Zeiss Ikon Nettar 515 MF camera advice

[stingOM]

Is this a good starter/budget camera? The one I am looking at has Novar Anastigmat 7.5cm f4.5 lens for <£20


I already have a Yashica 635 and have some experience shoot MF already. Some samples of Yashica 635 shoots on 120 negatives





What is the IQ like?

Thanks.

[PaulC]

Are those from the 515 or is that what you are comparing it with?

There is no right answer to your question because the cameras vary so much. A good Nettar will give excellent results, one that isn't so well adjusted won't.

I think it is important always to wind on immediately before shooting to ensure that you have the film tight against the film gate, particularly as opening the bellows can create enormous suction (so always open them gently).

Here's a shot from a 516 (which is the 515 with a double exposure lock), the conditions were far from ideal for this sort of camera, it was a very long exposure hand-held with a wide aperture, while trying to climb over the crowd of P&S shooters.



The lens on this camera is a simple Novar triplet.

The 515 is pre-1940 and I'm sure it isn't really a step up from the Yashica. It certainly makes you think very carefully about what you are doing - if you want to get anything worth having out of it.

[Nesster]

+1 on that. The folder will give you a more-or-less vintage look, depending on the particular sample of the lens, especially if it is not from the '50s. The Yashica on the other hand is fairly modern in its look; you might gain, but not all that much, with a more modern camera.

That isn't to say that shooting with a folder isn't fun and liberating.

Your TLR is more general-purpose and applicable to more situations.

My advice? if you have the money, go ahead and try it out! My list of favorite cameras has surprisingly many vintage folders on it, and I wouldn't feel bad if I had to use one as my only camera.

[Banjo]

Nice, appealing shot, PaulC.

[PaulC]

A bit under-exposed as you can see from the noise but I was already shooting on something like 1/15 with an 80mm lens, I couldn't imagine getting away with anything less than that.

[std]

I have 2 nettars and they are both outstanding cameras - it you find them in a good condition they are very good cameras for a small price.

[wupdigoj]

The camera is very cute, simple but very well made IMO. Many people obtain outstanding results from novar lenses, but in my case the results were vastly poorer than those coming from tessar clones (belar, skopar, industar). Sample variation, I suppose

Javier

[kansalliskala]

What 515 version you would get? Plain 515 is a jewel but I like the square picture format of my 515/16 too and it is still so small it fits into pocket.

[PaulC]

I think that with negatives this size, the lens quality is very much secondary to other factors. Let's face it, you can't even focus accurately with them, you rely on guesswork, so you tend to stop down to compensate for focusing errors. At f8 or f11, how much difference will there be between a Tessar and a triplet? Hardly any.

What's more, hand-held there is a good chance of getting slight camera shake even up at around 100/s, maybe not enough to be obvious but enough to (literally) blur any difference in lens quality.

The real issue is going to be the calibration of the lens and whether all the elements are properly aligned. That can be good or bad with any type of lens.

Another thing is that what holds true for the Nettar is also true of most other folders. They all work well as long as the bellows are light tight, the shutter accurate(ish) and the lens well-adjusted (and the film is fairly slow, ISO 400 tends to get fogged from the rear window). Apparently Agfa bellows are made of material that rots but Zeiss Ikon, Welta, Voigtlander, Franka and Ensign don't seem to be particularly at risk from that.

[Banjo]

[Attila]

I did like almost any of my folders better than Yashica 124G. IQ wasn't bad from Yashica, just subjective impression was better.

Plenty of samples here .

http://www.mflenses.com/gallery/v/filmcamera/german/?

[hanskerensky]

I have a 515/16 (post-war) and whilst it is a rather simple folder with the Novar-Anastigmat 75mm f6,3 it produces outstanding photos with that nice classic "look".



You can see the camera here :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29504544@N08/4000674368/in/set-72157622560079952/

[Banjo]

[hanskerensky]

Thanks Banjo !
Probably your folder is not a 515/16 as these were only produced till about 1949. But never mind, folders are allways fun

[Banjo]

I think mine may be a Nettar II, 517/16.

The lens mount and some other parts appear to be made of Aluminium.

[kansalliskala]

515/16 has a folding viewfinder. Also it reads "515/16" on the back of the camera.

[Banjo]

Yep, mine is a 517/16, it says so on the back. No frills whatever, not even double exposure prevention lock: it does keep you on your toes.

I'll get my first film D&P'd tomorrow, then we'll see how we went.

[Banjo]

Well, put a roll of 120 Fuji Portra 100 ISO through my Nettar 517/16 and have the prints.

First, the incident reading based exposure (using a Gossen Pro-F handheld meter) was very acceptable, especially as some guesswork was involved since the relatively few shutter speeds available on the Nettar's shutter didn't exactly correspond one-to-one to the ones provided by the meter.

Then, another little difficulty was the flap on the Nettar's ever-ready case, which sneakily got in the way of the taking lens obliterating large areas of the scene in several frames.

One further problem was forgetting to allow for parallax in a couple of close shots, resulting in cutting off the subjects head. Fortunately, these were mostly the same frames that were also affected by the flap of the ever-ready case, so I got two for one there.

On the other hand, not one double exposure: so I'm ahead there.

The remaining six or seven shots came out most gratifying: good rich colours with a period feel to them.

I have already reloaded and am trying hard to remember to avoid the previous traps.

Although I shot hand-held (easy with the in-lens shutter) so far, this time I am using a monopod (very convenient with this camera) in order to take more trouble over the composition and framing.

BTW, some of the metal parts (wind on knob, focusing scale, lens mount ring) were somewhat affected by "dirt" and tarnish, when I first got the camera. All this was easily fixed by some rubbing: first with an eraser (as in pencil), then with a commercially available jewellery polishing cloth (for use with gold or silver items). Looks "as good as new", now.

[hanskerensky]

Good show Banjo !

btw It's quite normal that the times on a leaf shutter are not that accurate.
I normally first run a testroll with a "new" camera by shooting the same subject 3 times. 1x as indicated by my lightmeter, 1x 1 stop overexposed, 1x 1 stop underexposed. In that way you'll find the relation between lightmeter and shutter quickly.

[Banjo]

Good advice, Hans.

Thanks.