Zeiss Super-Ikonta

Orio · Expire: 2012-12-04

Well, we believed that my father lost or sold the camera, but we were wrong. We found his Super-Ikonta in a closer, inside a camera bag. The closet was not opened for years and it was in a dark room also never opened and never aired. Result? You guessed it. Fungus on the lens, inside and out Sad

and on the camera body also.
I have now to find a good photo service to have the lens cleaned.
The body is rusty but still operable, and the exposimeter still works.
I will post photos soon, currently the camera is at my mother's place.

It used to be a gorgeous piece of photographic machinery! Now it's sad to see it in this condition.
It is a 6x6 camera, it is very similar to this one:
Click here to see on Ebay
the only noticeable difference is that mine has "Synchro-Compur" written on the front of the lens where in this copy you see "Zeiss Ikon".
The lens is a T coated Tessar 2.8/50 Carl Zeiss Jena.
From the little info I could find in a quick search, it appears that my father's camera was made in 1940.
It uses regular 6x6 film rolls and therefore, once cleaned, it will be perfectly operable.

montecarlo · Joined: 04 Apr 2007 Posts: 1865 Location: Romania

Hello,

It looks its a great camera ( http://www.griffinbyteworks.com/photography/equipment/zeiss-ikon-super-ikonta-bx.html http://www.lumieresenboite.com/collection2.php?l=2&c=Zeiss_Ikon_Super_Ikonta_533/16 http://www.cameraquest.com/zikontb.htm )
Its more complex tha other 6x6 cameras from the same period. By the way, its a medium format rangefinder (what's that little door under the flash shoe) ?
Wait to see some pictures made with it Smile

Orio · Expire: 2012-12-04

Thanks for the link Cosmin, my father's camera looks exactly like the one in the first link. So it must be a postwar copy.

The lens is a 2.8/80 of course, not a 2.8/50 as I first wrote, I was not thinking medium format. Smile

I already have pictures made with this camera, I took them 20 years ago, I have to find them.
Anyway as soon as it comes back from servicing, I will make some rolls with it.

The door that you mention covers the light meter cell. The exposimeter is still working. I have to test it's precision though.

Orio · Expire: 2012-12-04

Here's the camera:

As you can see, externally is in bad condition. There is rust on the front (not visible here), and loss of paint.
There is fungus inside the lens (as you can easily see).
Mechanically, it seems perfect (ah, Zeiss!) - I don't seem to be able to use the shutter button, though. My father told me once you need to do a "trick" for that, it seems it was a measure against double exposures. I can not figure it out though. I can operate the shutter from a lever which is below the lens (I don't know why). Also there are other little switches and things I can not figure out.

Something strange is going on on the back of the camera:

As you can see, some strange "bumps" have developed between the metal and the leather. They were of course caused by the humidity, but I have no idea of what they can be. They can not be simply mold or fungus, because they are hard as the metal itself.
Any idea about them?

Puplet · Joined: 09 Aug 2007 Posts: 410

You could just strip the leather off and replace it:

www.cameraleather.com do some nice material and they're relatively cheap.

Orio · Expire: 2012-12-04

I don't want to: on the leather there is engraved the Zeiss Ikon Stuttgart logo , the camera model, and the serial number.

My plan would be to strip off the leather gently, remove the bumps (if at all possible), then reglue the original leather.
But first I'd need to know about the nature of those bumps. If they are not removeable, then the whole operation would be useless.

vilva · Expire: 2015-05-27

bob955i · Joined: 15 Apr 2007 Posts: 2495

The back looks like it's made of aluminium so if it is, the bumps are almost certainly oxidisation caused by the dampness.

Start by removing the back if you can, to avoid contaminating the camera with swarf and then remove the leather. Once you remove the leather, you should be able to scrape the worst of each bump off with some sort of flat bladed scraper, followed by sanding the remainder down using wet and dry grit paper stuck to a flat sided block so you don't make the surface any more uneven than it already is.

Remember to clean the reverse side of the leather and remove any oxidisation that may be stuck to it as any future humidity will restart the oxidisation process again.

You've got yourself a project here Orio...

Orio · Expire: 2012-12-04

Thank you guys for the suggestions.