New camera score

[John B]

The title should be read as "new" "camera score" as the camera in question dates back to the late 30's, I think. This type of camera usually goes for about $200; I paid a little over $15. The seller mistook the camera for a smaller version that uses film that is pretty much no longer made - I think that scared off a lot of other buyers.

Anyway, it's a Zeiss Ikonta 521, which takes 4.5cm x 6cm pictures on medium format roll film. The negatives are a little over 3x the size of 35mm pictures. You can enlarge pictures up to 22"x29" before the grain starts to show. And with my new scanner, I can scan up to 4800 dpi x 9600 dpi (about 20 megs per picture). So my crappy pictures can be HUGE.

Here's a pic of my actual camera:



And here's a better pic of a different one.

[Cornflake]

It looked even better in person, John. I look forward to seeing pictures taken with that one.

[SteveO]

That's a nice lookin camera, John
The bellows were/are OK? That is the only problem with them that I have seen. Oh, other than the normal mis-treatment.

[John B]

Steve, I'm not sure on the bellows. From what little I know. the Zeiss bellows seem to hold up better than other cameras (like Agfas). I'll be taking this little thing to my local camera guy (who's probably been repairing cameras for 45 years). It's got some issues - the aperture is stuck at f16, the lens part doesn't open up smoothly and gets a little cockeyed. But for $20 this guy will find all of the problems, and may end up fixing some or all of them along the way.

[sekhmet]

If the aperture is stuck at f16, probably someone has disassembled the leaf shutter and put it back incorrectly. I hope it's not bent.

Love these little things. The quality of manufacture is without parallel.

[John B]

I got the diagnosis: you're right, Katherine. The cost of a workover will be roughly $100. The owner of the shop told me "it will be tight - something like this usually costs $120." I didn't want the guilt trip, so I told him that whatever he thought was a reasonable price would be good enough for me. Anywhere below $120 works for me.

[Marshall]

OK. The old 35 mm camera I have is a Balda or Baldina (Says both ot them on the leather cover. here's a link to a picture of the model camera.

www.thecamerasite.net/03_Folder_Cameras/Pages/baldina.htm

I used to run a roll of film through it evey once n a while.