Toshiba Contax 137MD hybrid camera

Ooooooh! Could we see the front please! 

About 1986 do you think?

Ah! Thanks Graham .... it might solve a small mystery regarding the engraving of a number on the Toshiba 137MD photo I have on the Contax Family Tree chart. I think the Owner/Lab/Institute/Company that owned the model below probably engraved the number on it rather than it leaving Contax with it on! I notice that your example does not have a corresponding engraving.

Thanks for the clarification! Yes the plate must be nearer the lens mount and hard to spot in your photo. The person who provided the photo of 861232 could not tell me anything significant about the camera's use unfortunately ... he just allowed me to use his photo on my chart.

It's a surprise to see one under a Toshiba label, but I'm guessing that they appreciated the qualities offered in the camera in much the same way that Zeiss (for microscope/lab use) and the Swiss Air Force (reconnaissance) did for its adaptability and durability. I've seen other 3rd party adaptations using Yashica FR/107/108 bodies and similar, but there are times when a user really needs something 'bulletproof'.

The 4-shot composite...



I've been compiling photos of a number of these lab/medical cameras from various manufacturers under a single album in the testbed. They may or may not give much detail in who/what/why, but they all seem to fall into the same basic category of commercially adapted photo gear that's never intended for the retail market. The album is here: testbed.lumiworx.com/#15862891059445

EDIT to add: I'm not sure that any angle of these shots allow for confirmation, but it looks like the front assembly is clamped onto the tens grip from the top, and the camera body might be screwed into the extended bottom 'plate' of the assembly, similar to what a quick release plate for a tripod would offer. Here's a closeup crop of the top-down shot...

To be honest biggles3, I hesitated to call what you've pointed to as likely to be a 13mm extension tube by it's brand or functional name, due to the odd rounded bump seen atop the grip surface (that I badly termed as "lens grip"). If it were either a Yashica or Contax tube, I'd normally see it and think that would be the release button, but if it was, it's on the wrong 'side' and is the wrong size and shape, plus it's black instead of silver/chrome. That's not to say that the assessment of what it is could be incorrect... only that there might be more going on under the hood. It's hard to even guess if it's concealing something inside, but that bump has me wondering it's it's some kind of plug or cap for a hole, and there's been some special sauce added that's tied to whatever device it's all connected to.

I'm guessing, but ordinarily an orange filter is destined for use with B&W film, but is it possible that it's a weak dichroic filter? That would put it on a par with what's on a few of the microscope-bound CGCM body types I've seen and the RTS I'd acquired that still had the add-on adapter and filter attached in place of a lens. It had a rather strong and highly reflective dichroic on it, that exceeded what others seem to have.

Another guess on the rubber hood.... sometimes it's easy to use an off the shelf piece of hardware that's meant as a shade, and turn it into a non-reflective gap filler inside that 'custom' box. Not remaking the wheel in creating another custom assembly allows for R&D and manufacturing time and cost to be put somewhere else too.

Hi lumiworx

Sorry it's taken me 6 months to get around to checking the Toshiba but I only found it again this morning.

Looking at the lens throat, you can see the odd configuration of tabs which relate to the standard C/Y mount of the lens.   When the lens is attached, the red dot on the camera mount is aligned with the right hand f16 mark on the lens barrel (as you look from the front) rather than the centre line.





Toshiba 137MD hybrid_mount


That bump to which we referred earlier allows the lens to be removed.