Lomography Berlin Kino 400

5 Frames with a Voigtlander Bessa 66 and Lomography Berlin – By Ian Whitney

I inherited my grandfather’s Voigtlander Bessa 66 from my parents around 2010, along with a collection of 35mm equipment that had belonged to my dad and me. My grandfather had stopped using the camera before I was born, so I’d never seen the Voigtlander before. I was quite taken with it. I loved its compact size and its clever folding bellows mechanism. But using it turned out to be more challenging! I shot a few rolls of T-MAX and nearly everything ended up way overexposed. So I set the camera aside.

Zeiss Contaflex Super and Berlin Kino 400

5 Frames with a Zeiss Contaflex Super and Berlin Kino 400 – By Dan Smouse

I don’t know what I was doing or even where I first got my first glimpse of a Zeiss Ikon Contaflex SLR but I do remember in that moment I had to have one. I’m not sure how to describe its “look”, but to me it harkened back to a time long past; a time when craftsmanship was a true priority.

The Contaflex didn’t present itself to me as a “professional’s” camera. I envisioned it as traveling on vacations and being a vital participant in family holiday celebrations. It seemed to be surrounded by a quaint charm of nostalgia. Then there was the name, it was a ZEISS.

Scroll to Top