Zeiss Ikon, first impression

[iskraII]

Received the Limited Edition 2 days ago from Sam Shoshan of the Classic Connection. It is a very solid camera. The viewfinder is amazingly clear, bright with excellent visibility of 28mm frame (0.74x but better than Leica 0.72x). The down side of it is the focusing patch is not as contrasty as Leica M7. As reported by others, the film advance level is not as smooth as Leica. Having film inside helps but not much. I am really disappointed by the fact that I can not use Leica 50 Summicron DR. The culprit is the lower part of the lens chamber clearance which is clear only about 1/3 way between the mount and shutter. No problem with other lenses I have (35, 75, 135). Overall, very impressive first try by Zeiss at half Leica's cost. I am glade that I did not buy Voigtlander R2C. I can now enjoy Zeiss/Contax 50mm f1.5 Sonnar and 85mm f2 Sonnar via third party adapter with much improved VF and better designed and built body.

 

[MP Guy]

congrats. lets see some pictures taken with it.

 

[Frank Granovski]

Does it feel more or less like a Bessa R3A? 😎

 

[Sonnar Brian]

Where did you get the Contax Mount to M Mount adapter? Most of the ones I've seen cost more than an R2c.

 

[taffer]

Brian, there seems to be at least two sellers now offering them on ebay from time to time with prices in the $300 range, which are indeed tempting.

Too bad they are not true LTM-Contax adapters, only M mount 🙁

 

[Sonnar Brian]

I can live with an M-Mount! And also $300 is not bad.

At $1,000+ that they were going for- Buying a Nikkor 3.5cm F2.5, 8.5cm F2, 10.5cm F2.5, and 13.5cm F3.5 all in LTM would be cheaper.

 

[iskraII]

Frank, I do not have R3A. I only played R3A for about 10 minutes while back in my local camera shop. My impression was R3A is improved over R2 clones but not much. The improvement of the Ikon over R2 is very substantial.

I bought my adapter over the bay and paid about $360. It is well make and very smooth but it is made of soft aluminium, the out mount is from Kiev camera. Overall, I am pretty happy with the adapter as it allow me to use my favorite lenses with a much improved RF body. I only wish Voigtlander/Cosina would re-issue their Contax to leica M and/or LTM adapter again.

 

[ZeissFan]

> The improvement of the Ikon over R2 is very substantial.

This gives the impression that these are somehow the same camera. The Zeiss Ikon is not a Cosina design, is not a rebadged Bessa and is not built on the Bessa platform. Hope that didn't sound too harsh, as I don't intend it to come off that way.

 

[ch1]

> The improvement of the Ikon over R2 is very substantial.

This gives the impression that these are somehow the same camera. The Zeiss Ikon is not a Cosina design, is not a rebadged Bessa and is not built on the Bessa platform. Hope that didn't sound too harsh, as I don't intend it to come off that way.

Mike,

Thanks for clarification. As a Nikonian, I can only sit back and enjoy watching you folks revel in the new Ikon.

As to the quality of the R2 (in my case - the R2S) - I think it is a great "second body" to my S2 (and someday - SP) but it is a "knock off" and has evident "quality compromises".

That said - imagine if I could get a Nikon SP w/TTL metering!

Alas, not to be.

Will continue to enjoy (and resist!) the revelry here of you Ikonians. Glad to hear that, for whatever quirks or nits, overall it is a fine camera body.

Regards,
George

 

[Frank Granovski]

My impression was R3A is improved over R2 clones but not much. The improvement of the Ikon over R2 is very substantial.

Okay, that answers my question.

 

[ZeissFan]

Cosina seems to have improved the design and choice of materials with each successive camera. However, judging purely from comments on this group and other Internet discussion boards, they still struggle with providing consistent rangefinder calibration.