Brochures

Well I'm more than a little curious now that these anomalies start showing up. I can confirm that you're correct on the 50mm after looking at the insert with an 8x loupe. It certainly is unmistakable that it's indeed an f/2 model, but additionally, without a straight on front-facing shot, there's no way to be absolutely sure if it's a new DX model, or the ML version as-printed on both sides of the insert. I just got another DX 50mm, so I'll compare and see if I can narrow down what lens is really in the photo.

There is one other possibility on the MC's, and it wouldn't be the first time it has happened, for both Yashica and Zeiss/Contax brands... there may be more than one version of a lens, where the optical formula gets changed for whatever reason and this insert just reflects whatever the currently released version was when this was printed.

I only have a NOS boxed version of the MC 35-70mm, and although there's no drawing to show the physical optical diagram on it's data sheet, the textual details are a 100% match to the TR7000 insert.

For added reference, here's a scan of the front of the same TR7000 insert, and it too shows the f/2 50mm as an ML version. There's no legend or other printing details on the sheet itself to show where or when it was printed, so I'm inclined to think it might have been done somewhere other than the US or Japan, and someone wasn't paying attention to the proof and/or they were provided with the wrong photo or MC lens details and the mistakes just weren't caught in time before these made there way into packaging.

I prefer to think the lens inserts inside the product box will be accurate, before assuming that any other printed material would be 100%... with the possible exception of dealer pages provided by Yashica/Kyocera.

After pulling out 3 of the later model 50mm lenses - the DX f/2, the ML f/2, and the ML 1.9 - they're indistinguishable from each other as far as their physical characteristics are concerned. The 2 'C' versions of the ML 1.9's I have are probably packed away but if memory serves, they are not the same in profile and likely wouldn't get confused like the other 3... so it's impossible to guess which f/2 is shown in this insert. It's understandable why halftone photos could have been mistaken in a rush to get the print job underway and my guess is that it wasn't worth the time/money/effort to pull already printed inserts because of of that mistake alone.

After an initial search for online photos, I was unable to locate anything from the internal pages of the data sheets for the MC 75-200mm, so if someone has one, it would help to compare the details on see what that might offer to resolving the groupings and other details too.

Hi Michael,

Many thanks for these. 

One of the sections - Contax Aria - has finally answered one of the Contax mysteries for me: the origin of a really nice two-tone canvas carrying case.  I've always enjoyed using it but it's quite small and now I discover it was part of an Aria Set, which now makes sense.  I wonder if the set was exclusive to Germany or German-speaking countries which might help explain the rarity of the case?  

Hi bp_reid

Thank you very much for the steer to Ffordes. I see their one is in black and tan (not a combination that would find favour with our Irish friends!) instead of the more usual green and tan.

There must be a brochure somewhere that I've missed which refers to a Contax CCS Gladstone bag/case as that is the first time I've seen it so named. It also had the potential for confusion as there was a CCS reference in an old Contax price list which was for a 'Contax Case - Special' but that pre-dates the Aria. My case carries no reference to CCS on it; only the Heritage name appears on a leather zip-tab. Sadly, CCS abandoned UK manufacturing of their cases, including the Heritage range, back in 2006; it was such a pity as those Heritage cases are beautifully made.  Ffordes' price is pretty decent as I've seen them sell on auction sites (Catawiki, Ebay, Rakuten) for quite a bit more.

As for that German flyer for the Aria Set, I've not been able to find a UK equivalent; have you seen any literature referring specifically to a Contax Gladstone bag? 

Contax marketed a few special cases - I'm particularly thinking of the GoldPfeil case for the G-series - which did not always appear in the standard brochures.  I wonder if there was a trade leaflet referring to the Gladstone bag/case as someone must have been selling them here in the UK?  By the time of the Contax System Brochure Vol. 2, Kyocera had abandoned all mention of system cases/bags except for the G-series.  The Gladstone will happily house an AX, a couple of lenses and a TLA360 flash; it remains one of the nicest cases to carry the Contax name.