Analog Therapy/Personal Favorite SLR: Contax 137 MA Quartz – Yashica CY 28mm f/2.8 – Fujifilm 400.

As stated in the blog title the Contax 137 MA Quartz…

…is my personal favorite SLR. A claim I do not make lightly since there are other SLRs I rather like. Had quite a few of them. But when things got out of hand and it came time to thin the SLR herd this is a camera that was going nowhere. Never once thought of selling it. Why? I am glad I imagined you asked. While covered in great detail in the linked review, it comes down to sentimental and practical variables.

Sentimental

I picked up a copy with tattered leather (very common) for nearly nothing.
At first, I stripped it down to bare metal and it was a good looking camera, but slippery as a bar of soap.

Then for less than $20 I ordered a new skin and after a few minutes I now had an even better looking camera on my hands.

Practical

Even before dressing it up with a skin I quickly realized this was a very capable camera. So much so that it knocked my favorite SLR at that time off of its pedestal.

Gave access to top tier Zeiss glass as well as very good and reasonably priced Yashica and third party glass.

Contax 137 MA Quartz - Ilford HP5 — Contax CY Zeiss Planar 50mm f/1.7

Truth be told in this case the Zeiss lens stayed plastered to the front of the 137 so I eventually let go of the other lenses. Perfectly good lenses, but I never used them. There is nothing wrong with them. It is just that the Zeiss lens is so good.

Update:

Everything above, except the updated camera pic, was lifted from an earlier post. I had sold the Yashica and Soligor lens for reasons that made sense then, but stopped making sense. So I repurchased these focal lengths. Bought another Yashica 135mm f/2.8…

…but the odd duck third party Soligor was replaced with a Yashica 28mm f/2.8.

Each cost about $50, which is awesome. So, once again, I have a three lens CY prime kit.

This post here is with the 28mm. Brought it along as I went about my way recently. I usually burn through film with a “normal” lens. Give me something about 40-50mm and I am off to the races. For reasons I have yet to fully sort out wider and longer lenses take me longer to finish a roll. I think I know why. Long lenses require distance which tends to slow things down a bit to focus and frame properly. I usually do a bit better with lenses about 28mm or wider, but they go more slowly, also. Focusing is not an issue, but perhaps it has to do with having to get up on your subject… maybe? At least when wide scenes are not your thing. Then zone focus is your friend. But this time it took quite a few days to muscle through the roll for some reason… Anyhoo.

The film.

Went with a favorite color film of mine, Fujifilm 400. As usual developed at home Using Cinestill CS41.

Here is most of the roll.

As should come as no surprise, the roll started with a visit to the local camera shop.