serials closely enough to date a camera.

When buying, check that the outfit is complete and the lens is original. The pistol grip and cable release came with every camera and matter in use: at 110 degrees your fingers end up in the picture. The filter and the internally threaded front cap fit only this camera, because ordinary filters and caps do not go on the front. English Wikipedia notes that some cameras were taken apart so their lenses could be fitted to Leica M. A camera with a damaged or replaced front, or a “Contarex Hologon” lens offered for Leica, needs explaining. Eckman says the Contarex cloth shutter usually holds up; his own camera had pinhole light leaks, which he put down to age. The finder shows barrel distortion that the photographs do not have, so do not judge the lens by the view. Every documented example is black; Leitz Auction once described one, P75567, with a chrome back door. Leitz Auction results run from €1,560 for a camera with only its cap to €4,320 for a near-mint complete outfit, both including buyer’s premium. Most complete cameras fall between €2,400 and €3,840.

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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 — but no human wrote these sentences.

Example photos

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Sample photo wanted — shot with a Zeiss Ikon Hologon Ultrawide (Contarex Hologon)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

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