The 522/24 lens is an f3.5/45mm Novar, f2.8/45mm Xenar, or an f2.8/45mm Tessar. As Zeiss was unable to produce sufficient Tessar lenses (due to war damage to their production facilities), this is one of the few Zeiss models ever to feature a non-Zeiss (Schneider Xenar) lens. The shutter is a Synchro-Compur with 1/500 top speed. The Ikonta 35 examples most frequently found have the three-element Novar, while a few are equipped with the Xenar which is very similar to the Tessar. Later models of the camera were called the Contina I, but it is the same in every respect but the name. The Ikonta 35 and the Contina were produced in the Zeiss Ikon plant in Stuttgart from 1947 to 1953 for the Ikonta and 1951 to 1955 for the Contina I. A great many of them were sold in Armed Forces PXs and came home with returning GIs. The Ikonta 35 was designed by Hubert Nerwin, who was also the principal designer of the Contax II. A very nice summary of his design work is available at the Zeiss Historica site. Parts of This article was gleaned from Mike Eckman’s site mikeeckman.com and content for the article produced by Mike Connealy.