Zeiss Super Ikonta III, problem

[canonetc]

Hi,

Does anyone else on RFF own a Zeiss Super Ikonta III? I have problem, whereby the images are overlapping each other. It appears to be a winder-spacing issue, and I am trying to see if anyone else has had this problem with their camera, and were able to fix it, or knows how to fix.

thanks and cheers,

Chris
canonetc

 

[furcafe]

Some overlap is inevitable w/the Super Ikonta III & IV, although it can be reduced with a CLA. My understanding is that the problem is a combination of the design of the III & IV's wind mechanism & the fact that the thickness of 120 film today is different than what was standard back in the 1950s-60s. IME, the Ilford Delta films & Kodak C41 & B&W emulsions don't overlap as much (or @ all), whereas Fuji, Agfa, & Eastern/Central European (Efke, Fomapan, etc.) films overlap the most.

Hi,

Does anyone else on RFF own a Zeiss Super Ikonta III? I have problem, whereby the images are overlapping each other. It appears to be a winder-spacing issue, and I am trying to see if anyone else has had this problem with their camera, and were able to fix it, or knows how to fix.

thanks and cheers,

Chris
canonetc

 

[Pherdinand]

I have a ZISI III. I have the same problem with it. It is "normal". The wind mechanism, unlike the most of 120-film cameras, is not measuring the amount of film rolled through some ...rollers, but it's counting the turns the takeup spool takes. Therefore a calibration for the existing film thicknesses + 120-spool thicknesses was necessary when they designed the camera.
When you wind more and more film up, the takeup spool gets fatter so less and less turns will be needed to wind exactly one frame. Also for the first frame, if you have a thinner spool as takeup spool, less film will be wound with the same (fixed) number of turns.
This is where the problem is caused. And this is also where you can find the solution:
-make the takeup spool thicker (wrap some paper around; don't forget to cut a hole for the film leader-paper end, or, use tape)
-use old spools; i found once a wqooden one which was thicker a bit than the plastic spools of today, and there was no overlapping.
-wind some more paper at the beginning - don't stop at the arrow, windf half a frame more
-OR, just crop/cut the 2-3 mm at the edge and consider it a 80mm lens instead of a 75 🙂

 

[canonetc]

Zeiss Super Ikonta III, problem

Hi Fur and Pher 🙂,

thanks guys, what you have to say makes a lot of sense. I'll try the wrap-the-spool technique and see what happens. I still think it may be some kind of adjustment issue, because when I first bought the camera about five years ago, I never had this problem at all, and, in fact, sometimes it seperates the images properly depending on how I line up the arrow on the 120 film with the "starting" position. See attached negs from Hollywood recently. Thanks again,

Zeiss On!

Chris
canonetc

 

[Pherdinand]

That looks exactly like one of my results when i don't use the tricks.