Just finished a Super Ikonta

This is my own camera. Bought it two weeks ago, and it arrived last

week. Overall, a very nice camera. Somewhat heavy, but it cleaned up

nicely. The lens is very sharp, but as always, the most critical thing

is having a steady hand or a tripod.<p>

 

I'm going to haul this to my sister's wedding in Kansas this weekend.

We'll see how well it does with that.<p>

 

<a href="http://host.fptoday.com/melek/zeiss/sikonta530-2.html"

target="_new">Oh, the link.</a><p><div></div>

That is one beautiful camera.

6x9 in a wedding... you are a brave man!

8 shots/roll ... you'll need a couple dozens

Wooo ... nice write-up too.

Wonderful job and a great writeup. I have a postwar 531/2 on my wishlist.

 

As for the wedding, that Tessar will be exquisite for that - portrait mode as close as you

can and Tri-X will give them something to really remember the day with. Should be lots of

fun. Please be sure and post the results.

 

Thanks,

 

William

Great job on that nice old camera. Wish I had those kind of skills to bring back a few of mine. It seems like the rangefinder is a nice idea for a lens that long; anything under about 15 feet can get pretty tricky. In fact, though, I probably experience more failures from misestimating dof than from my focal distance guesses. One nice thing about 6x9 is that you really don't pay much of a penalty for using fast film and a couple extra stops is a big help. Noticed a couple typos in the second paragraph of the presentation.

Was that boxy Zeiss Contac also provide relief from cold, flu and allergy? ;)

 

Great writeup and beautiful camera. Firefox initially blocked your pop-up photos.

Mike you did a excellent job on that camera. This is the model that I have, and have been looking for a shutter blade, for the past year. You thought you might have a blade to fit this camera. Now that you have looked ,do you think the shuter blades you have will work on this camera. Sorry to be confusing if I am.Thanks

It's more than a camera, it's a part of the XXth century History you've got. It's in the right hands.

 

Bravo. I'm impatient to see the results.

 

I have vaguely heard of a strange 35mm camera named Lexica before, but it's as mysterious as Nessie ; its inventor was Otto Parneck, a ingeneer of the Henz company, wasn't he ? A spice camera ;-))

Mike nice work and you did it a week....

 

FYI, it took me nearly a year to restore a Record III and its uncoupled RF is much simpler to service. It was the sourcing of both replacement set of bellows and a Synchro-Compur shutter that slowed me down.

 

The Super C is a legendary design. The nice thing about 8 on 120 is that you'll easily get through a roll of film in one day. You should do a crop of that Harley photo to show the resolution of 6x9. If you have been shooting 35mm regularly, it's astonishing.

I had to come back for a second look. What is the RF base, 90mm?

Say, Mike, if you've found a good way to hold a Super C steady for horizontals, maybe you can shoot a self portrait that shows the grip. I finally found a way to steady down my Mosvka-5 in verticals, but it's still pretty wobbly in landscape mode -- and mine, at least, isn't very steady even on a tripod in that position (which is why my best shots from that camera are generally verticals).

Yes Mike E., you are in for a treat concerning the 6x9 negative size and the image clarity from the 4.5/105 Tessar. Congratulations!

 

Ever since being sold on the 6x9 format camera, I've been buying them for years.

 

Twenty five years ago, I bought the 1934 C at a camera show. Mine is the one with the "plunger" and two shutterless ruby windows + 4.5/105 Tessar. Beautiful dark gray painted hamertone finish on both main struts. It came with the case and an inside pouch for the 6x4.5 mask. In those days, people at the shows were only interested in 35mm's, as I would notice them carriyng their 35mm's + "big" zooms around their necks, and therefore, did not pay much attention to the medium format, except for the Hasselblads. I was interested in Super Ikontas and the Rolleiflex. I exposed many 6x9 negatives, in some of which, I just "cropped" small areas with great results.

 

After reading your excelent presentation, it seems to me that you have a transition model between the original 1934 and the 1936 (model II) where the double exposure prevention and the van Albada finder were introduced.

 

Well, you all may say that with the double ruby shutterless film counter, I might have a light leak. Not so, since I exposed a roll of Ilford 3.200 Asa (ISO) without a hint of light leak.

 

Years later, I bought another C, but this time it was the 531/2 MX from 1955 with a coated 3.5/105 Tessar. Came with its case (no pouch for the mask), instruction booklet and one blank registration card. Wonderful picture taker!

 

Both cameras are in mintish condition and so, nowadays, I have the first C and the last C in my "accumulation".

 

I saw and handled the D model for the 616 film; mint, and larger than the C but, I din't buy it due to the type film used. I could kick myself!

 

Have fun, Tito.

...and Andrew, the rangefinder base is 70mm as measured on both of my cameras.

Great job on the rework, Mike. Beautiful camera!

Great job, Mike - Now I really have to close my wish-list.

...and Mike, the photos are excellent as well as the camera.