Junk and Cheap Camera Month: Will it or won’t it work for me?
This is the last camera I got from the WYC charity sale. I do have one more camera to try that I purchased that day, but it was more than £5 so it doesn’t fit this month’s theme.
I had to think twice about buying this camera, even for such a cheap price. This is a camera I have tried to buy a couple of times and they have never worked. I do buy cheap, dodgy cameras, but still, this model just never seems to work for me. Just like my nemesis camera, the Nikon FTn, a good 139 has eluded me.
Maybe this £5 one will change that.
As you can see the skin was in pretty rough condition, but how were the mechanisms. When I first tried it with a lens and batteries it didn’t work. The mirror was hitting the lens and stopping the full movement. I just had a similar experience with another Contax camera so I knew what to try.
I took off the lens and heated up the mirror and therefore melted the glue underneath. Then I pushed the mirror back into place and voila, the mirror moved as it should and the camera was now working.
I loaded one of the expired rolls of film I wanted to use up this month and got to shooting. I developed the film in pyro and it didn’t suit it. The film was a weird colour, very brown and it was a struggle to scan the results.
Here are some of them:
Not great results, but I could see that the camera worked.
AND, I loved it. I immediately felt connected to this camera. It is lighter than an OM1 and has speeds up to 1/1000th. The skin felt horrible, it was mushy and starting to flake off. I can fix that though. The buttons were placed in perfect locations for my little hands. The viewfinder was bright with a split focusing circle surrounded by a micro prism. The half press, meter activation was missing, but there was an alternative on the front instead. There was an exposure lock around the front meter activation button. There was also a double exposure switch which also acted as the the exposure +/- setting. On this example the light seals were in great condition.
The other 139s I have tried had various issues, one had a magnet release issue. The other had an unknown issue. Neither could be convinced to work. This website says the magnet problem was corrected in later cameras, those with serial numbers above 110,000. Plus a transfer switch was replaced a bit later. So if you have a camera with a serial number over 150,000 then it ‘might’ be less likely to fail. The example I now have has a serial number of … 191089, Yatta!! Maybe this one will keep working for a while.
I wasn’t happy with the first set of results, so I loaded another roll of expired film and went back to the sunflower area, followed by my local park. This time I added a Zeiss 135 M42 lens with a C/Y adapter for this system. I also used a Yashica 50mm lens. I think it is obvious in the following shots which lens was used.
The film was still an expired one. I am almost through the stash I have, but overall the results are better.
So, did it work for me? Once I reset the mirror YES!!! and I think I will use this camera a lot in the future. It is going in my top ten cameras, well, depending on my choice of a new skin that is.
And here it is…well almost, I still need to varnish it.
I decided on a Queen theme. I might change it at some point, but for now I am happy with it.
So from the 3 SLRs I got at the WYC sale, 3 worked well with a tiny bit of fixing. Their next sale is this weekend, but unfortunately I can’t go as I am going to Coventry for a photo walk.
I will try and make the November one as my junk box is practically empty now. I have a couple more junk cameras with film in, but I don’t think I will have time to finish them this month due to the weather and earlier dusk times.
Next month, I am going to start a new project. Watch this space to find out what!
As for this camera, you can read more about it on these websites:
https://casualphotophile.com/2016/02/13/contax-139-quartz-camera-review/
https://kosmofoto.com/2020/02/contax-139-quartz-review/
https://www.reddit.com/r/AnalogCommunity/comments/o52fpl/contax_139_quartz_review_the_best_slr_ive_ever/
https://www.contax139.co.uk/home
https://contax139.blogspot.com/
These are great cameras! I feel connected to the process when I shoot mine too. I tried lots of contax cameras right up to high end models, but in the end settled on the 139Q and had it serviced. The contax lenses are bloody wonderful too
Yeah, mine has gone straight on my top ten list. I just need to get my lens serviced and maybe..another 😀
Excellent work. Experience in repairs pays off! The second roll with these lenses gave magnificent photographs. There are brands of cameras that do not sync with one it seems 😄 I have not had any luck with Canon A and T series, now I have an FT to try and see if the curse is broken. I loved this Queen Elizabeth Contax.
It is my queen of a camera. Yeap, google to the rescue for the MA and that helped with this one.
Ohh, compositon and content. What photography is.
Here at GCG, it goes without saying that if there is any hope of a given camera coming even a tiny bit back to life, it will, under your hands, eventually cough and sputter and deliver *something* and even that something will bear the hallmarks and stamp of your eye.
Of those first test shots, I greatly admire the first and the last shown – those seeming bereft, bedraggled and, possibly wet birds. There is a freight of content here, meaning. And it is amplified and enhanced by the faults of film and processing; haze, grain, black marks, white dust spots and all. I hope that you are silently proud of them. I love ’em.
It was a very wet day, so they were saddened. I do like photographing pigeons, so despite its faults, I like those shots.
I love my Contax 139Q. It’s a sweet camera and the Contax lens are fabulous. I recently learned you could adapt M42 lenses so I bought the adapter. What an added bonus. I love your colourful leather replacement for the camera. You are inspiring me to do something creative with mine.
Here’s another great reference for the camera that helped me with repairs I made to get my camera working.
https://www.contax139.co.uk/home
The website above also has a great blog. This entry shows how to replace the meter sensor which I did as well.
https://contax139.blogspot.com/2019/02/does-your-139-over-expose.html
Thanks for all the great articles.
I have used that website in the past. I forgot about it for this post as I didn’t need it. So thanks for adding the link. I will update the post later with that. The skin are actual stamps, not leather. I like using stamps as they dont need to be cut quite so precisely.
and done 🙂
My friend Keith swears by his Contax 139. I helped him back into Film Photography with a Yashica FX3 a few years ago and he said it reminded him of his Contax 139 that some miscreant had stolen from him years ago. It did the trick and he started enjoying photography again. He hunted down a very nice Contax 139Q for not a lot of cash from the bay of evil and has been a happy chap since then. He keeps saying he will let me have a go, but then needs to shoot one more roll before he lends it to me. lol.
Well, I have a nice queeny one you can try. I have read the FX3 is the same camera, then another pist said it is NOT and got a bit cross. So I decided to leave that out of the post.
oh, I hope you’ve named her “Regina.”
Well, I will now.
Next black-bodied camera you restore, after removing the old skin, consider using automotive cleaner wax (Turtle Wax, Meguiar’s, whatever brand you can find in England) to remove minor scuffing and restore the shine to the body. Does a bang-up job, and once polished out, it leaves a decent protective coating to guard against greasy fingers and foreheads.
I think I get a bit complacent when the camera is so cheap. I will try that next time for sure. We have turtle wax here and alternatives.
Hey there,
I stumbled across your blog somehow and have enjoyed reading your joys and follies through buying cameras and trying them out. I especially loved how you skinned this camera. I have purchased a few very inexpensive models and have removed the skin but have only used leather & vinal on them. May I ask, what adhesive did you use for the stamps, and did you put any clear coat or anything once they were on?
Thanks for taking the time to reply, when you find the time. Until then, best wishes with your shooting!
Hi, thabk you for reading 😀 I place the stamps with stick glue, like uhu. That way you can move them around and position them easily. They don’t buckle as it is a paper glue. Then, once dry, I give it all a coat of varnish. That depends on what you like, either gloss or matt. As with the cameras, I tend to use stuff I have to hand, cheap and easy.