Prepping for a special Contax SLR arrival

Thanks for the details Graham, and yes this camera is one of the two from the same seller you noted. At some point he must have decided to auction one, and offer the other as a BIN sale via ebay. Based on photo appearance alone, this may be the better of the two in terms of cosmetic condition, and the difference in price asked for the BIN, and price paid on this one, may have made it the better deal too. Once it's delivered I'll reach out with questions, but I got the impression from the lack of info in the description provided in the listing there might not be much more to tell. Both of them were pretty much identical in terms of the text, and no mention of condition or working status.

Whenever there's a design or engineering change, my brain automatically switches into 'Why' mode, and I try to grasp what prompted the change, and if there was a practical or aesthetic reason for it. The film holder replacement seems to have been intentional, as if there was a purpose for the plate that replaced it. I'd assume that if it was a nuisance part that caught on something when stored in the cockpit, or it simply wasn't needed, it could have been removed entirely and had a new one-piece covering placed on the back. They don't alter the function of course, but the rewind lever was turned into a plain knurled knob, and both strap lugs are removed and covered, so presumably those were modified to accommodate whatever handling issues they presented in operating the camera.

Your mention of serial numbers and quantities got me thinking... there's only 3 numerical digits, and I'd assume the total would be no more than 999, which leads me to wonder if these were issued to the plane and not the pilot as his/her personal gear. Every pilot presumably gets their own helmet and flight suit/goggles/gloves, but the same may not apply with these.

I'd totally agree on the idea that using gloves is definitely a challenge, and many of us who've worked cameras for a living in freezing cold climates knows how bitter that experience can be. :) I did notice the telltale signs of what looks like adhesive on the rewind cover swing outs on all these cameras, and I too am curious, but I also wonder if that's something a pilot/copilot would have to consider doing while flying. I have trouble picturing a pilot on an actual mission that's fumbling with film cartridges to reload a new one - gloves or otherwise. Not exactly what I'd want to see on the EU's version of 'America's Funniest Videos' TV show if s/he drops a cartridge.

... and yes... you're correct in noticing my terrible faux-pas on model #'s. SA 130 appears to be a Contax 137MA, and I should certainly know better.

After a long period of zero movement, it is finally here. I'll take a bit of time to do some initial cleanup before shooting some photos of it. In the meantime I can offer a few pieces of information on function.

A fresh set of AA batteries will get it into 'ready mode', without any need to flip a switch or push any lever or button. It's immediately armed to fire once the clip holder is popped into place, so it's a little startling to hear a quick motor advance to re-engage the rewind button. This confirms that the button is indeed accessible from the flip-out cover, and does exactly what it was designed to do once a roll of film is exhausted. It won't answer the question on whether cartridges were changed mid-flight by gloved hands - only that it would be possible.

This brings up the shutter functions, and how they're done. The regular shutter release button has been neutered and rendered useless. It can't be depressed at all, and is in a much lower position inside the cavity it normally resides in. I haven't any way of knowing if the entire contacts assembly was removed and the button cap was cemented in place, but it wouldn't surprise me if that was the case. There's certainly no half-press or spriginess in it. The primary shutter trigger is literally the trigger on the attached pistol grip, and yes, there are 2 triggers, and not just one, where the other piece is a finger rest. Either can be pressed to trip the shutter, with the index finger's trigger at the front accepting inward pressure, and the horizontal angled piece is actually a lever that accepts downward pressure to do the same task. I can also add that the shutter is always in continuous firing mode, although a quick press of the pistol trigger(s) can get a single shot off without continued pressure. That explains the missing selection lever on what firing mode it runs in, as now there is only one mode.

Moving to the 3-way lever surrounding the now-useless shutter button that's ordinarily used for AE lock, battery testing, and the on/off switch - and - the Red/Green LED bulb next to it has changed. I haven't run film through it to test everything, but at first glance it looks like it's been modified to disable the AE lock function... that position is no longer selectable. Everything points to the idea that there's no longer any of the manual functions that would have been present on a 137MA. I'm guessing that the 3 FPS speed of the MA was important from an operational performance perspective, but the 137MD's 'Auto-Only' exposure capability was preferred for their purposes, and once again, that override functionality was neutered or outright removed since it wasn't wanted. The ring that normally has the ability to set any of the speeds for manual exposure choices under the rewind knob just spins on its axis, with no detents. With some effort, the ASA/ISO dial can be set to any of the usual film speeds, but aside from that, there seems to be nothing to allow for any type of manual overrides in the usual way. The LED does shift to Green when the lever is moved into the 'battery check' position, but once released it will instantly pop back into the 'On' position and switch to Red, so it seems pointless to have it work the way it does. There's one more caveat about being powered on from the moment the batteries are inserted... the camera seems to have a delay and the light goes out and goes into a quasi 'sleep mode'. One push of the trigger(s) will fire a shot or series of them off, and it lights the lamp again, so in this simplified sleep mode - only the LED goes out, and the delay has no effect on the power circuit.

The grip itself is attached to the bottom plate, and the battery clip is secured once the screw at the bottom of the grip is turned. The all metal grip has been wired to a 4 pin male connector on the inside of the bottom cover plate, and it mates to a 4 pin female connector attached inside the lower body cavity that holds the batteries. I'll test at some point to see if all 4 pins are used, or if both triggers are wired in parallel. I suppose it's possible that they could be independant, but it hardly seems necessary, unless I've missed something.

The article I'd mentioned earlier about camera # SA 137 and it's 100mm f/2 lens, shows that there's a brass inner collar that's responsible for locking its focus to infinity. At this point I'm unsure if the same has been done to SA 130, but there is evidence that the 'green paint' may indeed be some sort of dried liquid or paint that may have been used to do the same lock-up on the 85mm like Loctite does on screw threads. The aperture is also locked at f/8, and the aperture ring has the remnants of the same dried green spots... as does the UV filter and it's unique rubber-rimmed protection ring. The camera arrived with the lens separated from the body, and there was nothing in the way of a button or a plug in the release button's hole, so there's no way of knowing just yet how this particular camera was delivered for service from the company doing the modifications.

There are a couple of things that were obvious add-ons to the standard 137 Contax. One was pretty obvious from the seller's photos, and the other was obscured. The piece that's acting as the white aiming stripe is permanently attached into the hot shoe. It looks like it has a pin driven through it and into the 'meat' of the of the plastic portion of the shoe. To go along with that as the primary way of pointing the camera when in use, the other photos I've seen show that the viewfinders on these had been blocked somehow, and no TTL view was possible. Either this camera never had a plug of this type, or it's fallen out at some point. The view is unobscured, but the rear-most element is gone, so it's impossible to get clear focus. This may have been done for practical purposes, but the mirror is certainly still in place, and it functions as it should during firing. That suggests there was no tampering with the light path used in metering, and presumably means that any meter measurements and/or neutering work done was purely at the circuit level.

As for the piece that replaced the film memo holder on the film door... I can't really offer anything to explain what it is at this point. The 5 rivets don't match up to any holes on the pressure plate, and I don't have a spare 137 back that I can hack up to see if they are just filling the holes left after the original holder was removed, but that's what I'm guessing it might turn out to be. The holder may just have been a nuisance piece that could have hung up on something, and was simply removed to keep it from happening. Matching the back up to a 137MA, a 137MD, and even a CGCM (based on a 137), it shows the width and overall placement to be be nearly identical, with only the height taking up 100% of the same spot, splitting the leatherette into two pieces. (Much easier to refit a replacement cover, too)

After the few weeks since it's purchase, I haven't received any reply from anyone at Saab AB. I also sent a similar inquiry email to the Swedish Military's contact office a few days later - and no reply from them either. I may try to contact the author of the article about SA 137 and see if he can offer anything additional, but I have a feeling there will still be some unanswered questions without some official reply from either the Swedish Air Force - or someone in military procurement - or Saab. I plan on doing more investigating on the lens and some of the internals, and I'm toying with the idea of making the lens fully workable again - but - leaving the visible green spots in place to make them visual reminders of its historical past. That's not a certainty at this point, and I already have a wonderful set of 85mm Sonnars to use on-camera, so it wouldn't give me anything I'd be missing if it was 'fixed'.

So... cleanup, then photos to follow later.