Previously, I’ve waxed lyrical about the Zeiss Super Ikonta 532/16 – a top of the line, pre-war German camera. As well as the super-sophisticated, super-heavy Super Ikonta series, Zeiss also produced simpler cameras with the same lenses and shutters but no coupled rangefinder. These were the Ikontas. Then there was a still cheaper range, often …
Zeiss Ikon Nettar 515/2 – A More Affordable Zeiss Camera Read More
The Mamiya 6 Automat, a 1955 folding 6×6 folder has been reviewed most engagingly on Youtube by a bloke called Martin Henson, who has a great accent and a great photographic eye, in addition to an unpretentious and accessible way of explaining things. It’s a camera that is actually superfluous to my ‘needs’ as a …
Mamiya 6 Automat Mini-Review – A small, cheap 6×6 with a good lens! Read More
A medium format camera that weighs just 536g, only twice as thick as my smartphone and fits into my jeans back pocket! Why don’t they make more cameras like this? The above photo is a size comparison between the Goerz Tenax 6×9 and Google Pixel 6 smartphone. This article is partly prompted by a recent …
What kind of idiot would go on a once in a lifetime trip, to a place they have never been, and take a camera they have never used? Well, me I guess. So this is the story of learning to use the Olympus Chrome Six. Let’s start with some context. In late March, I spent …
Olympus Chrome Six – An Idiot’s Guide / A Trip to Helsinki Read More
This camera was one of several given to me recently by my dad. I have already posted on another from this lot – the Zeiss (Ikon) Contina 1 (522/24). The Kodak is by far the oldest of the batch, having been originally sold between 1914 and 1927. This specimen was mostly used by my grandfather, Cyril, a farmer in the Mallee district of eastern South Australia. I don’t know exactly when Cyril first obtained this camera, but my Auntie Yae sent me a collection of negs made with it, some of which we know were shot in the 1920s, though the exact year is not clear for all of them. I will present below images made by my grandfather and then some that I have made since restoring the camera, along with some notes about the camera and its restoration.
