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Quick poll: You decide which camera I take


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I'm going up to State College in Pennsylvania. I want to take a 6x9

with me. I'm undecided. Here are the choices:

 

-- Zeiss-Ikon Ikonta 520/2 with uncoated Tessar

 

-- Voigtlander Bessa with uncoated Helomar

 

-- Medalist II with coated Ektar

 

-- Zeiss Ikon Mess Ikonta 524/2 with coated Tessar

 

-- Kodak/Nagel Vollenda 620 with either uncoated Tessar or uncoated

Kodak Anastigmat

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Put me down as another vote for the Mess Ikonta w/ coated Tessar. Like a trim, light relative of my Moskva-5 (as it should be without the extra bulk to house the rangefinder optics), no respooling, and as I've recently been reminded with my Ideal 250/7, even the old uncoated Tessars can hold their own against most modern lenses if you do your part (get the focus right and hold the camera steady).
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OK, I'll take the Mess Ikonta. I'm only there for one day to see a B.B. King concert. And then I gotta be back in town for Steelers vs. Jets. I'd hate to be stuck in the middle of Pennsylvania with no radio reception and miss that game.

 

I'm using this as my walkaround camera. I'm going to use either a Retina IIa or my trust Contax IIa for the concert with the new Rollei R3 film. We'll see how that works out.

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I wish I could be faced with such a decision Mike. Take the Mess Ikonta and send one of the rest to each one of us ;)

 

BTW Donald, the Mess Ikonta does have a rangefinder. "Mess" meaning "measuring" in German in this context. I think one with a rangefinder is a good choice for this trip, especially if he may be shooting indoors or close details.

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Wups, Mike, you're right -- "measuring" with an uncoupled rangefinder, hence no arm with prism housing on the front standard and correspondingly more compact bed and bellows. "Super" Ikonta would have the coupled RF, of course, and the plain Ikonta is the non-RF version.

 

For my own "walking around" camera, I have to say I'd rather have a 6x4.5 Ikonta or on of the 1950s vintage Japanese coupled rangefinder models in this compact format. Sixteen shots between reloads is good, and the negatives are still three times the size of 35 mm. I need to get the bellows leaks fixed in my Wirgin Auta so I can use it this way -- it's a 6x9 with masks, but it's a very thin, compact 6x9, and I really like the 105 mm lens on that format, it's like shooting 6x9 in a Graphic with the 150 mm lens (except that the folded camera will fit in an inside jacket pocket).

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