Personals ?

[dee]

Hi Roger .

A Happy New Year to you and all your readers ! A thought for 2010 -

I have just unwrapped a Contax II , which not so long ago , was in pieces on my kitchen table .[ Thanks RJ from RFF ]

Thanks to Mike Hayley in Ukraine and his genuinely dedicated ex-Arsenal techs - it is now all together with a ' new ' Kiev 2 shutter and several other USSR parts .

It looks georgeous in a more coarse chrome which sparkles in the light .
The paint is renewed , rear leather removed revitalised and Zeiss bumps smoothed out . New leather , not quite matching to the front , and chrome polished like new .

All this for £40 camera , £60 rebuild and parts plus £20 shipping - plus £40 for a clean rigid 50mm f2 Sonnar , though my Brian Sweeney ' Sonnar J3 ' is the perfect match .

My beautifully smooth nicely original CLA KNeB II was £120 .

Frankly , the Kontax has been brought up to a standard to match my near new 1952 KNeB II , which , with CLA would be a similar outlay , but has little or no ' value ' - except to me .

This time - IT'S PERSONAL !

It's perfect for me because it's a close as I can get to a camera which I have rebuilt myself - I know it's recent history and like the combination of two decades - 1930s/1950s , Germany and USSR ... and I IDee with ID compromised items LOL .

It's also amazing that , with non matching body and back , that it did not become a donor for more ' worthy ' Contax cameras .
Few would contemplate such a Kontax FrankenCamera , or consider the bitsa ' worth ' saving , but it's as if it is really MINE due to the very personal dedication to it's new beginning . I love the Arsenal/Kiev connection too , which may not be around for very long now .

Sometimes , it may be the journey which is special , I now have a beautifully working severly compromised , gleaming , bitsa Kontax - but it's my best camera - ever .