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

Contax F / Pentacon F

Zeiss Ikon Dresden · M42 mount · 24×36mm on 35mm film (Pentacon F manual) · 1956

via machine translation — corrections welcome our own finding

Also known as: Pentacon F · Contax F · Zeiss Ikon Contax F · Contax F Zeiss Ikon · Contax F Pentacon · Zeiss Ikon Pentacon F · Pentacon F Zeiss Ikon · VEB Pentacon F · Pentacon F M42 · Pentacon F (Contax F) · Ritacon F · ペンタコン F · ペンタコンF

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Contax F M42 1956–1961 — praktica-collector.de gives 33,895 for the Contax F and the Pentacon F together, September 1956 to June 1961 (Hummel's figure); there is no separate count for either name. Kröger warns against trusting Hummel's figures: his total for the whole line is contradicted by bodies numbered above it.
Pentacon F M42 1956–1961 — Included in praktica-collector.de's 33,895 for the F series; no separate figure
Ritacon F (American Camera Exchange, 1957) M42 1957–1957 — —
  1. Consol F (order number 132 000, 'Contax F 130 000 in USA Bezeichnung') is left out as a variant: Strobelt's order-number list notes that the Consol F series existed only on paper.
  2. The 'Pentacon F with small knobs' on praktica-collector.de (101a), no. 5716 with Biotar 2/5.8cm T no. 3402974, has a Pentacon F front on a body with a self-timer blanking plug, small knobs and no diaphragm release; the site asks whether it is an early small-D Contax wearing an F front. A one-off parts mix, not a variant.
  3. The 1957 Ritacon advertisement also offered a 'Ritacon FB' with built-in meter; it belongs with the Contax FB.
  4. camera-wiki says the Chinese Tian Chi was a near-copy of the Contax F, of which only ten were made; camera-wiki is the only source for it here.
  5. The numbered examples on praktica-collector.de are the cameras of that site's own collection, shown with the catalogue numbers of Hummel, Schulz and Kadlubek; the production figures and dates there are Hummel's.
  6. Kröger notes that early Jena M42 lenses such as the Tessar 4.5/40, the Biotar 1.5/75 and the Flektogon 2.8/35 have a conical rim behind the thread that got in the way of the diaphragm release of the Praktica FX2, whose release was therefore made switchable; whether the rim fouls the Contax F's release is not recorded.
  7. Lenses: the East German price list offers the F with the Meyer-Optik Primotar E 3.5/50, the Tessar 2.8/50 or the Biotar 2/58. The manual says the F takes lenses with or without preset diaphragm and the same preset lenses as the Pentacon D. A Pentacon F offered on finn.no came with a West German Isco-Göttingen 2.8/50, as have two Pentacon FM bodies (see that page); whether these were importers' outfits or later swaps is not known.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • A small 'F' under the name on the prism front: 'Contax' or 'Pentacon'. An FB has a photoelectric meter under a hinged flap in the prism housing (Pentacon F manual), an FM a split image in the finder, an FBM both
  • A bar in the lens throat that trips the spring diaphragm of a Jena lens (pentaconsix.com; Kröger describes a transfer in the mirror box); the D and E have none
  • Larger, easier-to-grip wind and rewind knobs than the D, and a restyled frame counter and film-reminder disc (Bild & Ton 9/1956); but praktica-collector.de's Contax E 95920 already has the large knobs and the changed counter and film-reminder disc, so only the bar in the throat separates an F from a late E
  • Flash nipple on the top cover beside the rewind knob, self-timer lever on the front below the release, no accessory shoe
  • Plain matte screen; two wedges in a clear centre mean an FM or FBM (Pentacon F manual)

Contax F:

  • 'Contax' on the prism front with a small 'F' centred beneath it, and the stylised Ernemann tower on the sloping face of the prism above; no Zeiss Ikon logo and no 'VEB' (106722 and 152115 on zeissikonveb.de; Commons)
  • praktica-collector.de gives the Contax F the large tower, and three of the four Contax F bodies seen have it (106722 on zeissikonveb.de, praktica-collector.de's 121143, the Commons example), but 152115 on zeissikonveb.de has the small tower of the Pentacon F; the tower size alone does not separate the two names
  • Factory order number 130 000, described in the list as 'Contax F, Spiegelreflex-Kleinbildkamera ohne Optik, mit Springblende und Bildfeldlinse' (Yves Strobelt's order-number list, compiled from brochures, manuals, original boxes and an item-number register of Kombinat VEB Pentacon)

Pentacon F:

  • 'Pentacon' on the prism front with a small 'F' centred beneath it, and a small Ernemann tower without the letters ZI above (105291 and 140157 on zeissikonveb.de, praktica-collector.de's 150549, Commons)
  • Factory order number 133 000, listed as 'PENTACON F (= Contax F 130 000 in neuer Bezeichnung)', the Contax F under its new name (Strobelt's order-number list); no. 105291 is recorded with order number 133/854 (Strobelt and Kröger)
  • Export lenses may be engraved only 'Jena T' (Tessar) or 'Jena B' (Biotar): the English Pentacon F manual's depth-of-field tables are headed 'Jena Lens T 50 mm' and 'Jena Lens B 58 mm'

Ritacon F (American Camera Exchange, 1957):

  • Sold in the United States as the Ritacon F. No surviving body under this name has been recorded here, so whether the name was a glued or riveted plate like the Hexacon's, an engraving like the ConSol's, or only the dealer's advertising name is not known

Serial-range notes

two numbers on each body
For long periods VEB Zeiss Ikon gave its cameras two numbers: a Kameranummer, counted within a model line (for the reflex Contax one sequence from the S onward, as the recorded numbers show), and a Fabrikationsnummer, a factory-wide lot number shared with other products and found for example on the back (Kröger and Yves Strobelt). Kröger adds that the system was later not kept up consistently; when is not known, but he links the break to the gradual winding-down of VEB Zeiss Ikon between 1956 and 1958. The Museum Wolmirstedt records the number of its Pentacon F, 118760, as the 'Geräte Nr.' inside the body.
about 100000
The 100,000th camera of the line was shown at the Leipzig autumn fair of 1956, the fair at which the F was presented, as a gift for the most successful German athlete at the Melbourne Olympics; it went to the runner Christa Stubnick on 8 January 1957 and had to be handed back days later to protect her amateur status (Kröger). The Contax E 101017 on zeissikonveb.de sits just above it, and the F-series numbers recorded here begin at 105291.
105291–152115
F-type bodies recorded here: 105291 (Pentacon F, sold October 1957), 106722 (Contax F), 118760 (Pentacon F), 121143 (Contax F), 140157 (Pentacon F), 150549 (Pentacon F) and 152115 (Contax F). The two names are interleaved through one sequence, which the FB, FM and FBM share: the Pentacon FM bodies on zeissikonveb.de are 134794, 161744 and 190106, and Kröger cites a Pentacon FBM numbered 188867. Hummel's 33,895 for the F and Pentacon F cannot be read off these numbers.
Fabrikationsnummern 50xxxxx and 4xxxxx
Strobelt observed that the factory numbers switched for a time to a seven-digit series beginning 50, and then went back to six digits at about 400xxx. The F-type bodies on zeissikonveb.de follow this: 105291 and 106722 carry 5083208 and 5084296, while 140157 and 152115 carry 471351 and 491122. On these four, a seven-digit 50… factory number marks the earlier bodies.
tower size
Read from photographs: Contax F 106722 on zeissikonveb.de and the Commons Contax F have a large Ernemann tower, as praktica-collector.de says of its 121143; the later Contax F 152115 on zeissikonveb.de has a small one, and so does every Pentacon F seen (105291, 140157, 150549 and the Commons example). On this evidence the Contax F changed to the small tower during production; the change point is not known.

Specifications

Format
24×36mm on 35mm film (Pentacon F manual) · 36 or 20 from standard daylight cartridges; the manual also allows bulk film in lengths up to 1.60 m and cartridge-to-cartridge loading exposures
Finder
fixed eye-level pentaprism, shortened at its base with a thin field lens cemented beneath it, over a plain ground-glass screen; no split image, no microprism
Shutter
horizontal-travel rubberised-cloth focal plane, as on the Contax D (praktica-collector.de) · B and 1, 1/2, 1/5, 1/10, 1/20 s in red; 1/50, 1/100, 1/200, 1/500, 1/1000 in black. The range is chosen with a separate control on the back of the top cover, then the speed knob is pressed and turned (Pentacon F manual; praktica-collector.de) · flash sync X: a single-pole coaxial nipple on the top cover beside the rewind knob, for bulb units of up to 24 V and 2 A, with no restriction for electronic flash; the manual's bulb table gives 1/10 s or longer for most bulbs (1/50 s for several with some loss of light), 1/50 s or longer for the Philips PF 1 and 1/50 s for the PF 24 and PF 45. No accessory shoe (Pentacon F manual; praktica-collector.de) · self-timer
Film advance
knob: one full turn winds the shutter, advances film and frame counter and lowers the mirror; loose take-up spool; frame counter set by hand on loading (Pentacon F manual; praktica-collector.de)
Back
hinged back, opened by pushing up a catch on the right-hand side; rewind release button in the base; film-reminder disc with DIN and ASA scales and symbols for black-and-white, daylight colour and artificial-light colour film (Pentacon F manual)
Meter
none (the Contax FB, presented with it, has a photoelectric meter in the prism housing)
Designed by
Winzenburg Wilhelm — led the design of the Contax S of 1949, on which the F is built · Hennig Walter — responsible designer of the line from the Contax D on (praktica-collector.de, which spells it Henning); with Horst Strehle, named by Kröger on DDR patent 10752 of 3 May 1952, from which the Jena spring diaphragm used on the F derives · Böhm Siegfried — under him the Kamera-Werke Niedersedlitz brought the diaphragm release to M42 bodies in 1956, first on the Praktica FX2 and shortly afterwards on the Contax (Kröger)
Country
East Germany
Original price
In East Germany, Kröger's price list gives the Contax F body at 462 Mark in 1957, 445 Mark in 1959 and 337 Mark in 1960 (the list notes a general price cut on 28 May 1960); with the Meyer-Optik Primotar E 3.5/50 at 624, 624 and 446 Mark, with the Tessar 2.8/50 at 663, 645 and 460, and with the Biotar 2/58 at 750, 733 and 510. The Pentacon F body was 445 Mark in 1959 and 337 Mark in 1960. No American list price is recorded here. An American advertisement for the 'New 1957' Ritacon F, reproduced by Kröger, offered it with automatic Tessar f/2.8 at $79.50 plus the buyer's old Pentacon, Hexacon or ConSol with preset Tessar, and Alex Waterhouse-Hayward recalls paying $100 for a Pentacon F with Tessar f/2.8 from Olden Cameras of New York in 1958.
Accessories
Eyecup, and correction lenses in a mount that fits the eyepiece (Pentacon F manual) · A set of three intermediate rings, which put the automatic diaphragm out of action, and a special intermediate ring with a double cable release that keeps it working (Pentacon F manual) · Flashgun 'designed especially for the Pentacon F', with a cable and plug for the top-cover nipple (Pentacon F manual) · Wire release that screws into the release button, with a lock for time exposures (Pentacon F manual) · Copying stand, transparency copying device, micro attachment, focusing telescope, angle finder, frame finder, close-up bellows, focusing slide, chestpod, lens hood and ever-ready case, all in the manual's accessory list

The field lens is the F's finder change. On the S, D and E the whole lower face of the prism was ground to serve as the screen; from 1956 the prism was shortened and a flat field lens cemented on, which Kröger says brightened the edges only a little but made the FM's split-image wedges possible. The 1956 fair report promised a screen bright into the corners; camera-wiki's user notes find the F's finder, with its bigger mirror, an improvement on the earlier models. The German Pentacon F manual gives the finder image as 21 × 31mm, visible only while the shutter is wound, and warns that long lenses and extension rings shade the top of the screen, especially stopped down. Focusing is at full aperture with a spring-diaphragm lens; other lenses are stopped down by hand. The mirror stays up after the exposure until the knob is wound.

Figures we worked out rather than found: years for the pentacon-f variant are praktica-collector.de's span for the F series, which its Pentacon F page repeats; the earliest dated Pentacon F recorded here is no. 105291, sold in October 1957.

Where sources disagree

First automatic diaphragm
  • the Contax F 'was the first camera to have this device' — camera-wiki
  • Jena lenses with an internally released spring diaphragm were made for the Praktina FX from February 1954 (Kröger's Primotar page; his Tessar page dates the Praktina spring diaphragm to February 1953), and the Praktica FX2 of the 1956 spring fair had an M42 release before the Contax F of the autumn fair (his Contax page says at about the same time) — Kröger

Better supported: Kröger

Pentacon-f (use of the name at home)
  • Contax for the home market and Pentacon for export from the Contax E to the end of the line — praktica-collector.de
  • from 1958 the name Pentacon was used generally for the former Contax cameras — German Wikipedia
  • after the Dresden camera makers merged in 1959, the Contax F was sold in the East as the Pentacon F too — Markenlexikon
  • Kröger's East German price lists carry the Contax F in 1957, 1959 and 1960 and the Pentacon F in 1959 and 1960

Both names were on East German price lists by 1959, and Contax F 152115 on zeissikonveb.de shows the Contax name still being engraved high in the number range.

Patent for the M42 spring diaphragm
  • the lever-less spring diaphragm, cocked by turning the aperture ring, was developed at VEB Zeiss Ikon in 1952 (DDR patent 10752 of 3 May 1952) — Kröger's Tessar page
  • the semi-automatic spring diaphragm goes back to patent 10752 of Walter Hennig and Horst Strehle; the M42 development, which dropped the extra cocking lever of the Exakta and Praktina versions and cocked the diaphragm by the aperture ring, came from Erich Biertümpfel and Rudolf Paul, DDR patent 18.920 of 30 March 1956 — Kröger's Primotar and Primoplan pages
Id markers (tower size)
  • large Ernemann tower on the Contax F, small tower on the Pentacon F — praktica-collector.de
  • large tower on Contax F 106722, small tower on Contax F 152115 — photographs in Strobelt and Kröger's model overview on zeissikonveb.de

Every Pentacon F seen has the small tower; the Contax F appears to have changed during production.

Maker
  • VEB Zeiss Ikon Dresden — praktica-collector.de
  • VEB Kamera- und Kinowerke Dresden, 1956–1961 — the Museum Wolmirstedt record
  • 'VEB Pentacon Zeiss Ikon' — 35mmc

Kröger: VEB Zeiss Ikon had to hand its whole still-camera sector to the Kamera-Werke Niedersedlitz during 1957 and was all but dissolved the next year (his Pentax page); the Dresden makers were merged as the Kamera- und Kinowerke in 1959 and took the name Pentacon in 1964, after the F had ended (his history of the Dresden camera industry; the Markenlexikon agrees). Each of the first two names fits part of the run.

What reviewers say

History

The Contax F is the Dresden reflex Contax that stops the lens down for you. It was presented at the Leipzig autumn fair of 1956 together with its metered twin, the Contax FB, and the fair report in Bild & Ton describes what was new: lenses with a spring diaphragm that jumps to the preset aperture as the release is pressed, a field lens in the finder for a screen bright into the corners, and larger, easier-to-grip wind and rewind knobs; camera-wiki adds a bigger mirror. Underneath, it is still the Contax D: the same horizontal cloth focal-plane shutter, knob wind, mirror that stays up after the exposure, and the 42mm screw mount that the Contax S had taken over from the Praktiflex in 1949. praktica-collector.de gives production from September 1956 to June 1961 and Richard Hummel’s figure of 33,895 for the Contax F and Pentacon F together; Marco Kröger warns against trusting Hummel’s numbers.

The diaphragm release is a bar in the lens throat that pushes a pin in the lens. It is not a fully automatic diaphragm. A Carl Zeiss Jena lens with spring diaphragm is cocked by turning its aperture ring to full aperture; the release lets it snap to the working aperture just before the shutter runs, and after every exposure it has to be cocked again, which is why it was called semi-automatic. Kröger traces it to a 1952 patent by Walter Hennig and Horst Strehle of VEB Zeiss Ikon, and on one of his pages credits the lever-less form for the 42mm thread to a patent of March 1956 by Erich Biertümpfel and Rudolf Paul. Meyer-Optik Görlitz answered with a pressure diaphragm, first in the Primotar E 3.5/50 of the 1957 spring fair, which closes while the release is held down and reopens by itself. Lenses with or without preset diaphragm still fit and are stopped down by hand. The F was not the first camera with such a release, as camera-wiki has it: the Praktina had internally released spring-diaphragm lenses from 1953–54, and the Praktica FX2, shown at the spring fair of 1956, had the M42 version at about the same time or a little earlier. Kröger places the F’s release and its new finder in a gradual takeover of the Contax design by the Kamera-Werke Niedersedlitz, where the release had been introduced under Siegfried Böhm.

The finder gained a thin field lens cemented under a shortened prism, where the earlier bodies had the whole underside of the prism ground as the screen. Kröger says it raised the brightness at the edges a little and made it possible to fit the split-image wedges of the Contax FM. The screen of the F stays plain ground glass, the image is 21 × 31mm according to the German manual and is visible only while the shutter is wound, and long lenses and extension rings shade its top edge. As on every model of the line, the finder goes black after the exposure until the knob is turned. Speeds run from 1 s to 1/1000 in a red slow range and a black fast range, chosen with a separate control on the back of the top cover; the flash nipple is on the top cover beside the rewind knob, and the self-timer runs about ten seconds. The FB adds a photoelectric meter in the prism housing, like the Contax E’s, the FM the split image, the FBM both; they have pages of their own.

The camera carries two names. In the factory order numbers compiled by Yves Strobelt, the Contax F is 130 000 and the Pentacon F 133 000, listed as the Contax F “in neuer Bezeichnung”, under its new name. Pentacon, made from pentaprism and Contax, had been engraved on export bodies since the Contax D, while the Dresden works and Zeiss Ikon AG in Stuttgart fought over the old trademarks. praktica-collector.de says the home market kept Contax to the end; German Wikipedia says Pentacon was used generally from 1958, the Markenlexikon from the 1959 merger, and Kröger’s price lists have both names on sale in East Germany in 1959 and 1960 at the same price, 445 Mark for the body in 1959. The maker changed under the camera as well: during 1957 VEB Zeiss Ikon had to hand its still cameras to the Kamera-Werke Niedersedlitz, in 1958 it was all but dissolved, and in 1959 the Dresden makers were merged as VEB Kamera- und Kinowerke, which took the name Pentacon only in 1964. In the United States a “New 1957 Autom. Ritacon F” was advertised against the trade-in of an older Pentacon, Hexacon or ConSol, and Kröger names the American Camera Exchange as the Ritacon’s seller; a Consol F was given an order number but, Strobelt notes, existed only on paper. The 100,000th camera of the line was shown at the same 1956 fair as the F, and the F-type bodies recorded here run from 105291 to 152115, interleaved with the FB, FM and FBM.

Today the camera is sold almost entirely as the Pentacon F; “Contax F” rarely appears in a listing title. Kleinanzeigen asking prices in October 2026 ran from 100 euros with a Tessar and a hand meter to 400 euros with a Tessar, an extra Meyer-Optik lens and the case, and a body with a Voigtländer 200mm sold on Yahoo! Auctions in Japan for 17,080 yen. Look for the small F under the name and the bar in the throat (some late Contax E bodies already have the large knobs); a meter flap or a split image means another model. camera-wiki’s user notes warn that the shutter curtains of every camera in the line perish and gather pinholes even when they look sound, so a body with replaced curtains is the safer buy; a black finder is only an unwound camera, not a fault. The East German outfits came with the Primotar E, the Tessar 2.8/50 or the Biotar 2/58, and export lenses may read only “Jena T” or “Jena B”; lenses with or without preset diaphragm fit, but only a spring- or pressure-diaphragm lens uses the release. The 35mmc reviewer warns that the ribbed cocking ring of the standard lens stiffens with age until turning it can unscrew the lens instead. The bodies carry a camera number counted through the whole line and a factory lot number on the back; among the bodies recorded here, a seven-digit factory number beginning 50 belongs to the earlier ones.

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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

Contax F / Pentacon F
Contax F with the large Ernemann tower on the prism and a Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 50mm f/2.8 — Patrizio Venturi, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Contax F / Pentacon F
Pentacon F with the small Ernemann tower and a Carl Zeiss Jena Biotar 58mm f/2 — Kassander der Minoer, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

More sample photos elsewhere

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Related: Contax D / Pentacon · Contax FB / Pentacon FB · Contax FM / Pentacon FM

Lenses for this body: Biotar 58mm f/2 · Tessar 50mm f/2.8 (Jena, 1947 design) · Flektogon 35mm f/2.8 · Biotar 7.5cm f/1.5 · Tessar 5cm f/3.5 · Sonnar 13.5cm f/4 · Triotar 135mm f/4 · Biometar 80mm f/2.8 (35mm SLR, 1948 design) · Sonnar 180mm f/2.8 (Olympia-Sonnar) · Primotar 50mm f/3.5 (Primotar E) · Tessar 40mm f/4.5 (Jena, 1938 design)

Sources (27)

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.