Zeiss Ikon Folders

[Marc James Small]

Is there anyone here who wants to discuss Zeiss Ikon folders. I KNOW what the business plan was, but it never got into real play, and so the breed died unhappily with the III and IV. I value my two Prewar Super Ikonta B cameras and use both regularly.

Marc

 

[literiter]

I wanted a medium format camera to take hiking. It needed to be lightweight, take up a small space and be reliable. My 501CM wasn't going to cut it. So I went on a search.

I ended up with a prewar C and a B, (last model with the coated Opton) and a IV. I find I use the B fairly often because stopped down to f8 it is quite quite sharp and the coated lens has little flare. The B is far sturdier than the IV and the film advance is a little more accurate.

The prewar C has the uncoated lens, but I found a lens hood to fit which does mitigate flaring to the point I don't notice it. A great camera for landscapes and is lighter than the B. The camera itself is beautiful and over the years It has grown a little precious to me so I rarely take it out.

The limitations of a front cell focusing lens used wide open, likely caused people to look to other cameras like the Certo 6 and the Agfas.

I only wish it were easier to use a tripod and lens hoods with these cameras.

 

[Beemermark]

I have the Super Ikonta A and the C. great cameras. 30 years ago I picked up a Super Ikonta C with a Planar 2.8 lens. Absolutely fantastic. This was in the days when Shutterbug was a yellow rag and the main way of buying and selling cameras. I ended up selling it to a Japanese collector so I could feed my family in the "great recession" of the early '80's.

 

[oilman930]

My latest Zeiss Ikon find is a post WWII Ikonta 521/16. It has the economy Klio shutter / 1 : 4,5 7,7 cm Novar - Anastigmat lens combination. Most of the camera is in very good condition. It seems to have spent a big chunk of it's life in a home made ever ready case that looks likes it was made at camp.

I would love to say that this camera takes wonderful pictures, but I can't. The lens is very hazy. Also the focus ring feels like it's being twisted through very cold tree sap. After shooting two rolls of 120 film, it looks like the camera should just stay on the shelf until I find someone to send it to for a CLA. The shutter works fine, but a cleaning couldn't hurt.

Your average normal person (if there is such a thing) wouldn't even think of spending $150 to have a camera repaired that was bought at a New Jersey flea market for $20. Then again normal people don't spend $20 dollars on 60 year old film cameras. So who am I kidding. I like this camera and I want to get it fixed. It deserves to be used.

 

[bigeye]

I'm trying to get there, too. I have a post war Super Ikonta B that has a nice piece of glass and an average body. Just got the shutter back from SK Grimes and slipped with the wrench, holing the once nice bellows. argh.

 

[Mablo]

@ oilman930, I have a post war 521/16 with uncoated Tessar and a pre-war 520/16 with Novar-Anastigmat. I was disappointed with my photos initially and looked into the lenses more carefully to find out the reason why my pictures were so soft. It turned out that both of them had severe haze in the internal lens modules.

I'm no expert with cameras, on the contrary. Yet, I could figure out how to open up the lens system and clean it. And I even managed to put it all back together without breaking anything 🙂 I got a lot of help from guys in this forum (see the 120 RF Folders section for more information). Now both my folders are again in great condition and crank out lovely photos. There is one taken with the Tessar below but the Novar lens is just as good if not better:

 

[SimonSawSunlight]

I recently got my hands on a Zeiss Ikon Super Nettel (135 folder, came out before the Contax II). It's a VERY fine camera, I don't think it has ever had a repair or CLA in ~75 years and the rangefinder is dead on, shutter works more or less precisely at all speeds and the frame spacing / transport is superb. now if it only had the intuitiional ergonomics and handling of, say, a leica m, I would use it enough for me to justify keeping it.
mine is the triotar (f3.5) not the tessar (f2.8 or f3.5) version.

this is what it looks like:

and this is what it produces: