Vintage cameras are like potato chips... by bernicrumb

Vintage cameras are like potato chips...

... you can never have just one!

Today I went back to the Antique Mall and came home with a novel published in 1945 (with original dust jacket), and this lovely Zeiss Ikon Nettar II Iv (518/16) with a Novar Anastigmat f4.5/75mm lens (Rodenstock) and a Vario shutter (manufactured: Jul 58 - Dec 59). A 6cm x 6cm medium format camera marketed to "amateur" users, it takes 120 film and is the little brother to the much more expensive Zeiss Ikonta camera. This particular model has Double-Exposure prevention, which I am pretty happy about, since I do sometimes forget to advance the film after taking a shot.

It is only a few years older than I am, but is in amazing condition for its age. It is very clean, inside and out, has a metal take up spool that I hope to be able to get back from the developer when I send my film in (I have no place in my home to put a darkroom). It is now loaded with Kodak Portra 400 color film, spooled up to the first frame ready for exposure. I am thinking of taking it over to the metropark after work tomorrow to take a couple of shots of the warterfall there...
What a find!
May 18th, 2021  
A thing of beauty! I'm looking forward to seeing what you capture with it!
May 18th, 2021  
@taffy @rumpelstiltskin Thanks for commenting! I am still a bit giddy about finally finding a 120 film 6x6 camera in working order. :-) I haven't taken it out to shoot with yet, but if the weather cooperates this weekend, I'll take it out then.
May 18th, 2021  
Great shot
May 23rd, 2021  
brilliant berni, welcome to the vintage camera and lens club :)
May 23rd, 2021  
@phil_howcroft I have several vintage cameras from the first half of the 20th century, but only a few are actually useable now. My 1920s Brownie has terrible light leaks, and I have several of the old Kodak folding cameras from the 1930s that uses the now extinct 616 film. Someone said that I could buy film to cut and spool myself, but I have no place to make a darkroom, and I don't know of anyone near me who knows how to do something like that.

So I will continue to use my Argus C and Argus A and A2 35mm cameras, but I think this Zeiss will be my new go-to film camera because it is so light compared to the Argus "Bricks". :-)
May 23rd, 2021  
@rumpelstiltskin Thank you very much, Lynn. I do plan on sharing the developed photos here once I get used to it. Now that the COVID-19 restrictions are being lifted in a couple of weeks, I will have more freedom to go to interesting places to take photos than in my living room. :-)
May 23rd, 2021  
@bernicrumb berni , i collect the lenses and use them to my Sony Cameras by use of adapters. My next film roll will be on a Pentax ME super
May 23rd, 2021  
Leave a Comment
Sign up for a free account or Sign in to post a comment.