Zeiss Compendium East & West: 1940-1972

Prompt deliver, as advertised. Book has a wealth of info regarding Zeiss cameras.

Interesting background on the recovery of Zeiss Ikon from the ashes of World War II, where its main plants along with is product designs and blueprints were either destroyed in the fire bombing of Dresden, or were seized by the Russians and transported to Russia and what was left was nationalized by the Communist East German government. The book gives a good history of the various camera lines including the redesigned rangefinder the Contax IIa and IIIa, the Contaflex and Contarex Lines and the simple but elegant rangefinders and folding cameras. Unfortunately, the company never made any money. A valuable book to the collector or to a camera historian,

As a reference this book provides some detail on each of the many models of Zeiss cameras made in the period 1940-1972.

Small & Barringer are THE American experts on Zeiss Ikon cameras.This well written book has excellent, clear, detailed, black and white photos of many post WWII Zeiss Ikon cameras with an emphasis on the Contax rangefinder line. This title is loaded with information about Zeiss Ikon's amazing post war recovery and eventual failure in the face of the Japanese SLR juggernaut of the 60s and 70sAside: Zeiss Ikon fans should join the Zeiss Historica Society for more information.For Zeiss Ikon lovers this is a 'Must Have' title. I only wish this book were longer. Highly recommended.

The information is so abbreviated that it is not too useful. They simply tried to cover too many product lines with too few pages. On the other hand, there's not a lot out there to aid camera afficianados and collectors.

There is plenty of information here for Zeiss collectors, but the editing has been skimped, because it is not as easy a read as it could have been - perhaps due to the authorship being split between Marc James Small and Charles Barringer.

Scelto perché è l'unico (o quasi) compendio Zeiss del dopo-guerra in lingua inglese, i pochi altri sono in tedesco e/o non così completi.E' ricco di informazioni e, soprattutto, di centinaia di immagini che permettono di assimilare facilmente la parte descrittiva altrimenti un poco complicata per i non esperti. L'unica "pecca" è che ho trovato un poco mancante la cura dei particolari che possano facilitare l'interesse dei collezionisti: sarebbero stati molto apprezzati i richiami a tabelle relative a Numeri di Seria di fotocamere e lenti, per esempio, come anche maggiori informazioni tecniche sui modelli più importanti.Nel complesso penso sia un volume indispensabile ad amatori e collezionisti.

Ce Compendium proposé par la maison spécialisée "Hove Collectors Books" est traité avec tout le sérieux habituel de cet éditeur. Il relate les productions d'après-guerre de Zeiss Ikon, en Allemagne, tant à l'Est qu'à l'Ouest. C'est un outil indispensable pour tous les collectionneurs et amoureux de la marque. Les nombreuses illustrations sont toujours de très haute qualité. Certes, il est en anglais, mais point n'est besoin d'être un brillant angliciste pour en profiter pleinement.CD