Zeiss Ikon S 310 – The Last Contessa – Urban shooting in Norwich London and Cambridge in Black and White

I bought myself this Zeiss Ikon S 310 recently and have been hooked on it, it’s a little gem. I bought it on a knee jerk; after using my Balda CA 35 and with Hamish kindly lending me his Contax T (coming soon) I’ve a sudden desire to shoot snapshots with a Scale or Zone focus camera. There are lots around, but I wanted something very small, pocket sized, with a sharp Carl Zeiss Tessar lens, something with impeccable build quality and the feel of something which could’ve been made by Leitz and gave instant pleasure the moment one handles it.

For anyone who isn’t familiar with Zone Focus or View Finder Cameras, get familiar with them! They’re relative bargains and a lot less of a bother than Range Finders or compacts with archaic AF systems. Judging distance is easy, I just used that glorious Finder to compose, with determining distance being easy and second nature (I use paces to determine distance – 1 pace is 1 yard = 3 feet. Plus I am pretty good at judging distance anyway. For close up – again easy – distance from the tip of my nose to the tip of my index finger is 1 Yard – 3 feet – 0.9m – all clearly shown on the lens barrel.

Well, there are a wealth of small View Finder cameras, such as ones from Yashica, Minolta, Olympus amongst others. But it had to be German, West German, special, plus something which hadn’t so far been reviewed on 35mmc.

After spending days trawling through every camera ever made by every company not only fitting my description exactly, but also looking at Japanese built cameras, I had hitherto avoided looking deeper into lines manufactured by Zeiss Ikon. Sure, Contessa is on their camera-wiki page but one has to look inside the Contessa link and then do some exploring to find this.

I saw a picture of the Ikon S 310 and instantly wanted to know more.

Released in 1971, It was the last ever Zeiss Ikon to feature the famous and time honoured Contessa marque. Contessa meaning Countess in Italian and the name being a reference to Contessa-Nettel .

The Zeiss Ikon S 310 was also one of their last ever cameras (they went bust in 1972), and it was accompanied by an RF model called the Zeiss Ikon S312 which lacked the Contessa label. The S312 RF is uglier and inferior as has stamped parts such as the wind on lever and is more of a Voightlander (as Voightlander then released the same camera slightly restyled made in Singapore).

The Ikon S 310 was small but elegantly formed, with a green shutter button and ZEISS IKON prominent on the front of the body. I had to have one. A search on the Evil Bay brought up a few around the world; all very expensive, but one German seller (and I couldn’t recommend them enough – great service and quick delivery ) Had one for a paltry £50 or so. I clicked Watch and an hour or so later I received an offer of 10% off so I clicked Buy. Three days later it arrived beautifully packaged. I opened the box to reveal a beauty. This weighs about 500g around 1 lb and has a solid feel and heft.

Apart from looking marvellous, it felt great. Beautifully die cast, with machined parts and a Moroccan Leather Leatherette. A back which comes off for loading and unloading; all done effortlessly. A fine ratcheting feel to the lever. A satisfying shutter click.

Everything is built and put together with care and beautifully. It’s adorable, just oozes class and I’m amazed it’s not cherished as something very special by collectors and Film users. There’s hardly anything on the Web bar two or three reviews. A couple of low quality videos and that’s it. Even Flickr is more or less devoid of it. I’m amazed as it feels as solidly built as anything else, it’s like a mini Leica M in feel and way beyond any similar Japanese camera I’ve handled or used.

As I said, it’s small! Just slightly larger than the Contax T, with a Viewfinder which is more or less exactly the same size and brightness as that in a Contax T.

Everything is easy, load up with PX125 batteries (which slot into the film take up section) and press the button at the top which lights up the film counter. Load up a Film and the Film loaded indicator ensures you won’t just open it forgetting there’s something loaded inside.

The Zeiss Ikon S 310 lens focal length of 40mm is probably the perfect focal length for snap shots – it’s about the same view as from the naked eye, so when you *see* a photograph, it’s a simple matter of lift and shoot – in seconds all done.
Set the aperture and distance, the photos will be acceptably sharp. As mine are, many aren’t pin sharp perfectly focussed but they don’t have to be. It wasn’t as if I was composing close up fine art, still life nature or portraits. For quick lift and shoot stuff it’s great.

Turn the focus which shows an icon in the View Finder – all the usual stuff. The lovely multi coated 40mm f2.8 Tessar is marked with the usual Distance scale and the snapshot marker at 3m f8. The battery powers the Light Meter making this an aperture priority snap shooter.

I liked the Zeiss Ikon S 310 so much I bought three! The German seller had another, plus I bought another non-working one for parts in-case I ever need them. I bought a 30.5mm Yellow filter for the lens and set the ISO accordingly.

In use as with others like this, you use the ISO dial to compensate for exposure. Apart from that it’s simple to wind on, shoot. To rewind just lift the lever underneath and rewind.

In use it’s just as I expected, works flawlessly and easily. Just like the Balda I reviewed here. everything about it is satisfying; the wind on lever, the feel of it in the hand, the size, the VF the lovely shutter and the look of it.

The Zeiss Ikon S 310 has shutter speed displayed in the finder which is very useful to assess camera shake and compensation. One can use the ISO dial to sort of lock exposure, with some patience and care.

It attracts a lot of the right attention, with passers by looking at it, others asking about it, and best of all people didn’t mind at all as I was shooting with it or asking to photograph them with it (in one case), it was a case of a guy with a fucking cool camera; a cool old camera.

I shot a roll of Agfa Photo APX 100 in London and Cambridge, which is fast becoming my favourite Film. I screwed the development up but I still managed to save a few. I then shot a roll of Kodak Eastman 5222 Double X in Norwich, which I thankfully took care with during development. Notice how i call it “urban photography”, I cannot do ‘Street’ or ‘reportage’ very well, probably the most difficult theme to get right. So I tend to focus on composition of buildings etc (or even people) and hope to have people in the scene.

I wasn’t too pleased with my results with the Kodak Eastman Double X 5222 – flat and lifeless. I really like this Film, but there’s a timer and place to use it.

Overall, what a classy little camera.

By the way, if you haven’t been to Norwich, go! it’s a beautiful city with so much life and so much going on; a street shooters nirvana.

I only had one roll, I swear I’d have been able to shoot five or six easily.

Yet thankfully Norwich is short on Tourists which plague York, Oxford, Canterbury and Cambridge etc. It’s also much nicer than any of these cities. Trust me.

Zeiss Ikon S 310 Specs

40mm F2.8 Tessar, F2.8 -F22, min. focus 0,9m
Prontor 500 S electronic shutter, 4sec.-1/500s
Size 100 x 74 x 53 mm, 

Weight 451 gr. with batteries
25-400 ISO, hot shoe,

Cable release socket, distance, aperture and exposure time visible in the View Finder.

Zeiss Ikon Contessa S310 – manual

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