This solid and well-made camera was manufactured from 1954-1958. It is fitted with a Novar-Anastigmat 45mm f/3.5 lens in a Prontor SVS shutter. It’s a three element design, hardly the most sophisticated, which reflects the position of this camera at the low end of the Zeiss range. The Contina Ia is a rigid-bodied 35mm viewfinder camera, and the simplest of the Contina range, which were all popular cameras. It was the successor to the earlier Contina I, a folding camera, itself previously named the Ikonta 35. Even though the Contina Ia lacks a built-in rangefinder, as do all the rigid-bodied Contina’s, it is certainly capable of rewarding careful use by returning good results. The shutter speeds range from 1 second to 1/300 of a second. The Contina has a female thread for a manual cable release, in the middle of the shutter release, which is almost hidden in the middle of the film counter. Focusing is achieved by turning the front cell of the lens, on which are printed distance markings and just above them, is a depth-of-field scale. The camera also has a flash PC-socket in front, accessory mount on the top, optical viewfinder, film release rewind button on the bottom, single action right thumb frame advance lever, and a ¼” 20 thread tripod mount.