My late Fathers Super Ikonta.

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My first post here, may be my last if the comments prove un friendly. Well my Father died in 2003, I am English and have lived in the USA for 21 years. He purchased the camera on vacation in Germany in 1954, three years before I arrived. I have all the negs from the camera, he took a total of 189 rolls of film with this camera and I have all of them. I also have my Grandfathers Newman and Guardia camera and many glass plates that he and my Father took with it, that camera cost more than the average house when he purchased it, said to be a camera for Royalty only.
Anyhow, I am having the Ikonta serviced by someone Zeiss in Germany told me could handle the job. It is on the way back to me as I write here.
So I am going to share some images with you that my late Father took with the camera, scanned with a Nikon 8000ED. Hope you find them worthy of a look.
Cheers for now,
James.
 
Welcome to the family James :)

Old photos are very cool and we would sure like to see some more.
 
This is hard work.

This is hard work.

Bear with me, first time sending images.
 
Lovely pictures, I have a Super Ikonta as well, and your father's pictures prove that it is a great camera (I have to use more often). I hope my little daughters will treasure my negatives as you do with your fathers.
 
Welcome, James.

Your father's photos are fascinating. Please keep posting. Besides being personally meaningful to you, your father's pictures are also a window to another time, culture and place that all of us can appreciate, thanks to his efforts and the magic of photography. We are privileged to be allowed that glimpse.

Peter.
 
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Some more.

Some more.

The boy in School uniform is me, first day at school 1962. The lady at the pond is my late Mother, it was taken in France 1955. The Swan was taken early one morning, Father was going to Stratford upon Avon, the river is the Avon, he won a First Prize for that image and it was taken in 1958. The Louvre image was obviously taken in the French museum and dated 1959. The fisherman was taken on lake Como Italy 1954, the same vacation when he purchased the camera.
The images in this post,

The roadworks one, Father was a Doctor and going to work one day he saw them burning the road surface, so he came home for lunch and took the Ikonta back with him, getting this image on the way back, 1963 and the grades of grey and black are superb.
The ship in tow was taken in 1954, Sunderland was my home town, it was the largest ship building town in the world at one time, now the whole area has been turned into housing flat's for the wealthy, the image has a lot of marks for some reason and the exposure is not on the button.
The bloke filling gas into the car was taken at Dover in England just before getting on the Ferry for France in 1961.
Father only put one colour film through the camera, everything else was B&W, he used a Green yellow filter, NO LIGHT METER, he went by the box instructions because he said his WESTON light meter was not as clever as he was. I can assure you there are no images where he is more than one stop off the mark, they are all printable, not a single bad image, quite incredible.
By the way my parents had a continental vacation every year, always ending up in Italy, Father had treated an Italin officer who was a prisoner of war, infact father saved his life and when asked how he could repay him, Father said "Teach me Italian" and he did so. The officer was one of the FIAT family and they remained friends until death, they stayed with Sosi's family in Italy every year.
Anyhow, I need a Gin and Tonic, hope you like the history of them.
Cheers for now,
James.
 
I always love to see photos from old negatives and cameras. Especially very nice images like yours.

Fantastic....

Thanks for posting keep them coming....
 
more please

more please

Please post more pictures

They are really fascinating. Your father was really a great photographer.
 
Love these, thanks so much for lettings us see them!

The story about being cleverer than his light meter is very good, I bet he was!

I assume his Super Ikonta wasn't a scale-focus version -- either that or he was as good at guessing distances as he was with light. The focus is nailed on all of the wide open shots.

Very cool!
 
Great slice of history. I do have a related question though. I thought the Super Ikonta was 6x6. These are all rectangular scans. Are they 6x4.5 or 6x7 or cropped? Thanks
 
Your father's images belie a lot of care and skill. They are excellent.

Thank you for posting them.

- Charles

PS: I am amazed to see a sidewheel tug steaming up the Wear that late. What a sight. Rare to see a piece of machinery that hadn't changed much from 1830 still working into the '60s.

Here is one that made it's way to San Francisco from the Tyne and now part of our National Parks:

http://www.nps.gov/safr/historyculture/eppleton-hall-history.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eppleton_Hall_(1914)
 
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The images that you displayed here are simply splendid. I recently bought a 532/16 and am getting ready to go use it.
 
Still drinking my G&T's

Still drinking my G&T's

Thank you for the kind comments chap's. The old man thought he was average, he stopped doing B&W around 1973 because he thought he was not getting any better. He felt that by using B&W and Colour he was having problems seeing his images in B&W so gave it up and went 100% colour, sad because what you see on your computer does not do justice to the images I have at this end. I have five Hasselblad lumps of glass, one is stuck on and can not be removed from the camera and although they have a true place in photography, they are unable to produce the feeling that this sixty year old lump of glass can.
He always said that the best lens was my legs, when he taught me depth of field and exposure values.
Some of the images were cropped a little but it is the 6x9 model.
One funny thing worth sharing was is that I found some very tasteful NUDES of Mother, taken 1955. I had wondered if there was something like that in the darkroom for years but never looked because it would not have been right of me to do so. Anyhow he would have destroyed the neg's if he was ashamed.
Another small point that some of you might find funny regarding the camera's history. When WW11 ended England did not want any of our money going into Germany, after all they had caused so much damage and defeating Hitler cost us so much. Well when you went abroad the British Government would not let you take more than fifty British pounds sterling, the camera was going to cost him roughly that amount, no credit cards in those day's so he knew he would have to smuggle the cash in and then convert it. His method was simple, roll up the cash put it into a condom and stick it between his ass cheeks, luck allowed him customs passage without a search. I think he was being a little stupid but he knew the times either way it is rather funny.
Good night to all, I hope I am not boring you with these tales.
OH one thing I have a close up lens set up, something that some of you may not know was available. One piece of glass goes over the rangefinder part that your finger rotates and the other goes over the main lens. I have some rather good images he did for Christmas cards, I will root them out in the morning.
James.
PS If any one wants a look at my Mother in the NUDE, the answer is NO BLOODY WAY !!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
If you had bored me I would have stopped reading, and as of yet I have not. I'm really glad you posted, these images are spectacular and story is entertaining too! You look great in your school uniform :p
 
All images are so appealing and excellent in any time frame past or present. Thanks also for the great history to go along with it. Hope to see more photos and more history in the future.
 
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