Show off your TLR!

[BobCoRn]

didn't know they were rebranded by Revue. Went on ebay and found they even rebranded the Kiev 88. Going to keep my eyes open for one of those

It's believed that cameras produced under the "REVUE 6x6" brand underwent more stringent quality control and are less common. This camera can also be found under the TEXER AUTO MAT brand.
Yes, many people say that triplet lenses (like the SA-85) are "soft" in these cameras. This is possible. But make sure you've thoroughly cleaned the lens before making such claims.

 

[p.giannakis]

I posted this elsewhere on the Forum last year but not in this thread. I guess the sub-zero temperatures have caused a bit of Saturday morning boredom!

This may have been one of those many cameras that I should have kept. I purchased this Ikoflex II locally for a very good (okay cheap) price - it belonged to the seller’s father and it likely hadn’t been used in over fifty years. She loaned it to a photographer friend of hers and he purchased a roll of Rollei Retro 400 to run through it but he never did. She must have loaned the camera to him a while ago as the film expired in 2021. I fixed the sticky shutter, cleaned it up a fair bit and decided to run that expired Rollei Retro 400 through it myself. Never having shot Rollei Retro 400 before (let alone a four-year expired roll of it), I exposed it at ISO 200 and developed it in D76 using a Rollei pull-developing formula and a bit of finger-in-the-wind calculation. Negs turned out pretty nice - a blind squirrel gets an acorn every once in a while I suppose.

I ended up selling the camera to a friend of mine but in the back of my little pea-brain I’ve often considered asking him if he’d sell it back to me. Resist Vinny, resist.

BTW I couldn’t understand the upside-down Zeiss Ikon plate on the focusing hood - undoubtedly an Ikoflex rarity!


Ikoflex II by Vince Lupo, on Flickr


Duct Tape Boat Race1 by Vince Lupo, on Flickr

I had an Ikoflex Ib with the coated Tessar. I enjoyed mine initially and gave me good pictures but eventually I got tired of it.

Too big and heavy and a complicated loading mechanism. Loads of different interlocks too. Eventually I decided to sell it and switched to a YashicaMat which felt like a massive improvement until the advance mechanism gave up and got a Rolleicord.

With the Ikoflex Ib you could unscrew the front element and clean it. Useful.



Ikoflex cameras are great and well built but I can see why they didn't become as popular as Rollei.

 

[fub]

It's believed that cameras produced under the "REVUE 6x6" brand underwent more stringent quality control and are less common. This camera can also be found under the TEXER AUTO MAT brand.
Yes, many people say that triplet lenses (like the SA-85) are "soft" in these cameras. This is possible. But make sure you've thoroughly cleaned the lens before making such claims.

i have a Revue-3 (Fed-3) and honestly great working camera. Feels a bit smoother than a Fed-3 i once had. However there was still a screw overtightened under the top cover that came loose and blocked the winding mechanism 😉 it was held in place only by some kind of loctite because it was overtightened. luckily the camera functions fine without that screw