Contax D / Pentacon

Variants & identification

1. praktica-collector.de is the collection site of Dr. Mike Otto, not of Richard Hummel (who died in 1998); it keys its pages to Hummel's model numbers and gives his dates and production figures. Its list for the line names Hummel's 093 'Contax D 1st variation', 094 'Pentacon' and 099 'Pentacon 3rd variation' without any description or example, so they are not mapped to variants here. The site says Hummel did not describe the export relabels, and Otto numbers his own examples with added letters: 092 Contax D VEB, 093a Contax D with Ernemann tower, 095 Pentacon ZI, 095(A) Hexacon ZI, 095(B) Astraflex 35, 096 Pentacon with large tower, 096a ConSol (also given for the Hexacon over ConSol), 096c no name, 096d? ConSol ZJ, 096e Super D. The site's text also says the Contax D was sold as Pentacon from 1953 having lost the Zeiss Ikon logo, with the tower appearing only in 1955; no logo-less Pentacon example is recorded here.
2. Ritacon (American Camera Exchange, per Kröger) is left out as a variant: Kröger's illustration is captioned 'Ritacon F', camera-wiki records a Ritacon F as a name variant of the Contax F, and no D-type Ritacon with a number has been found. Corbina appears only in praktica-collector.de's list of export names and Cal-flex only on camera-wiki; neither has a second source or an example.
3. Hummel's 69,599 for the D (March 1952 to August 1956, including the Pentacon and relabelled bodies) cannot be checked against factory records. Kröger warns against trusting Hummel's figures; his line total of 186,990 is contradicted by a Pentacon FBM numbered 188,867 and by bodies numbered above 190,000.
4. Kröger's model overview gives Sach-Nr. group 130 for the Contax models (S, S Typ D, D) and 133 for the Pentacon; Pentacon ZI 66545 carries order number 133/62.
5. Lenses on these bodies cannot be assumed to be original. Mike Otto's cameras on praktica-collector.de carry what came with them, including Meyer-Optik lenses (Primagon 4.5/35 on 72783 and 15814, Trioplan 2.8/100 on 64207), and a Commons photograph shows a Contax D with a Meyer-Optik Helioplan 4.5/40. A dated pairing is rare: the Elten customs paper with body 65967 and Biotar 3643854 is one.

• Contax S Typ D ('small D'): Kröger's account, from repairing early bodies and from Yves Strobelt's list of recorded numbers, is that the original Contax S and the small D are scattered through the same number range because the S was converted on a large scale, and that a manual for the Contax S Typ D printed in March 1952 shows the model was also delivered new in this form; Kröger suggests it may have been a transitional camera, S bodies fitted with the new shutter at the factory. The documented conversion is S no. 24672, bought new in East Germany at the end of May 1952, which jammed on its first film and was released for conversion to the Contax D shutter in August 1955 at a charge of 87 Mark to the owner. Front caps were apparently fitted from whatever was in stock: Strobelt records converted bodies in the S number range that received Contax D caps, and these even carry the Ernemann tower that only became usual in the time of the Contax F. Recorded small-D numbers are 11312 and 15781 (Kröger), 16442 with Fabrikationsnummer 60793 (Kröger), 15814 with a Meyer-Optik Primagon 4.5/35 and 41627 with a Tessar 2.8/50 (both in Mike Otto's collection, praktica-collector.de), 18234 with Biotar 2/58 no. 3531528 (Wolfen museum, 753 g with lens), and a black-lacquered body with white engraving, 27510, with a black Biotar, which Otto's page notes as a variant described by neither Hummel nor Schulz. The small D illustrated by pentaconsix.com has a self-timer lever and a lens completed in August 1954.
• Contax D ('big D') with Zeiss Ikon logo: The home-market camera. Recorded numbers: 17124, 17461, 17719, 18948, 45189 and 46914 in Strobelt's list relayed by Kröger, with Fabrikationsnummern 61772 to 62582 interleaved with Taxona cameras (Kröger sees in this run the mixture of new Contax D bodies and S bodies converted to the D shutter); 72783 in Mike Otto's collection (praktica-collector.de), engraved with VEB and fitted with a Meyer-Optik Primagon 4.5/35; 79325 at the Wolfen museum, an Agfa Wolfen works camera, with Biotar 2/58 T no. 3541850; 80732 and 82464 (Kröger, Fabrikationsnummern 261135 and 261293); 65607 in an estate lot whose seller found the number on the underside of the body; and 65967, offered with Biotar 58/2 T no. 3643854 and a 1950s Dutch customs paper from the Elten border post recording both numbers.
• Contax D with Ernemann-tower logo: Mike Otto's example on praktica-collector.de is no. 69921 with a Tessar 2.8/50, which his page files as 'Contax D, 2nd change' (Hummel no. 093a) and dates only to the D's production span, exact period unknown. Kröger's view is that the tower on a Contax-named front belongs to the time of the Contax F, and he notes converted S-range bodies that were given tower-engraved Contax D caps during later conversion work, so a tower Contax D is not by itself evidence of a late factory body.
• Pentacon, small tower with ZI (export): The export Contax D. Kröger cites an English-language Pentacon manual of 1952 and low body numbers suggesting the first were built alongside the small D; a 1953 Pentacon advertisement on Flickr, dated May 1953 by its uploader, is described as showing the tower and the letters ZI; praktica-collector.de dates the version to 1955. No. 66545 on zeissikonveb.de (Fabrikationsnummer 245449, order number 133/62) survives with its English test card, guarantee, invoice and preset-diaphragm instructions; 83665 there has Fabrikationsnummer 262970. Otto's 64207 came with a Meyer-Optik Trioplan 2.8/100. Kröger's price list has a Pentacon ZI with Tessar 2.8/50 at 793.20 Mark in 1955, so the export name was also sold in East Germany.
• Pentacon, large tower without ZI (1956): praktica-collector.de's 'Pentacon, second variant' (Hummel no. 096), April to August 1956, shown with Otto's no. 88901 and a Tessar 2.8/50 T. No. 93049 on zeissikonveb.de has Fabrikationsnummer 5009477, in the seven-digit factory numbering that begins with 50, and is the highest D-type body number recorded here.
• Hexacon (Peerless): Sold by Peerless (Kröger). Otto's 58195, Schulz catalogue no. 16, came with a Tessar 2.8/50 T; his 89907 with a lens marked 'Jena T'. Popular Photography advertisements of summer 1956, reproduced by Kröger, offered the Hexacon 20 dollars cheaper with a Taylor-Hobson Amotal than with the Biotar; Kröger explains the Amotal as stock left over from Bell & Howell's Foton rangefinder, remounted for the 42mm thread. A body whose ConSol engraving has been ground out and whose plate is missing may be an ex-Hexacon; Chris of retinarescue.com suggests so for his, without being sure.
• Astraflex 35 (Sterling-Howard, Bronx): Otto's example on praktica-collector.de is no. 58241, Schulz catalogue no. 15, sold by Sterling-Howard of the Bronx, New York.
• ConSol (Grand Central Store, Haber & Fink): Sold through Grand Central Store and Haber & Fink in the United States (Kröger). Otto's 84388 came with a Biotar marked 'C.Z. Jena B'. camera-wiki finds the legend that ConSol bodies were better quality-controlled probably untrue: normal cameras with another engraving.
• Super D: Otto's no. 77616 on praktica-collector.de carries a Biotar 2/58 T no. 4416571 inside a ring engraved 'Otar 1:2 f=58mm C.Z. Jena'. Kröger and camera-wiki list the name; neither says who sold it.
• No-name Pentacon: Otto's no. 77051 on praktica-collector.de came with a lens marked 'Jena T'. camera-wiki notes that the 'No-Name Contax' nickname is also used for unmarked Kiev rangefinders, which are a different camera.

Specifications

Format

24×36mm on 35mm film

Finder

fixed eye-level pentaprism over a plain ground-glass screen; no split image, no microprism, no Fresnel lens

Shutter

horizontal-travel rubberised-cloth focal plane, the curtains on large-diameter drums on one axis with no reduction gearing (Kröger); the D adds the anti-bounce latch G475 and a centrifugal-governor slow-speed escapement · B, 1, 1/2, 1/5, 1/10, 1/20, 1/50, 1/100, 1/200, 1/500, 1/1000 (praktica-collector.de), in a switchable slow and fast range (Wolfen museum) · flash sync X contact, a coaxial socket on the top cover beside the rewind knob; no accessory shoe (praktica-collector.de; camera-wiki for the position). The S had its contact in the tripod socket. · self-timer

Film advance

knob, which also cocks the shutter and lowers the mirror; loose take-up spool; frame counter set by hand (praktica-collector.de)

Meter

none

Designed by

Winzenburg Wilhelm — led the design of the Contax S, on which the D is built · Hennig Walter — took over design responsibility and led the 1951 shutter redesign that became the Contax D (praktica-collector.de spells the name Henning)

Weight

560 g

Dimensions

148 × 83 × 108 with Biotar 2/58 T, 784g with that lens (Wolfen museum, no. 79325); weight_g is body only, Howard Patterson's camera (collection-appareils.fr) mm

Country

East Germany

Original price

US$359.50 for the Pentacon-badged camera with Zeiss Jena Biotar 58mm f/2, in a Popular Photography advertisement of May 1953 (Vol. 32 No. 5, p. 9), as cited by camera-wiki. In East Germany, Kröger's price list gives 922 Mark with Biotar 2/58 from October 1953, and from July 1956 about 380 Mark for the body, 586 Mark with Tessar 2.8/50 and 668 Mark with Biotar; a Pentacon ZI with Tessar was 793.20 Mark in 1955. For comparison, the Contax S had been advertised in the United States at $475 with Biotar in 1950 (Kröger). (today $4,220)

Accessories

Screw-in lens hoods 206 010 (40.5mm), 206 020 (55mm) and 206 030 (49mm), written 20601, 20602 and 20603 on boxes and in listings; Flashback Camera describes the 40.5mm hood as Bakelite on a chrome-plated brass base · Eyecup 207 010 (with correction-lens mount) or 207 020, and folding frame finder 207 100, both boxed as 'Contax S' accessories · Zeiss Ikon flash units 222 24, 222 241, 222 22 and 222 221 with a plug-in connection (Steckanschluss), each in 3/8-inch or 1/4-inch tripod-thread versions; Strobelt's order-number list marks the 222 20/201/23/231 units as usable only on the S with the contact in the tripod socket · Extension rings, boxed as 'Zeiss Ikon VEB Contax S Zwischenringe' in a Kleinanzeigen listing · Leather ever-ready case

praktica-collector.de calls it a condenser-type ground-glass screen. Focusing is done near full aperture (Howard Patterson, collection-appareils.fr), and the diaphragm is stopped down by hand before the exposure: there is no diaphragm coupling before the Contax F. The mirror does not return after the exposure; the finder stays dark until the knob is wound. camera-wiki's user notes call the finder of the models before the F small; Walter Reumkens calls his D's viewfinder huge.

What reviewers say

• Walter Reumkens, 35mmc (blog) — A Contax D engraved ZEISS IKON VEB with the Biotar 2/58, bought cheaply from a house-clearance dealer, needed new shutter curtains from Foto Olbrich in Görlitz after the first roll. He calls it a classic, robustly built and of good quality, with a huge viewfinder and a powerful shutter sound, and took a handheld meter because the camera has none.
• Chris, retinarescue.com (blog) — Collector's notes on two export bodies: the Pentacon is the Contax D renamed over a trade-name dispute, with a plain ground-glass screen and 1 to 1/1000; his second body was engraved ConSol, had the engraving ground out and was relabelled, possibly as a Hexacon, but the nameplate is lost.
• Marco Kröger, zeissikonveb.de (blog) — A repairer's teardown of early bodies showing that the D shutter differs from the original S shutter (anti-bounce latch, governor escapement, a new tower bearing), that many small-D bodies are converted S cameras identifiable by a milled recess and a leftover bolt, and that the factory charged an owner 87 Mark for such a conversion in 1955. via machine translation — corrections welcome
• La Chambre Claire (masaki-k) (blog) — His Pentacon is the Contax D inside, which he understands was also sold as ConSol, Hexacon and Astraflex; its shutter is broken and he has never used it, and the mirror and shutter timing is said to be awkward to adjust. He likes the Ernemann tower on the prism and suggests that later SLRs are basically variations on this design. via machine translation — corrections welcome

History

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

Live listings

• Zeiss Ikon VEB Hexacon ZI 35mm SLR camera w. Zeiss Jena Biotar 2/58mm Export Version of Contax D Germany USSR Occupied — €599.00 · Arsenal Photo · likely hexacon
• Zeiss Ikon VEB ConSol 35mm SLR camera Export Version of Contax D w. 2/58mm lens — €599.00 · Arsenal Photo · likely consol

Listings updated 2026-10-30. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.