Zeiss factories in Dresden

[robertofollia]

Dear all,
Last year I managed to visit Dresden as well as Stuttgart. In Stuttgart I visited the former Kodak and Zeiss Ikon AG'sworks site. Factories ar no more but buildings stay.
For Dresden I took my trusty Praktica MTL5B (1st use after 1993) and my Contax II. both loaded with Orwo UN54 film
Problem with my contax II is that it had a ND filter (did not know that because I needed a magnifier to read the engravings after the pics came somewhat underexposed,)
KW dresden (now closed, manufactured some prakticas and the Noblex panoramic)


Some of the Praktica factory buildings. This one was the last site where Pentacon Dresden, Jos Schneider were located before closing down the photo division

Not far away from Ernemann Tower and Penta PArk (ICA factory). Here i theory the praktica L-series cameras were assembled, accordign to what I have read. Please correct me if there is something wrong


Now Contax II time
Ica factory. Strong backlighting together with lack of exposure compensation due to 1,5 stops ND filter...

 

[boojum]

Thanks for taking the time and making the effort. These were powerhouse factories in their day, making wonderful film exposing machinery. It is a testament to their build quality that so many are still in use. Gracias, muchas gracias.

 

[robertofollia]

Ernemann Turm


The Goddess of light

rear entrance



And the Staircase to the top



And a view from the top


The ground floor keeps the entrance and main hall as in the glorious days. There is also a small exhibition of Contax Cameras and Zeiss movie cameras.
hope you like it
Best regards

 

[KoNickon]

Ernemann Turm
View attachment 4871106

The Goddess of light
View attachment 4871107
rear entrance
View attachment 4871108
View attachment 4871109

And the Staircase to the top
View attachment 4871110


And a view from the top
View attachment 4871111

The ground floor keeps the entrance and main hall as in the glorious days. There is also a small exhibition of Contax Cameras and Zeiss movie cameras.
hope you like it
Best regards

What does it say on the tower? I think I can make out (maybe?) "Erlebnis land...." Erlebnis = experience as I recall.

 

[Muggins]

I must certainly do like it! Sadly well before I was interested in photography, I had German friend at uni who I visited in Dresden who must have worked for what was left of Pentacon. Somewhere I still have a panoramic postcard I bought that was taken by her boss - maybe with a Noblex?

The bg questions if I go back are... how do I persuade SWMBO that we are going to do a tour of dead camera factories? And which cameras do I take? Contax III? Or one with the tower on? If so.... Werra 1? Werra 3? MTL3? Argh, choices!

 

[Valkir1987]

Nice to see the buildings in their present state. There were many more. But like most factory buildings they had to be taken down after the factory closed. And they had to move into other factories after the bombing. The revival of their photo industry was somehow miraculous. What was part of those buildings from Zeiss (or Pentacon) used to be Certo, Ernemann, Nettel and many others.

Worth watching and reading (although partially in English and German)



Contax und Pentacon | zeissikonveb.de

 

[WoodallP]

The bg questions if I go back are... how do I persuade SWMBO that we are going to do a tour of dead camera factories? And which cameras do I take? Contax III? Or one with the tower on? If so.... Werra 1? Werra 3? MTL3? Argh, choices!

Once managed to get my SWMBO out to the Arsenal factory in Kiev. Trouble is, once I got there I realised I should have done more homework. At that time there was still a factory shop selling bits and bobs; I don’t know if it still exists but there wasn’t much of interest even then (Kiev 19 I think).

My weapon of choice at the time was an M10, Amadeo adapter and Helios-103. The choice of Helios-103 amused the man in the shop.