1963 - the Zeiss year.

[cerealjoe]

Please say hello to a new addition to the family, the Zeiss Ikon Contessamat SBE. A rangefinder from 1963 and this is the first photo I took with it.

(Zeiss. Kodak 200. I love my ego.)

I am rather happy with the way the photos came out overall considering that the iris is stuck in f22. Yes, f22! It was quite hard getting my head around that as I'm usually stopping at f8. Taking photos with this camera showed me just how much I still relied on the "automatic" aperture/shutter speed calculations on the Chinon and Zenit. Here, although there is a primitive calculator that shows you when technically you're out of bounds, everything was manual. Great way to learn to work with a small aperture and to test the stability of my hands. The amount of photos which aren't too blurry is incredible even though the shutter speeds mostly went from 1/30 to 1/2. Modern cameras don't even let you use those kinds of speeds without two stabilisers... But seriously, 1963. They don't make these kinds of things these days, do they? There really is something to be said about old school Zeiss and one day I'll convince myself that I really should spend all that money on an old school Leica, one day!