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on Sept 9, 2019 10:07:51 GMT
Posted: Sept 9, 2019 10:07:51 GMT
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Status: Long, long time Contax and Yashica user; glad to be here and hope to contribute.
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on Sept 9, 2019 11:54:34 GMT
Posted: Sept 9, 2019 11:54:34 GMT
Hi ariel,
This looks like a re-listing on Ebay as I spotted this on their US site a couple of weeks ago. It is actually a Contax CGCM which, as you surmised, is based on the 137MD.
If your ordered 10 or more, you could have them with your own logo. Most, but not all, of them had CGCM in the Contax font on the top left of the front plate, just below the pentaprism, as shown in the piccie below. The risk in buying one is that you can't power it as they usually took their power from the instrument to which they were attached and synchronised; I have a mix of 6, 8, 11 and 12 pin connectors. Also, there were many variations of internal components - in the photo you can only see one with a complete mirror/shutter assembly and two of them have no shutters at all as they were attached to microscope devices with their own Prontor shutters. I do not know how many CGCMs were manufactured or how many variants were produced; the most extreme version of the 137MD I know of is the M35W at the top left.
Contax 137MD Variants res
In most cases, the CGCM was merely a light-tight, motorised film transport mechanism.
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on Sept 9, 2019 12:13:45 GMT
Posted: Sept 9, 2019 12:13:45 GMT
Very interesting information, but what a waste of parts and materials, if used just as a light-tight motorized film transport mechanism then all the controls and advance lever on the top plate are for nothing, the same with the focusing screen, prism, the light on the front, the leather, the rings for the strap and the DOF mechanism.
BTW... Why did you buy those cameras if not able to use them? Just for the spare parts or as a collector?
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on Sept 9, 2019 14:08:21 GMT
Last Edit: Sept 9, 2019 14:16:04 GMT by biggles3
Hi ariel,
A mix of both...
The cameras top centre and right I can use with that CGCM Control Box on the bottom left. The camera bottom right I use with one of my microscopes via a Zeiss Prontor Magnetic shutter.
The other two I bought as curios although the camera bottom centre did arrive with a cable and connector for the Contax but only bare wires at the other end and I have never got around to working out which strands within the cable do what. If I ever work it out, I have every hope that the M35W will also work as they have identical sockets. All the cameras arrived with D-5 Data Backs except the one bottom centre. None has a hot shoe and only the M35W has a PC-sync socket.
As far as I know, no CGCM-type cameras were ever produced from the 137MA body. As for the waste of internal components, some CGCMs had no prism, mirror or shutter assembly; none as we've said had hot shoes or PC-Sync sockets and the metering circuits were also removed from some of them. All had the remote socket blanked as well. In a way, the M35W is the most pared back as its top plate dispensed with the pentaprism, hot shoe, lever controls, etc. and was the only 137MD variant to blank the self-timer lamp. However, why they decided to keep the PC-Sync socket is interesting; I did see a photo of one attached to a microscope via a large, thick, and presumably heavy blanking-plate in which a very complex-looking ring-flash was hooked up to the socket and surrounded the object stage. I do remember spotting a radioactive symbol nearby; it caught my eye as I worked for a while with the UK Atomic Energy Authority. I do not know if all the Contax M35W models had a PC-sync socket; it is worth noting that there was a Yashica FR version of the M35 (not a W) with Winder attached.
And while we're pondering hybrid cameras, we shouldn't forget the Yashica GT variant - an altogether more generally useful camera - the Oral Eye.
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on Sept 9, 2019 15:41:58 GMT
Posted: Sept 9, 2019 15:41:58 GMT
Hello, just saw this, it looks like a Contax 137. Is that the one the seller has listed as a 139 prototype? Made me laugh. |
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on Sept 10, 2019 0:39:12 GMT
Posted: Sept 10, 2019 0:39:12 GMT
Did Yashica/Tomioka ever make microscope lenses? Leica did (or had them made), so I suppose Contax/Zeiss did too.
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on Sept 10, 2019 3:45:01 GMT
Posted: Sept 10, 2019 3:45:01 GMT
Did Yashica/Tomioka ever make microscope lenses? Leica did (or had them made), so I suppose Contax/Zeiss did too.
PF
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on Sept 10, 2019 7:49:14 GMT
Posted: Sept 10, 2019 7:49:14 GMT
Once upon a time, HP was a major supplier of oscilloscopes, and sold gobs of them from the mid-fifties, on. They went to testing labs that needed to preserve the traces for long-term comparisons or failure reports, and often were outfitted with a film or TV camera to save permanent records on film or video tape. HP was on the pricey end of the spectrum, and although I never saw a Contax attached to one when going through tech school in the service, I've seen - and used - film cameras to take B&W shots of waveforms on them. I can certainly understand why HP themselves would buy a multi-case lot of camera bodies and sell them as accessories to larger customers in ready to use setups. The CRT's were round, or square, or rectangular, and HP sold the adapters for several different bodies to suit whatever their field use required. I have a recollection we used Nikons, but that was in the early 70's, and I can't swear to it. My time in the military wasn't my favorite memories, so details have been pushed into the deep craggies over time.
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on Sept 11, 2019 3:40:44 GMT
Last Edit: Sept 11, 2019 3:42:33 GMT by ridgeblue99
Tektronix Corporation used to make o-scope cameras out of Polaroids.
The front piece could be interchanged with one that fit the particular type/brand of scope you had.
PF
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on Sept 24, 2019 20:54:39 GMT
Last Edit: Sept 24, 2019 20:55:36 GMT by matthiasausk
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on Sept 24, 2019 22:38:14 GMT
Posted: Sept 24, 2019 22:38:14 GMT
The "Atoron' in the title seems out of place. The only thing I've seen that might fit the opening and had anything to do with any Atoron, would be the enlarging lens for printing out the 8mm x 11mm film frames. ( www.submin.com/8x11/collection/yashica/accessories/yashica_atoron_enlargement_lens.htm). The opening in that plate doesn't look like it is threaded, so doesn't seem it would be a match to the M39 on the lens. I have a 30-16-40 Dichroic filter in a C/Y to microscope bayonet mount, but it's about the same size and shape of a 7mm extension tube, so that probably isn't a likely use. A plate that big might be a better fit for an o-scope (via a compendium shade or bellows) or a telecine or transfer machine of sme kind. |
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on Sept 25, 2019 10:58:55 GMT
Posted: Sept 25, 2019 10:58:55 GMT
It would seem that the Atoron reference is a simple mistake; this CGCM with Camera Back L plate is nothing to do with the little 110 camera. The seller is a little lax in they way they list items as they have the same wording for another 'Yashica Atoron' CGCM with Camera Back L only that one has no Camera Back L and also its power connector has had its plug cut off. The fact that they don't know it's a Contax is enough for me to feel comfortable that the Atoron reference is an error.
I have the same camera plate which I removed from one of the CGCMs. It is very heavy, and as has been suggested, the circular opening is smooth. I'm not sure why it has been machined to produce a chamfered edge at the base on the front but it is very similar to the Contax Oscilloscope Adapter Plate produced for the original RTS system.
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