Ken Rockwell reviews the Zeiss Ikon

[Micky D]

Thats interesting... are they all like that?

Yeah,
It's to stop you from metering too much sky in both horizontal and vertical positions. That is if you hold "right hand up" for vertical shots.

As for Ken..."no comment."

 

[onur77]

http://www.kenrockwell.com/zeiss/images/ikon/D3S_6418-1200.jpg
There is one screw missing. I wonder why? 😀

 

[noimmunity]

Nice review with personal bias/preference up front. Repeats the consensus about the ZI seen here on RFF for the most part. A better user than the M7 in many ways, but perhaps less valuable/usable over the long term.

Seems to me his dismissal of the Voigtlander Bessas was too perfunctory and lumped together. The R4 has framelines no other RF has; the R3 has the superb 1:1 finder and 40 FL; the Bessa T has amazing EBL and a small metered body...on and on.

 

[Pavel+]

Please don't tell me that you all believe that he has actually used either or even laid hands on one. With him, that is not necessarily a given, given his track record.

I think he reads someone's site and cobbles something together .... so he can feed his starving family.

The jokes on the serious types ... like all of us.

Hey, I just thought that my review of Ken ... oh the irony of it all ... is just as well thought out and supported as all of his reviews. Is it Karma?

 

[yanidel]

I read Ken's articles almost daily. They are entertaining and I do learn some things reading them, yet :
- this is a "I know everything " kind of guy. He will voice is opinion on all subjects, even the ones where he is no expert. So on some topics, Í'll put more weight on the opinion of the newspaper seller down the corner.
- he systematically bashes the M8 and a type of Leica user. This guy is full of stereotypes and find it funny to make fun about a class he finds to be cool not to be part of.

This is too bad, because his website could be much better without the sarscasm and cheap shots that he got used too. I am not even sure his hard core readers find it funny in the long run, this is just tiring. Many times I find an article entertaining and wise until he blows it with some out of context, lame school frontyard remark. I guess he just needs to mature a bit.

 

[notturtle]

Yeah,
It's to stop you from metering too much sky in both horizontal and vertical positions. That is if you hold "right hand up" for vertical shots.

As for Ken..."no comment."

Makes perfect sense with the white reflective horizonal stripe across the shutter. How do you find the metering?

 

[Matus]

Yeah,
It's to stop you from metering too much sky in both horizontal and vertical positions. That is if you hold "right hand up" for vertical shots.

I found something similar with my Olympus XA. At first I was very much surprised to find out that I get up to 2 stops different reading depending on the way I rotate the camera into portrait orientation (and no, I do NOT rotate it lens down or to my face 😀 )

 

[jonmanjiro]

The Zeiss Ikon metering pattern is pictured below (taken from this thread).

 

[john_van_v]

I'm sorry, but my guilt light just lit -- for mentally admonishing the mentally handicapped:

"There is no joy in using the Voigtländers. The Voigtländers are practical, but not that much fun to use." Rockwell

My Cosina low-end RF is fun to use, gets the shots better than any other, but is starting to fall apart. Emphasis on falling apart: more Cosina junk.

How do we know that these new Cosina RF offerings are not junk? Well, we won't, not for a decade.

I think the better bet is to figure out what is wrong with the Soviet cameras, and attempt retro fix them.

 

[CK Dexter Haven]

Hey, move over. I wanna watch this too. 😀

<nom nom nom>

Any "bashing" is well-deserved. From his own "About Ken Rockwell page"

"The only thing I do guarantee is that there is plenty of stuff I simply make up out of thin air...."

"I love a good hoax. Read The Museum of Hoaxes, or see their site. A hoax, like this site, is done as a goof simply for the heck of it by overactive minds as a practical joke"

What he DOESN'T deserve is the following he seems to have amassed. Why do so many people respect anything he has to say? Ah, the internet. Anyone with a web page is an expert.

 

[dfoo]

I don't understand why everyone wants to bash this guy. Does he write some BS? Sure, who doesn't. However, his general message is right on the button if you ask me.

 

[Rayt]

The Zeiss Ikon metering pattern is pictured below

This is why the ZI is the obvious winner. It was clearly designed with the rule of thirds in mind and for people with superior skills of composition to place the subject on the left third. 🙂

 

[dfoo]

^ that's why incident metering is the only true way to go. There is no doubt what you are measuring 🙂

 

[raid]

I really don,t understand why so many people attach so mutch value to an opinion from just one person. I prefer to judge things by myself

I agree with Jaap. When I do lens comparisons [with Roland's help], I do not try to impose my views on others. Let the images speak for themselves.

 

[kshapero]

Ken Rockwell, the wizard of very very very very vivid colors becomes a rangefinder lover. Next you are going to tell me Obama has joined the NRA or John Birch Society.

 

[sojournerphoto]

^ that's why incident metering is the only true way to go. There is no doubt what you are measuring 🙂

Though of course you should measure the light incident on the subject and not on the camera🙂

 

[Matus]

I'm sorry, but my guilt light just lit -- for mentally admonishing the mentally handicapped:

"There is no joy in using the Voigtländers. The Voigtländers are practical, but not that much fun to use." Rockwell

My Cosina low-end RF is fun to use, gets the shots better than any other, but is starting to fall apart. Emphasis on falling apart: more Cosina junk.

How do we know that these new Cosina RF offerings are not junk? Well, we won't, not for a decade.

I think the better bet is to figure out what is wrong with the Soviet cameras, and attempt retro fix them.

C'mon. If you know his webpage for more than a week or two this kind of comments should not light up anything. Ken is obviously a very particular guy (hey, who is not?) and he seems to knowingly boost this up to the point that some people get disturbed from time to time. But this together with the content of his site (but only in second place) is probably the key to his success. People keep returning, read a bit, get a bit pun - and they come back again. How many of us keep returning there just to see "what did he write AGAIN on THAT topic". Although he is a Velvia fun he seems to like it often just B&W 😉

Hay, he is actually giving free psychology classes in some way 😀

But to be fully honest - I should actually really go ahead and send him a few bucks - his webpage about 4x5 cameras gave me (at that time a complete GREENHORN in film photography) the kick and I finally really got a 4x5 Tachi and had lot of fun over last 3 years. I am actually thankful for that (I discovered the LFF forum later).

 

[Palaeoboy]

And he seems to like the CLE as well or better than the Ikon.

Yes I hadnt noticed he has a CLE review till I took a look at the Ikon link for this thread and found the CLE one as well. How many errors did anyone spot in the CLE review? LOL Still compared to some of his others the Zeiss Ikon review wasnt that bad really.

 

[dfoo]

So how loud IS the Ikon shutter compared with a Leica? I shot some street with my FE2 for the first time in a while yesterday (the 24mm lens is nice!) and man is that shutter loud! Most people don't notice me using the Leica unless I'm in their face, but the Nikon. Everyone looks around... what is that!?

 

[gdi]

The guy is an absolute genius - an entertainer, engineer, inventor, award winning photographer, and provocateur.

He, more than any of the other internet pundits I am aware of, has truly mastered the medium. Others also write articles intended to elicit controversy; gore the forum fan's Ox and watch the hits roll in. But in the end, most can't resist the temptation to directly engage the hordes hammering at gates either in the forums or in article comments. But Ken sits high above the fray, never wading into the muck to mix it up with the hoi polloi.

I imagine him observing these discussions and, for a moment, coolly chuckling before returning to craft his latest article!