Regarding the Tessar and the Ikonta

Here are just a couple of shots from my Mess Ikonta (524/16).<p>

 

First, here's the camera:<p>

 

<center><img

src=http://host.fptoday.com/melek/pages/images/Ikonta-524-16.jpg

border=0></center><p>

 

This camera has the f/3.5 75mm Zeiss-Opton Tessar. It's one of the

sharpest lenses that I've come across and is the same lens as what

you'll find on the Super Ikonta III and IV.<p>

 

The details: Shot last year in St. Augustine. Just got around to

processing the film last night.<p>

 

Film is Kodak HIE in 120. Used a red filter. Actually metered, though

with infrared, it's just a guessing game. Processed the film in

Microdol-X for 9 minutes at 70F.<p><div></div>

This film curls like crazy, and I wish that I had a glass film holder for the scanner.<div></div>

The scanner is picking up the curl of the film on this shot. A traditional wet print will work better, or a glass film holder.

 

The flag has lost nearly all of its colors.<div></div>

haunting image of the flag

I was in a photo shop yesterday, picking up my eBay stuff, and I was thinking of buying their proofing frame. I might go back and get it.

 

Like its 35mm sibling, the Kodak HIE snaps into a tight curl, and it's really difficult to get the film to lay flat in the negative holder. It tends to buckle vertically toward the middle.

Sweet, I love the effect of the film. The main problem I have with my 6x6 folders, (which have 75/3.5 Solinars), is when it comes time to switch back to a 35mm range finder. 35mm is convenient, but the results are not the same.

Switching back and forth is a real brain thing for me. If I shoot for a week with a 6x6, it takes me at least a week to start thinking in 35mm again. I keep wondering if that, above all other considerations, is the true reason for the popularity of 6x4.5 and 6x7 - that for pros who spend a lot of time with their heads behind various cameras and just don't have the time to wait for their brains, those two 35mm-like formats (aspect ratio wise) are the easiest to switch back and forth from. Magazines like the format sure, but it seems to make sense from a photographer's perspective too.

A resting spot for the weary. I sat down and baked in the Florida sun for a few minutes.<div></div>

Is this the respooled 70mm HIE? This particular camera has been on my "want list" for some time. I came oh so close to stealing one on ebay that was mislabeled, then fell asleep and missed the $20 close.

<i>"I came oh so close to stealing one on ebay that was mislabeled, ........"</i>

 

<p>Ouch!!! </p>

Ouch indeed. <a href="http://www.photo.net/bboard/image.tcl?bboard_upload_id=22109684">This 521/16</a> was only $25 and was in great condition, save the lens and shutter CLA I had to perform. Still, coating and a rangefinder would be a handy addition to an Ikonta. A 524/2 6x9 Mess would even be better, but I find these extremely rare with the Tessar. Folding cameras are a disease!

Mike Elek, if this fort is Castillo San Marcos you have succeeded in presenting this much-adored-by-me-place in such a manner as to appear utterly foreign to me. I know that fort intimately, and yet this seems to be some other place. Kudos. Lovely.

Wonderful x3.

Nice stuff out of that neat old Zeiss. I'm impressed you are able to maintain your enthusiasm for a roll of film that has been sitting around that long. If I have anything out of the camera more than a week it has about as good a chance of ending up in the trash as in the developer.

Mike, very well done!

Nice photos. The much maligned Zeiss Ikoflex has a very similar lens.

Mike,

Nice work!!!

Mike -- great photographs. HIE is wonderful stuff to play with. That's what I love about

these old cameras and b&w photography, in general. You really never know exactly what

you'll end up with, and that in itself is part of the adventure. Something the digerati do

not understand.