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Any Zeiss Ikon guru's out there?
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 01, 2013 7:19 pm    Post subject: Any Zeiss Ikon guru's out there? Reply with quote
I have just decided, on impulse, to buy a Zeiss Ikon Nettar.

It appears to do everything as it should, the shutter fires, no discernable lag, winds on, and all levers and dials move smoothly. The lens itself looks to be in very good nick,

My main query is, what variant is it?
Initial searches appear to make it the 6x6 Signal Nettar (It has the red half cover in the viewfinder if not wound on far enough), and has a Novar 4.5/75 lens on a 518/2 Pronto shutter.

Any idea on date etc? I plan on using it, at least for a time, but do I need to take extra care of it. I hope it's not rare, as the plan is to take it underground, and I don't fancy doing that to something nice that other people would like to own.

All help appreciated, as I'm not clued up in the slightest with these.


PostPosted: Sat Nov 02, 2013 12:28 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Can you could upload a few pictures of the camera?


PostPosted: Sat Nov 02, 2013 7:20 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Unfortunately, in the growing literature about old lenses and cameras, the Zeiss Ikon folding cameras
are still in a relatively obscure zone. The Zeiss book by Pierpaolo Ghisetti gives some information, but
not of the very precise kind that you request (exact date, etc.). I'll have a look anyway (the book is not
where I am writing now) and give you the info that I can find.


PostPosted: Sat Nov 02, 2013 10:42 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Even if you can pin down the exact model they were available with different lens and shutter combinations and the customer could customise their order. More to the point: in the intervening fifty or sixty years the lens and shutter could have been changed or modified.
What's important is what you have in front of you and whether it works well or not. They're not rare and are easy to repair, so don't hesitate to take it out and use it!


PostPosted: Sat Nov 02, 2013 11:57 am    Post subject: Re: Any Zeiss Ikon guru's out there? Reply with quote
NewStuff wrote:

My main query is, what variant is it?
Initial searches appear to make it the 6x6 Signal Nettar (It has the red half cover in the viewfinder if not wound on far enough), and has a Novar 4.5/75 lens on a 518/2 Pronto shutter.

All help appreciated, as I'm not clued up in the slightest with these.


Ok, here what I could find:

- 518/2 is not the name of the shutter, it's the Zeiss number of the model (this I already knew, as the xxx/xx numbering is
standard coding for all Zeiss folding cameras)

- and here's a discrepancy with the info I have: all Sign Nettar coded 518/2 are 6x9 format.
The 6x6 format models are coded 518/16

- The lens (Novar 4.5/75) belongs in fact with the 6x6 518/16 model.
The 6x9 518/2 models all have a 105mm lens (Novar 6.3/105 or Novar 4.5/105 or Novar 3.5/105)

- the Novar 4.5/75 is the median model for Sign Nettar 518/16 cameras. The slower ones were Novar 6.3/75, (coupled with
a Vario 25-200B shutter in the first version and a Vario 25-100B in the second version), then followed 5 different Novar 4.5/75
versions (first with Vario 25-100B shutter, then Vario 25-200B, then Pronto 25-200 BV, then Prontor S 1-300BV, then
Prontor SVS 1-300BV), and faster ones were two Novar 3.5/75 versions (with Prontor S 1-300BV shutter first, then Prontor SV 1-250BV).

- The Signal Nettar 518/16 6x6 production starts in 1952 and ends in 1959. The model production does not follow the slower to faster
time pattern: the medium speed f/4.5 production runs until the very end (1959), while the faster f/3.5 model was discontinued in 1955
(the slower f/6.3 model was discontinued in 1954).

That is all that I could find.


PostPosted: Sat Nov 02, 2013 12:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
http://www.mflenses.com/zeiss-ikon-cameras.html

might help.


PostPosted: Sat Nov 02, 2013 9:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Many thanks to all for the information. I'll upload a picture or two next week, but I suspect you have all seen these before.

Thankfully, it does not appear to be rare based on Orio's information, so down a mine it shall go. I will order a couple of rolls of XP2 and upload (somehow), the results.


PostPosted: Sat Nov 02, 2013 10:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Xpres wrote:
Even if you can pin down the exact model they were available with different lens and shutter combinations and the customer could customise their order. More to the point: in the intervening fifty or sixty years the lens and shutter could have been changed or modified.
What's important is what you have in front of you and whether it works well or not. They're not rare and are easy to repair, so don't hesitate to take it out and use it!

+1
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