By the late Sixties, the West German firm Carl Zeiss had a problem: it had lost its original Contax camera business in the process of Germany (and Zeiss) being split into East and West at the end of World War II.
Zeiss still designed world-class optics, but the high cost of German labor meant that it no longer had a competitive 35mm SLR system. Japanese manufacturers – especially Pentax, Nikon, Canon and Minolta – were dominating the market.
At the time, Asahi Optical was arguably Japan's strongest SLR manufacturer. Its Pentax Spotmatic had become a roaring success, and Asahi had an excellent reputation for mechanical precision and lens coatings. Zeiss saw Pentax as an ideal manufacturing partner.
Their short-lived collaboration did see the development of what became the Pentax K-mount and the exchange of optical design methods.
The exact reasons why the collaboration failed have never been fully documented, but it seems that Pentax was more interested in building its own brand than manufacturing premium cameras for someone else. It also seemed that Zeiss wanted greater influence over the camera system than Pentax was willing to grant.
Thus, around 1972, the collaboration ended amicably and Zeiss began searching for another Japanese partner.
The secret project starts to form
Yashica's situation was very different. Unlike Pentax, it was looking to move upmarket. It had the manufacturing expertise and excellent integration of electronics in its cameras, but had never managed to “crack’ the professional market.
Thus, Yashica was willing to build an entirely new professional camera system around Zeiss's requirements. Which brings us to the “Top Secret Project 130”.
“Top Secret Project 130” was the internal codename for one of the most significant collaborations in camera history: the partnership between Yashica and Carl Zeiss to create the new professional-grade 35mm SLR system that revived the Contax brand.
Zeiss designed the lenses and helped define the optical viewfinder, while Yashica engineered and manufactured the body, incorporating advanced electronic shutter technology.
The camera was styled by Porsche Design in Germany, under Professor Ferdinand Alexander (grandson of the legendary Ferdinand Porsche and designer of the Porsche 911 automobile).
The result was the stunningly beautiful Contax RTS (Real Time System), introduced at Photokina 1974 and commercially released in 1975.
It featured a new Contax / Yashica bayonet lens mount, an electronically controlled focal-plane shutter with speeds up to 1/2000 sec and, of course, the famous Zeiss T* coated lenses. The emphasis was placed on fast operation and reliability, aiming squarely at professionals.
Yashica took the opportunity to upgrade its already very good lenses, with the Yashica FR (1977-1982) and simpler FX (1978-2002) series of SLRs becoming the “poor man’s Contax” – much in the same way that the earlier Nikkormat series (1965-1978) of SLRs had become the “poor man’s Nikon F”.
The common lens mount enabled photographers to “buy into” the Contax system and expand it with lower-cost, but still excellent, Yashica lenses if they could not afford the real McCoy. Or purchase the lower-priced Yashica body but shoot with genuine Zeiss optics – a path taken by many.
The Contax RTS was followed in 1982 by the RTS II, offering a quartz-controlled shutter (for greater accuracy), titanium shutter curtains (for improved durability) and TTL flash metering (a major advance at the time).
In 1990, the RTS III appeared. It was an almost totally new camera with a deeper grip, a 100% viewfinder, a 1/8000 sec shutter, spot metering and more sophisticated electronics. But its real claim to fame was the RTV (Real Time Vacuum) film transport system.
At the instant of exposure, a tiny vacuum pump pulled the film tightly against a precision ceramic pressure plate, producing exceptionally flat film and thus minimizing focus errors caused by slight film curvature.
Concise production numbers are unknown, but it seems that somewhere between 185,000-235,000 RTS series cameras were made.
By comparison, the Yashica FR (aimed at advanced amateurs) and the more affordable, entry-level FX cameras sold approximately 605,000-865,000. This discrepancy is due to the Yashica cameras being both less expensive and in production far longer.
Unsolved mysteries
There remain three curiosities with this story. First, the term “Top Secret Project 130” was never used in marketing – and neither firm ever explained the significance (if any) of the number 130.
The second is that virtually all the Yashica and Contax bodies were made in Yashica’s factories, other than the FX-3. Introduced in 1979. The Yashica FX-3 was to be a lower-cost, mechanically simple camera to attract newcomers to the Contax / Yashica lens ecosystem.
The camera was designed to Yashica's specifications but manufactured by Cosina as an OEM product. It proved extremely successful and remained in production – with updates such as the FX-3 Super and FX-3 Super 2000 – until 2002.
The last curiosity is a rumor that circulated widely in the mid-Seventies. It said that, in order to secure the cooperation of Zeiss, Yashica had offered a room just off the production line where Japanese nationals would not be permitted. Thus, the Germans could conduct quality control checks on Yashica-made products without hindrance.
Your scribe has been unable to confirm this rumor or, even if true, that such a room actually existed. But it’s a fascinating story.
The Zeiss / Yashica collaboration continued for a full 30 years, until 2005 when Kyocera (which had bought Yashica back in 1983) abruptly discontinued all camera and lens production. As it ended, Yashica / Kyocera’s license to use the Contax brand also ended and the trademark was returned to Zeiss AG – where it has sat, unused, ever since.
Read more of David Young's ongoing series on classic cameras, as well as his book A Brief History of Photography.
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