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

Contax FM / Pentacon FM

Zeiss Ikon Dresden · M42 mount · 24×36mm on 35mm film (Pentacon F manuals) · 1958

via machine translation — corrections welcome our own finding

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

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Contax FM M42 1958–1961 — praktica-collector.de, which follows Richard Hummel's book, gives 17,280 for the Contax FM and the Pentacon FM together, September 1958 to June 1961; there is no separate count for either name. Marco Kröger cites Hummel's total for the whole line only 'as far as Hummel's figures can be believed' and elsewhere tells readers not to trust any of them, and bodies are numbered above that line total.
Pentacon FM M42 1958–1961 — Included in praktica-collector.de's 17,280 for the FM; no separate figure
  1. Consol FM (order number 136 000, 'Contax FM 134 000 in USA Bezeichnung') is left out as a variant: Strobelt notes on his order-number list that the whole Consol F series existed only on paper.
  2. praktica-collector.de has three FM pages: 104 'Contax FM' (body 125521), 105 'Pentacon FM' (162922) and a second 105 page, 'Pentacon FM large tower' (123295), which gives production to July 1961 where the other two say June 1961. Both 105 pages belong to the pentacon-fm variant; the tower size is recorded under serial_notes. The numbered examples there are cameras in that site's own collection, shown with the catalogue numbers of Hummel, Schulz and Kadlubek. The site does not name the source of its production figures and dates, but it follows Hummel's model numbering and its line total of 187,000 is the 186,990 that Kröger attributes to Hummel's book.
  3. Lenses seen on FM bodies: the Tessar 2.8/50 on all three praktica-collector.de bodies and on a Kleinanzeigen outfit of July 2026; the Meyer-Optik Görlitz Primotar E 3.5/50 with a Pentacon leather case on willhaben.at (50 euros, untested, September 2026); a West German ISCO-Göttingen Westagon 1:2/50 on s58y's body 189xxx, and an ISCO-Göttingen Westrocolor 1:1,9/50 no. 768056 on a Kleinanzeigen FM of October 2026; and an Enna wide-angle on a Kleinanzeigen FM of August 2026. A Pentacon F with an ISCO-Göttingen 2.8/50 was offered on finn.no in 2025. The Westagon in s58y's photograph has its own release arm, engraved ISCO, fitted over the camera's sloping release. Whether the ISCO outfits were put together by an importer or by later owners is not known.
  4. davidde.com gives an X-sync of 1/20 s, which matches the German manual's setting for electronic flash, and a weight of 620 g without a source; his comparison table gives the same 620 g for the Praktica FX3, and calls the FM's screen a Fresnel, which the manuals do not.
  5. camera-wiki says the Contax F was the first camera with an automatic diaphragm release and davidde.com says the same of open-aperture focusing; Kröger dates internally released spring-diaphragm lenses to the Praktina of 1953–54 and the M42 release to the Praktica FX2 of spring 1956 (see the Contax F page).
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • A small 'FM' under the name on the prism front, 'Contax' or 'Pentacon'
  • Two split-image wedges in a clear circle at the centre of the screen (Pentacon F manuals); an F or FB has a plain screen, and a selenium meter under a hinged flap in the prism housing means an FBM
  • Otherwise the Contax F: a bar in the lens throat that trips a spring-diaphragm lens, large wind and rewind knobs, the flash nipple beside the rewind knob, self-timer lever under the sloping release, no accessory shoe

Contax FM:

  • 'Contax' on the prism front with 'FM' centred beneath it and the stylised Ernemann tower on the sloping face above; no Zeiss Ikon logo and no 'VEB' (Rolf-Dresden's photograph on Commons; praktica-collector.de's 125521, where the lens hides the FM)
  • Both Contax FM bodies photographed have the large tower (praktica-collector.de's 125521 and Rolf-Dresden's), but the Pentacon FM shows that the tower size changed during production rather than with the name
  • Factory order number 134 000, described in the order list as 'Contax FM, Spiegelreflex-Kleinbildkamera ohne Optik (mit Meßkeil, Springblende und Bildfeldlinse)', a body sold without lens, with wedges, spring-diaphragm release and field lens (Yves Strobelt's order-number list, compiled from Pentacon's item-number register, brochures, manuals and boxes)

Pentacon FM:

  • 'Pentacon' on the prism front with 'FM' centred beneath it and an Ernemann tower without the letters ZI above (Kröger's 134794, 161744 and 190106; praktica-collector.de's 123295 and 162922; s58y's photograph on Commons)
  • The tower size is not a model marker: 123295 and 134794 have the large tower, 161744, 162922, 189xxx and 190106 the small one
  • Factory order number 131 000, listed as 'PENTACON FM (= Contax FM 134 000 in neuer Bezeichnung)', the Contax FM under its new name (Strobelt's order-number list)

Serial-range notes

two numbers on every body
VEB Zeiss Ikon gave its cameras a Kameranummer, counted through the whole reflex Contax line from the S onward, 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 the break came is not known, but he links it to the winding-down of VEB Zeiss Ikon between 1956 and 1958.
about 100000
The 100,000th camera of the line was shown at the Leipzig autumn fair of 1956 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 (Kröger). Every FM recorded here is numbered above 120,000.
123295–190106
FM bodies recorded here: 123295 (Pentacon FM), 125521 (Contax FM), 134794 (Pentacon FM), 161744 (Pentacon FM, factory-tested October 1959), 162922, 189xxx and 190106 (all Pentacon FM). They share one sequence with the F, FB and FBM: the F-type bodies on the Contax F page run from 105291 to 152115, and Kröger has a Pentacon FBM numbered 188867. 190106 and 189xxx lie above Hummel's total of about 187,000 for the whole line, and Kröger knows of numbers well above 190,000.
Fabrikationsnummern 4xxxxx
Strobelt observed that the factory numbers ran in six digits to about 267xxx, switched for a time to seven digits beginning 50, and then went back to six digits at about 400xxx. Kröger's Pentacon FM 134794 carries 432438, and praktica-collector.de's back view of Contax FM 125521 shows a six-digit number on the lower rail of the back that reads 428454, so the FM falls in the later six-digit series.
tower size
Read from photographs: the large Ernemann tower on Pentacon FM 123295 and 134794, on Contax FM 125521 and on Rolf-Dresden's Contax FM; the small tower on Pentacon FM 161744, 162922, 189xxx and 190106. On this evidence the Pentacon FM changed from the large to the small tower somewhere between 134794 and 161744; the change point is not known, and no numbered Contax FM with the small tower has been seen.

Specifications

Format
24×36mm on 35mm film (Pentacon F manuals) · 36 or 20 from standard daylight cartridges; the manual also allows other cartridge fillings and bulk film cut to lengths of up to 1.60 m exposures
Finder
fixed eye-level pentaprism, shortened at its base with a thin field lens cemented beneath it; a split-image wedge pair in a clear circle at the centre of the field lens, ground glass around it
Shutter
horizontal-travel rubberised-cloth focal plane, as on the Contax D and F (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 slider on the back of the top cover to the right of the eyepiece, then the speed knob is pressed and turned (Pentacon F manuals; Mike Eckman) · flash sync a single-pole contact nipple on the top cover beside the rewind knob, for bulbs and electronic flash. The German manual's table gives 1/10 s or longer for most bulbs (1/20 s with less even light), 1/20 s or longer for the Philips PF 1 and 1/50 s for the Philips PF 24 and PF 45, and says to set 1/20 s or longer for electronic flash; the English manual's bulb table gives no speed for electronic flash. No accessory shoe (Pentacon F manuals; praktica-collector.de; davidde.com) · self-timer
Film advance
knob: one turn winds the shutter, advances film and frame counter and lowers the mirror; loose take-up spool, one empty spool (201 010) packed with every body according to the order list; frame counter set by hand on loading (Pentacon F manuals; praktica-collector.de)
Back
hinged on the left, with deep light-trap channels and a velvet-like edging in place of light seals (Mike Eckman); a latch for the back, a rewind release button in the base and a folding support under the lens mount (Pentacon F manuals; Eckman)
Meter
none (the Contax FBM adds the selenium meter of the FB)
Designed by
Winzenburg Wilhelm — led the design of the Contax S of 1949, on which the FM is built · Hennig Walter — responsible designer of the line from the Contax D on (praktica-collector.de, which spells it Henning)
Weight
586 g
Country
East Germany
Original price
In East Germany, Kröger's price list gives the Pentacon FM body at 508 Mark in 1959 and 382 Mark in 1960, the year of the price cut of 28 May 1960, against 445 and 337 Mark for the Pentacon F body; the list carries no Contax FM and no FM outfit price. davidde.com says the FM, with the Tessar, retailed in North America for about $230 in 1958 and was sometimes advertised as low as $160, without naming the advertisements, so no figure is entered as a number.
Accessories
Eyecup, and correction lenses in a mount that fits the eyepiece (Pentacon F manuals) · Wire release that screws into the release knob, with a lock for time exposures (Pentacon F manuals) · An intermediate tube, a set of intermediate rings, and a special intermediate ring with a double release that keeps the automatic diaphragm working (Pentacon F manuals) · Copying stand, slide copier, light box, micro attachment, focusing telescope, angle finder, frame finder, universal stand, chestpod, bellows, focusing slide, ever-ready case and accessory case, flash unit, colour filters, lens hoods, developing tank: the German manual's accessory list · Ever-ready case: retinarescue.com's Pentacon FM came in an original case much taller than the body, which its owner thinks was made for a metered model

Mike Eckman calls the split image the FM's only new feature over the Contax F. Kröger explains that the field lens cemented under a shortened prism from 1956 is what made a wedge pair (Meßkeilpaar) possible; the S, D and E have the whole underside of the prism ground as the screen. The German Pentacon manual calls the FM's finder the 'Meßlupe': two part images displaced against each other and divided by a line meet as one image when the lens is in focus, most easily seen on strong lines crossing the dividing line at a right angle. The same manual says the image is upright, right way round and, with the spring-diaphragm standard lens, life-size; it measures 21 × 31mm and is visible only while the shutter is wound, and long lenses and extension rings shade its top edge. davidde.com finds the centre spot very bright and the rest of the screen fairly dim with f/2.8 and slower lenses; Mike Eckman calls the split image large and bright. The screen is not interchangeable (davidde.com). The mirror stays up after the exposure until the knob is wound.

Figures we worked out rather than found: The split image added 63 Mark to the Pentacon F body price in 1959 (508 against 445 Mark) and 45 Mark in 1960 (382 against 337), from Kröger's price list. · Between the 100,000th body (autumn 1956) and Pentacon FM 161744 (factory-tested October 1959) the line averaged about 1,700 numbers a month. At that rate 123295 and 125521 would date from about the end of 1957, and 134794 from about mid-1958. This assumes the 100,000th camera carried the number 100000, and numbers need not have been issued evenly, so it only shows that the 1957 captions are not impossible; it does not replace Hummel's September 1958.

Where sources disagree

First
  • September 1958 — praktica-collector.de (Hummel); 1958 — camera-wiki, Mike Eckman, davidde.com, retinarescue.com
  • 1957 — Rolf-Dresden's caption on Commons ('Baujahr 1957'); '1957-19??' — s58y's caption for body 189xxx

Better supported: 1958

Neither 1957 caption gives a source, and s58y's body is numbered near the end of the run. The lowest FM numbers recorded here (123295, 125521) could still predate September 1958 if numbers were issued evenly (see `derived`).

Last
  • June 1961 — praktica-collector.de's Contax FM and Pentacon FM pages (Hummel)
  • July 1961 — praktica-collector.de's 'Pentacon FM large tower' page
  • 1959 — retinarescue.com ('from 1958 to 1959')
  • 1961 — Mike Eckman

Better supported: 1961

Pentacon FM 161744, tested in October 1959, was not sold until June 1961, so the sale date of a body says little about when it was made.

Weight (grams)
  • 586 g body weight in s58y's caption for body 189xxx
  • 620 g — davidde.com, unsourced

Better supported: 586

Production
  • 17,280 Contax FM and Pentacon FM, September 1958 to June 1961 — praktica-collector.de (Hummel)
  • Hummel's total for the whole line, 186,990 or about 187,000, is exceeded by Pentacon FM 189xxx and 190106

Kröger cites Hummel's line total only 'as far as Hummel's figures can be believed', and elsewhere on the same page tells readers not to trust any of Hummel's figures. No factory figure for the FM has been found.

Maker
  • VEB Zeiss Ikon Dresden — praktica-collector.de; Mike Eckman
  • VEB Kamera- und Kinowerke Dresden — the back cover of the German Pentacon F/FM/FB manual; the guarantee card of Pentacon FM 161744 (October 1959) carries the KW diamond on the front and the name VEB Kamera- und Kinowerke Dresden on the back

Kröger: during 1957 VEB Zeiss Ikon had to hand its whole still-camera sector to the much smaller VEB Kamera-Werke Niedersedlitz, and in 1958 it was all but dissolved; the Dresden makers were merged as VEB Kamera- und Kinowerke in 1959 (camera-wiki), renamed Pentacon in 1964. The FM was launched after the handover.

What reviewers say

History

The Contax FM is a Contax F with a rangefinder in the finder. When the F arrived in 1956, the Dresden works had at last put a thin field lens under a shortened prism, where the earlier bodies had the whole underside of the prism ground as the screen; Marco Kröger points out that the change brightened the edges only a little but made room for a pair of split-image wedges, and the FM, with its metered twin the FBM, is the camera that has them. The order-number list that Yves Strobelt compiled from factory documents describes it exactly that way: a 35mm reflex sold without lens, “with wedges, spring-diaphragm release and field lens”. Everything else is the F: the horizontal rubberised-cloth shutter from 1 s to 1/1000 in a red slow range and a black fast range, the knob wind that also lowers the mirror, the bar in the lens throat that trips a spring-diaphragm lens, the large knobs, the flash nipple beside the rewind knob and the sloping front release with a self-timer lever below it. praktica-collector.de, which follows Richard Hummel’s book, gives production from September 1958 to June 1961 and 17,280 for the Contax FM and Pentacon FM together. Kröger cites Hummel’s total for the whole line only “as far as Hummel’s figures can be believed”, and no fair report announcing the FM has been found.

The German Pentacon manual calls the finder the “Meßlupe”. In the clear centre of the field lens two part images, displaced against each other and divided by a line, meet as one image when the lens is in focus, most easily on strong lines that cross the divide at a right angle. The manual describes the image as upright, the right way round and life-size with the spring-diaphragm standard lens, 21 × 31mm and visible only while the shutter is wound; long lenses and extension rings shade its top edge. Users agree about the centre: Mike Eckman calls the split image large and bright, and davidde.com finds the spot far brighter than the rest of the screen, which goes dim with f/2.8 and slower lenses. Focusing is at full aperture with a Jena spring-diaphragm lens, cocked by turning its front ring, or with Meyer-Optik’s pressure-diaphragm lenses such as the Primotar E; other lenses are stopped down by hand. The FBM adds the selenium meter of the FB to the same finder and has a page of its own.

The camera carries two names. In Strobelt’s order numbers the Contax FM is 134 000 and the Pentacon FM 131 000, “the Contax FM under its new name”; a Consol FM for the United States was numbered too, but Strobelt notes that the Consol series existed only on paper. Pentacon, from pentaprism and Contax, had been registered in October 1952, according to praktica-collector.de, and engraved on export bodies since the Contax D, while the Dresden works and Zeiss Ikon AG in Stuttgart fought over the old trademarks; the same works filed “Pentax” in September 1952, a name Asahi later had to buy from it. By the time of the FM the maker had changed as well. During 1957 VEB Zeiss Ikon had to hand its still cameras to the much smaller Kamera-Werke Niedersedlitz, in 1958 it was all but dissolved, and in 1959 the Dresden makers were merged as VEB Kamera- und Kinowerke, which became Pentacon in 1964. The guarantee card of Pentacon FM 161744, stamped October 1959, already carries the KW diamond and the name Pentacon on the front and VEB Kamera- und Kinowerke Dresden on the back, and the German manual for the F, FM and FB is published by the same VEB Kamera- und Kinowerke Dresden. praktica-collector.de and Mike Eckman describe the Pentacon as the export version, but the Pentacon FM was sold at home as well: Kröger’s East German price lists show the FM only under that name, 508 Mark for the body in 1959 and 382 Mark in 1960, 63 and 45 Mark more than a Pentacon F, and 161744 carries the stamp of the HO Fotohaus in Leipzig, dated 5 June 1961. Both names were engraved, “FM” small under “Contax” or “Pentacon” on the prism front, but the Contax FM is the rare one today.

The FM’s numbers run through the same sequence as the F, FB and FBM. The bodies recorded here run from 123295 to 190106: Pentacon FM 161744 was tested at the factory in October 1959 and sold in June 1961, and 190106 lies above Hummel’s total of about 187,000 for the whole line, which Kröger doubts. The 100,000th camera of the line had been shown at the autumn fair of 1956, two years before the FM. Two Commons photographers caption their FMs 1957 without saying why, against the 1958 of every other source. The Ernemann tower above the name came in two sizes. On the photographed Pentacon FMs the large one belongs to the earlier numbers, 123295 and 134794, and the small one to the later, from 161744 on; both Contax FMs seen have the large one, so the tower does not separate a Contax from a Pentacon.

Sellers list the camera as the Pentacon FM. Between July and October 2026 asking prices on Kleinanzeigen in Germany ran from 70 to 120 euros for bodies with a lens or accessories, an untested body with a Primotar E 3.5/50 and a Pentacon case was offered in Austria for 50 euros, and a body for parts in the Netherlands for 19.99 euros. Look for the FM under the name and the wedges in the finder; a meter flap in the prism housing means an FBM. davidde.com found the FM hard to find in working order and expects a neglected body to need repair. Eckman warns that pinholed, torn and stuck cloth curtains are common on these cameras, and he and one of his readers found the slow/fast slider stiff and the speed knob catching between settings. There is no accessory shoe. The Tessar 2.8/50 is the usual lens on these bodies, often engraved only “Jena T”, a form the German manual itself uses; two Pentacon FMs, and a Pentacon F, have turned up with West German ISCO-Göttingen lenses instead, one of them with its own release arm over the camera’s release, and whether an importer or a later owner put them together is not known. Retinarescue.com’s FM came in its original case, much taller than the body, which its owner thinks was made for a metered Pentacon E or FBM: a case that came with a camera was not necessarily made for it.

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 — but no human wrote these sentences.

Photographs

Contax FM / Pentacon FM
Contax FM with the large Ernemann tower and a Carl Zeiss Jena lens — Rolf-Dresden, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Contax FM / Pentacon FM
Pentacon FM, body 189xxx, with the small Ernemann tower and an ISCO-Göttingen Westagon 50mm f/2 whose release arm fits over the camera's release — s58y, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

More sample photos elsewhere

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Live listings

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Related: Contax F / Pentacon F · Contax FBM / Pentacon FBM

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 (26)

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.