A few years ago I found out that my mom had a medium format camera that used to belong to her father.
With the talk of digital rangefinders and other such cameras I thought I'd check this thing out again. ; I found out where it was being kept and retrieved it from an old camera bag tucked into the corner of a closet shelf.
It's definitely a classic.
The only real info I have on it is that it's a Zeiss Super Ikonta 532/16. ; It's a fixed lens camera (or maybe not, the manual seems to indicate an alternative lens option), I don't know how clear the pictures make it but it has a metal panel in the front that opens out and down. ; The lens swings out with the door, much of the lens is a bellows that enables it to collapse into the body of the camera.
It turns out it had film in it, it may have been on the last exposure which I used in testing it. ; But the film has likely been in there for decades, I assume by now it's probably all ruined by age anyway.
Apparently the film (120, it shoots 6x6) can be purchased today, and places can be found to process it. ; This is CLASSIC gear, it has no on board metering at all. ; The exposure controls are on the lens, one ring for aperture and one for shutter speed (both feel completely smooth, no apparent detents for specific settings), the smaller ring you can see on the upper right side of the lens on the head on view is the focus control. ; It's quite stiff, I hurt my thumb trying to work it while I figured out how the rangefinder focus worked.
In this case it appears to have the main viewfinder and then a separate smaller window on the other side of the lens, it looks like the end of the lens has a separate lens that's part of the viewfinder mechanism. ; I've never seen anything like that before. ; I mean I know rangefinders work on the parallax principle, but I'd never seen an outer lens attached to the main lens.
I assume you hard core camera nerds already understand the concept, but for those to whom this is as exotic as it was to me, you focus a rangefinder by aligning two copies of the image you see through the viewfinder. ; The main viewfinder provides a picture that should at least roughly match what the lens is seeing (although since it's offset it won't be exactly the same, and the closer you are to your subject the more off it'll be), and then the smaller viewfinder window projects a second image in a little circle in the center of the view that appears sort of yellowish in color (at least in this case). ; You aim at an object and can see a second copy of it and you adjust the focus until the smaller circle image is aligned with the rest of the image.
I was initially confused in trying to focus it, it turns out it has a minimum focus distance of 6 feet which is quite high compared to what I'm used to. ; I couldn't get the closer objects I was focusing on to line up. ; Once I realized I had to use a farther target it worked just fine.
And please.. no offense at the camera nerd thing.. ; Normally I'm the nerd, but this camera is going way beyond my experience. ; I have a pretty good grip on how 35mm slrs work, and I vaguely understand the basic rangefinder concept, but this is a whole new ballgame. ; It uses a new (to me) type of film transport that seems to involve using part of the previous spool of film for the next roll you put on. ; Unlike the 35mm concept that I'm familiar with, this one seems to start with the film on one side and as you shoot it it gets wound on onto the other, it looks like there's no rewinding once you're done. ; I still don't understand quite how that works. ; Somehow it starts wound onto one spool and once it's used up it's fully wound onto the other spool. ; That would seem to suggest there's no outer case unlike a 35mm spool, but I don't see how that would be possible, surely light would leak in without it.
I have no idea if it even works, one review I found of the family of cameras that this belongs to said to expect to invest in an overhaul if it's been sitting around for decades.
I feel that I ought to test it out though. ; I am NOT going to end up as a medium format geek, going around using a camera like this regularly. ; I have no regrets about going modern, 35mm has been good to me, and with my focus on trying to learn wildlife shooting a medium format isn't going to do me any favors... ; But I want to know what it's like to use something like this.
You guys know what's funny, though? ; I looked up 120 film at B&H, and the description for one of the types of film describes it as somehow being having an advantage for being scanned, somehow it's supposed to give improved results when scanning it. ; I'm looking at a camera that seems to date to around 1950 or perhaps before. ; But the film for it is being advertised as being better to scan and work with digitally.
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With the talk of digital rangefinders and other such cameras I thought I'd check this thing out again. ; I found out where it was being kept and retrieved it from an old camera bag tucked into the corner of a closet shelf.
It's definitely a classic.
The only real info I have on it is that it's a Zeiss Super Ikonta 532/16. ; It's a fixed lens camera (or maybe not, the manual seems to indicate an alternative lens option), I don't know how clear the pictures make it but it has a metal panel in the front that opens out and down. ; The lens swings out with the door, much of the lens is a bellows that enables it to collapse into the body of the camera.
It turns out it had film in it, it may have been on the last exposure which I used in testing it. ; But the film has likely been in there for decades, I assume by now it's probably all ruined by age anyway.
Apparently the film (120, it shoots 6x6) can be purchased today, and places can be found to process it. ; This is CLASSIC gear, it has no on board metering at all. ; The exposure controls are on the lens, one ring for aperture and one for shutter speed (both feel completely smooth, no apparent detents for specific settings), the smaller ring you can see on the upper right side of the lens on the head on view is the focus control. ; It's quite stiff, I hurt my thumb trying to work it while I figured out how the rangefinder focus worked.
In this case it appears to have the main viewfinder and then a separate smaller window on the other side of the lens, it looks like the end of the lens has a separate lens that's part of the viewfinder mechanism. ; I've never seen anything like that before. ; I mean I know rangefinders work on the parallax principle, but I'd never seen an outer lens attached to the main lens.
I assume you hard core camera nerds already understand the concept, but for those to whom this is as exotic as it was to me, you focus a rangefinder by aligning two copies of the image you see through the viewfinder. ; The main viewfinder provides a picture that should at least roughly match what the lens is seeing (although since it's offset it won't be exactly the same, and the closer you are to your subject the more off it'll be), and then the smaller viewfinder window projects a second image in a little circle in the center of the view that appears sort of yellowish in color (at least in this case). ; You aim at an object and can see a second copy of it and you adjust the focus until the smaller circle image is aligned with the rest of the image.
I was initially confused in trying to focus it, it turns out it has a minimum focus distance of 6 feet which is quite high compared to what I'm used to. ; I couldn't get the closer objects I was focusing on to line up. ; Once I realized I had to use a farther target it worked just fine.
And please.. no offense at the camera nerd thing.. ; Normally I'm the nerd, but this camera is going way beyond my experience. ; I have a pretty good grip on how 35mm slrs work, and I vaguely understand the basic rangefinder concept, but this is a whole new ballgame. ; It uses a new (to me) type of film transport that seems to involve using part of the previous spool of film for the next roll you put on. ; Unlike the 35mm concept that I'm familiar with, this one seems to start with the film on one side and as you shoot it it gets wound on onto the other, it looks like there's no rewinding once you're done. ; I still don't understand quite how that works. ; Somehow it starts wound onto one spool and once it's used up it's fully wound onto the other spool. ; That would seem to suggest there's no outer case unlike a 35mm spool, but I don't see how that would be possible, surely light would leak in without it.
I have no idea if it even works, one review I found of the family of cameras that this belongs to said to expect to invest in an overhaul if it's been sitting around for decades.
I feel that I ought to test it out though. ; I am NOT going to end up as a medium format geek, going around using a camera like this regularly. ; I have no regrets about going modern, 35mm has been good to me, and with my focus on trying to learn wildlife shooting a medium format isn't going to do me any favors... ; But I want to know what it's like to use something like this.
You guys know what's funny, though? ; I looked up 120 film at B&H, and the description for one of the types of film describes it as somehow being having an advantage for being scanned, somehow it's supposed to give improved results when scanning it. ; I'm looking at a camera that seems to date to around 1950 or perhaps before. ; But the film for it is being advertised as being better to scan and work with digitally.
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