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

Contarex Super

Zeiss Ikon · Contarex mount · 24×36mm on 35mm film · 1967

our own finding

Also known as: Contarex Super · Contarex S · Zeiss Ikon Contarex Super · Contarex Super Black · Contarex Super schwarz · コンタレックス スーパー · コンタレックス スーパー ブラック

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Front switch, first batch (speed dial lifts to turn) Contarex 1967–1968 G33501–G36000 Serials G33501–G36000, April 1967 to January 1968 (Pacific Rim Camera): 2,500 numbers
Front switch, second batch Contarex 1968–1968 G37501–G40000 Serials G37501–G40000 (Pacific Rim Camera): 2,500 numbers; Pacific Rim gives no dates for this batch
Front switch, black (10.2600-BL) Contarex 1968 — Not recorded. The March 1968 US list prices the black body as 10.2600-BL, $24 over chrome
Top switch (second model) Contarex 1968–1971 P53001–P55500
P97001–P98500 		P53001–P55500, September 1968 to September 1969, and P97001–P98500, December 1969 to December 1971 (Pacific Rim Camera): 4,000 numbers in all
Top switch, black Contarex 1968–1971 — Not recorded
  1. Leitz results are hammer prices including buyer's premium, as the house labels them (24% under the EU margin scheme, 20% for export): R52302 with a black Planar 1.4/55, €1,200 against an estimate of €2,000–2,400 (Auction 25); G38954 'Contarex S' outfit with Sonnar 2/85, Distagon 2.8/25, Sonnar 4/135 and a black Olympia-Sonnar 4/250, €3,240 (Auction 7); G35198 with a black Flash Planar 2/50, unsold at €1,000–1,200 (Auction 33).
  2. OstLicht, 1 June 2023: black first model G 39082 with Planar 2/50, estimate €1,200–1,400, and black second model P 98080 with Planar 1.4/55, estimate €1,800–2,200. LiveAuctioneers records both as sold, on winning bids of €800 and €1,200: hammer bids before buyer's premium, each below its low estimate.
  3. Yahoo! Auctions Japan, May to October 2026, closing prices (auction wins and buy-it-now sales) with no consumption tax charged: besides the black body below, fourteen Supers whose titles name no lens, ¥11,500 to ¥53,000, ten of them between ¥20,000 and ¥31,000; a body with Planar 50/2 ¥54,910 (25 October); a black body sold as-is, its wind and shutter sticky and the first curtain slow, ¥35,000 after 28 bids (9 May).
  4. Yahoo sellers often add 'contax コンタックス' to Super titles as an extra keyword, so 'Contax' is not excluded here.
  5. The Biogon 21mm f/4.5 does not fit the Super, so it is not among the lenses linked from this page: the English instructions (p.17) say 'The BIOGON 4.5/21 mm supplied for the previous CONTAREX model cannot be used with the CONTAREX super', the Super Electronic's instructions (p.21) say the same of that body, the meterless Professional's booklet by contrast explains how to fit it, and the March 1968 US list prices no Biogon among its interchangeable lenses, mentioning it only in the descriptions of carrying cases.
  6. The Contarex collection Christie's sold as one lot in 1997 (sale 7752, lot 288) includes a Zeiss Ikon Reparaturanleitung for the Contarex Super dated October 1967.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • 'super' in lower case on the panel above the lens mount (white on black in the instructions' illustrations and the Wikimedia Commons photographs; red on a light strip in Leitz's photographs of G38954 and R52302), and Contarex in block letters on a black plate on the prism; the Super Electronic's front says 'electronic' instead
  • Aperture wheel on the body beside the mount, on the wind side (instructions); the automatic-preset Contarex lenses have no aperture ring of their own
  • Meter button on the front plate opposite the aperture wheel = front switch, G serial; no front button = top switch, P or R serial (Pacific Rim Camera)
  • ZEISS IKON badge = 1967–71 production; square ZEISS WEST GERMANY badge = final batch (Pacific Rim Camera; Leitz R52302)
  • Hot shoe on the prism, PC socket and battery-test key on the front (instructions)

Front switch, first batch (speed dial lifts to turn):

  • Meter button on top of the front plate around the lens mount, on the rewind side, opposite the aperture wheel: collectors call these 'Front Switch' Supers (Pacific Rim Camera; control 12 in the English instructions)
  • The shutter-speed dial has to be lifted before it will turn (Pacific Rim Camera). The English instructions, which illustrate a front-switch body, say 'Lift ring 13 and turn it'
  • ZEISS IKON badge on the front of the top plate, 'super' on the black panel above the mount, Contarex in block letters on a black plate on the prism (instructions' illustrations)
  • Serial in the G33501–G36000 block; Christie's catalogues G34518 and G35881, both chrome 'first-model'

Front switch, second batch:

  • The same front meter button as the first batch, but the speed dial turns without being lifted (Pacific Rim Camera)
  • Serial in the G37501–G40000 block, which Pacific Rim Camera prints as 'G37501 through G4000'; Christie's G37812 (chrome, 'first-model') and Leitz G38954 (chrome, catalogued as 'Contarex S', c.1969) are examples
  • Leitz's photographs of G38954 show the ZEISS IKON badge and the ridged meter button on the front plate beside the Contarex nameplate

Front switch, black (10.2600-BL):

  • Black body with the front meter button; Pacific Rim Camera's lead photograph is a black front-switch Super with a black Planar 50/2
  • OstLicht sold G 39082, catalogued as 'Contarex Super Black 1.Model', c.1968, with a Planar 2/50

Top switch (second model):

  • No button on the front plate: the meter switch is under the wind lever and comes on when the lever is pulled out slightly, hence 'Top Switch' (Pacific Rim Camera)
  • Serial in the P53001–P55500 or P97001–P98500 block; Christie's P53333, P97939 and P97973 are chrome 'second-model' examples

Top switch, black:

  • Black body without the front meter button; Christie's P53628 (black, 'second-model', with a black Sonnar 85/2) and OstLicht P 98080 ('Contarex Super Black 2.Model', c.1971, with a Planar 1.4/55)

Late Zeiss logo (square ZEISS WEST GERMANY badge):

  • Square badge reading ZEISS over WEST GERMANY on the top plate where earlier bodies carry ZEISS IKON (Leitz's photographs of R52302; Wikimedia Commons photographs of a chrome Super)
  • Top-switch body: no meter button on the front plate (Leitz R52302, described as a 'second model')
  • R52xxx serials: Leitz R52302 (dated 1972) and Christie's R52230 (chrome, 'second-model')

Serial-range notes

G33501–G36000
Front switch, first batch, April 1967 to January 1968; the speed dial lifts to turn (Pacific Rim Camera). Christie's G34518, G35881.
G36001–G37500
Not a Super block: these are first-style Super Electronics (Pacific Rim Camera's SE page).
G37501–G40000
Front switch, second batch; the dial turns without lifting (Pacific Rim Camera, printed 'G4000'). Christie's G37812, Leitz G38954, OstLicht G 39082 (black).
P53001–P55500
Top switch, September 1968 to September 1969; film loading improved from P54700 (Pacific Rim Camera). Christie's P53333 and P53628 (black).
P97001–P98500
Top switch, December 1969 to December 1971; coated mirror from P98250 (Pacific Rim Camera). Christie's P97939, P97973; OstLicht P 98080 (black).
R52001–R52600
The final 600, December 1971 to March 1972, with the Zeiss logo; Pacific Rim Camera prints the block as P52001–P52600, but both bodies sold from it, Christie's R52230 and Leitz R52302, are R-prefixed.

Specifications

Format
24×36mm on 35mm film
Finder
fixed eye-level pentaprism with interchangeable focusing screens
Shutter
focal plane, mechanically timed · 1s–1/1000 and B; the dial clicks at marked speeds only and should not be set between them (instructions; March 1968 US list) · flash sync Colour-coded dial: white 1s–1/30 and B for M bulbs and electronic flash, yellow 1/60 for electronic flash, orange 1/125–1/1000 for FP bulbs; hot shoe with a cableless M contact and a PC socket with a locking device (instructions; March 1968 US list) · self-timer
Film advance
rapid-wind lever; the frame counter counts down from the number of exposures set by hand and is not reset by rewinding (instructions; Film Photography Project)
Back
removable, held by two locks on the base; interchangeable magazine back 20.0304 for changing film mid-roll in daylight ($69 in March 1968); slot for data-recording strips that print a 4mm caption along the film edge (instructions; March 1968 US list)
Meter
TTL CdS, selective: about 7° with a 50mm lens, 7% of the frame, the area marked by the fine-focusing ring. Semi-automatic match-needle: set a speed and turn the aperture wheel until the green pointer meets the needle, or the reverse. One Mallory PX13 cell, about two years' life, in a holder under the mirror reached by raising the mirror with the shutter cocked (instructions; March 1968 US list; English Wikipedia; Film Photography Project). Film speed ASA 6–1600 (Kamerastore).
Motor drive
Not compatible — No motor was listed for the Super. The only Contarex motor, 20.0204, appears under the Super Electronic system in the October 1971 US list, and Pacific Rim Camera calls it the only motor Zeiss Ikon offered on a production camera.
Weight
874 g
Dimensions
150 × 95 × 50, body only (Kamerastore) mm
Country
West Germany
Original price
$445 for the chrome body only and $469 for black; $684 with the Planar 1.4/55, $634 with the B-Planar 2/50 and $534 with the Tessar 2.8/50, in the Contarex system pages issued under the Zeiss Ikon Voigtländer name and dated 1 March 1968. These are the printed US prices; the pages do not say whether they are retail list prices or whether tax is included. By the US price list of 1 October 1971 the body was $660 in chrome and $690 in black. (today $4,010)
Accessories
Interchangeable magazine back 20.0304, $69 in March 1968, with leather cases for one or two magazines (23.7856, 23.0200) · Focusing screens 20.1310–20.1320, from the standard split-image Fresnel to a clear crossline screen for microscopes and a screen for the 18mm Distagon only, with the container and tweezers 20.7074 (October 1971 US list; instructions) · Data-recording strips 20.0202 (October 1971 US list) · Eveready case 23.0008, $29 in 1968 and $36 in 1971 · Zeiss monocular tele attachment 8×30 B (20.1629) with adapter ring 20.1639 for the Planar 50 and Tessar 50 (instructions) · Reprophot 2 copy stand, used with the Super through control box #1 (October 1971 US list)

The standard screen is a Fresnel with a split-image wedge and a fine-focusing ring; the ring also marks the meter's acceptance area. Screens change through the lens throat: take the lens off, press a catch forward and the frame drops down (English instructions; camera-wiki). The aperture scale with the meter needle and a green follow pointer sits at the right of the image and the set shutter speed in the lower right corner (instructions). Instant-return mirror (March 1968 US list). Jason Ganz calls the finder unbelievably bright.

Figures we worked out rather than found: The five serial blocks Pacific Rim Camera gives for the Super (G33501–G36000, G37501–G40000, P53001–P55500, P97001–P98500 and the final 600) add up to 9,600 numbers, exactly the 9,600 made that camera-wiki takes from the Zeiss Historica Society Journal; how many numbers in each block were used is not recorded. · The 1968 dates of the second front-switch batch are inferred from the first batch ending in January 1968 and the top switch starting in September 1968.

Where sources disagree

Serial ranges
  • P52001–P52600 — Pacific Rim Camera
  • R52xxx — Christie's R52230 ('second-model') and Leitz R52302 (1972, 'second model', photographed with the ZEISS WEST GERMANY badge)

Better supported: R52001–R52600

Both bodies found with numbers inside the range Pacific Rim gives carry an R prefix, and the one that is photographed (R52302) has the ZEISS WEST GERMANY badge Pacific Rim describes; its P is probably a misprint, though the R attribution rests on two examples.

Last
  • 1972 — Pacific Rim Camera's final batch, December 1971 to March 1972; English Wikipedia, 1967–72
  • Later — English Wikipedia captions a ZEISS WEST GERMANY Super as produced after 1972; Pacific Rim's Super page says the camera was made until Zeiss ceased camera manufacture, which its Super Electronic page puts at 1975

Better supported: 1972

Late assembly after the 1972 shutdown would reconcile them: English Wikipedia says a few Super Electronics were assembled later with the Carl Zeiss brand, and its Hologon section says 'Like the Super and Electronic, a few cameras were assembled later'; no source gives a Super serial after March 1972.

Serial ranges
  • G serials are front-switch first-model bodies — Pacific Rim Camera, Christie's (G34518, G35881, G37812 'first-model') and OstLicht (G 39082 '1.Model')
  • G35198 is a 'second model' made in 1972 — Leitz Auction 33

Better supported: G = front switch

Apart from the lens, Leitz's text for G35198 is word for word the text of its R52302 lot ('near mint second model in good working order (exposure meter not accurate)'), so the label and the 1972 date were probably carried over from the other lot.

What reviewers say

History

The Contarex Super is the Contarex with a meter behind the lens. Zeiss Ikon Stuttgart built it from 1967 to 1972 as the replacement for the Bullseye, under catalogue number 10.2600; camera-wiki and German Wikipedia also call it the Contarex S. It belongs to the second generation of Contarex bodies with the meterless Professional and the Super Electronic. All three carry the word Contarex in block letters on a black plate on the prism and the film-speed dial on the rewind knob, and the Super Electronic is built on the Super’s chassis. Pacific Rim Camera, the source for every batch figure on this page, says the replacements were aimed at Photokina 1966. The new cadmium-sulphide cell then forced a late redesign, with a battery compartment and a circuit that measures resistance, so the Professional went on sale first and the Super appeared only as prototypes. Production began in April 1967, and Christie’s records a factory repair manual for the Super dated October 1967.

It works like the Bullseye in its essentials. The aperture is set by a wheel on the body beside the mount, so the automatic-preset Contarex lenses have no aperture ring of their own. Shutter speeds run from 1 second to 1/1000 and B on a dial that should not be set between its clicks. The meter reads a small spot of about 7° with a 50mm lens, the area marked by the fine-focusing ring on the standard screen. In the finder, the aperture scale with the meter needle and a green follow pointer runs down the right side and the set speed shows in the lower right corner, so exposure is set by matching pointer to needle with either the speed dial or the aperture wheel. Flash speeds are colour-coded on the dial, there is a hot shoe as well as a locking PC socket, the self-timer gives about 12 seconds, and a slot in the back takes strips that print a 4mm caption along the film. Screens change through the lens throat, and the back comes off for the interchangeable magazine, which lets film be changed mid-roll. Not every Contarex lens fits: the instructions warn that the Biogon 4.5/21 made for the earlier Contarex cannot be used on the Super, and the March 1968 US list for the Super prices no Biogon. The meter runs on one Mallory PX13 in a holder under the mirror: cock the shutter, raise the mirror with its button and lift the holder out. Jason Ganz’s review for the Film Photography Project adds the rest of the character. The lens stays stopped down until the shutter is cocked. The rewind is a delicate gear train, the frame counter counts down and has to be reset by hand, and the wind has enough torque to tear a thin film that has been loaded wrong.

There are two types, and they are told apart by the meter switch. The first type, the “Front Switch” Super, has a button on top of the front plate around the mount, on the rewind side, opposite the aperture wheel. Its first batch, G33501 to G36000 from April 1967 to January 1968, has a speed dial that must be lifted to turn, which is what the English instructions describe. The second batch, G37501 to G40000, turns without lifting. The G numbers between, G36001 to G37500, are Super Electronics, so a G serial alone does not identify a Super. The “Top Switch” Super, from September 1968, drops the front button and switches the meter on when the wind lever is pulled out slightly. It ran from P53001 to P55500, with improved film loading from P54700, and P97001 to P98500 to December 1971, with a coated mirror from P98250. Black bodies, 10.2600-BL, cost $24 more than chrome in 1968 and exist in both types: OstLicht’s G 39082 is a black front-switch and Christie’s P53628 and OstLicht’s P 98080 are black top-switch bodies. The last 600, made from December 1971 to March 1972, carry the Zeiss logo, a square ZEISS WEST GERMANY badge in place of ZEISS IKON. Pacific Rim prints that block as P52001 to P52600, but the two final-batch bodies sold at auction, Christie’s R52230 and Leitz’s R52302, are R-numbered, and Leitz’s photographs of R52302 show the badge. The batches add up to exactly the 9,600 made that camera-wiki takes from the Zeiss Historica Society’s journal.

The printed US price was $445 for the chrome body alone in March 1968, $469 in black and $684 with the Planar 1.4/55. By October 1971 the body was $660 in chrome and $690 in black. On Yahoo! Auctions Japan between May and October 2026, fourteen Supers whose titles name no lens, leaving aside a black one, closed at ¥11,500 to ¥53,000, ten of them between ¥20,000 and ¥31,000, and one with a Planar 50/2 made ¥54,910. At Leitz Photographica, R52302 with a black Planar 1.4/55 made €1,200 including buyer’s premium against an estimate of €2,000 to 2,400. A front-switch outfit with four lenses made €3,240, also including premium. OstLicht’s two black Supers of June 2023, a front-switch and a top-switch, are recorded on LiveAuctioneers as selling for €800 and €1,200 before premium, both below their estimates. Leitz also calls G35198 a 1972 “second model”, but apart from the lens its description repeats the R52302 lot word for word, and every other source puts G serials in the front-switch type.

Buying one is a matter of testing everything, because the outside proves nothing. Henry Scherer, whose Contarex service page is archived on Mike Eckman’s site, charged $1,850 to overhaul a Super or Professional. He wrote that external condition says nothing about the inside, that some cameras were put together from discarded spare parts in repair shops after Zeiss left the camera business, and that almost every Contarex he received had a serious problem. Leitz catalogued both R52302 and G35198 with inaccurate meters, and the black body sold in Japan in May 2026 had a sticky wind and a slow first curtain. Fit a cell and run the instructions’ battery test: with the meter on, the shutter cocked and the needle in the middle of the scale, press the test key, and the needle should not drop more than a stop within a second or two. Ganz’s rule is that a working meter is a good sign of a camera that was not abused. Wind gently, rewind gently, check that the speed dial behaves as its serial says it should, and look at the badge and the switch if the price depends on a late or black body.

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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.

Photographs

Contarex Super
Contarex Super, chrome, with the late square ZEISS WEST GERMANY badge and a Planar 50mm f/2 — ganzology, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
Contarex Super
A ZEISS WEST GERMANY-badged Super from the same photographer, seen from the rewind side, with a chrome 50mm lens and hood — ganzology, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

More sample photos elsewhere

These photographers keep all rights to their work — enjoy it at the source.

Live listings

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

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

Sources (22)

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 — corrections, serials and sample photos are all worth having.