In the world of photography, there are very few brands that might give us the same degree of implied quality as that of “Zeiss”. The Zeiss name has been associated with fine photography and optics for over 100 years. And through the early and mid-20th century, they produced a staggering number of cameras. As a camera company, Zeiss Ikon began in 1926 with the merger of 4 German camera companies. And was able to capitalize on each company’s strengths over the ensuing 50 or so years.
As a camera manufacturer, Zeiss-Ikon was extremely prolific. In 1927, for example, their catalog listed 104 different model names with an average of 3 different formats as well as 3 or more lens/shutter combinations per format. That’s over 900 different “stock” models you could choose from that year alone. And these were the early models – years before the more famous Zeiss-Ikon cameras came about – like the Contax, Contaflex, Ikontas and Super-Ikontas – which is what I’m posting about today.
Mine is a Super-Ikonta C 530/2 model which sports coupled rangefinder focusing and a native 6×9 format. Check out the video for the entire review and photo shoot. This thing takes quite a bit of concentration.
Vintage Camera Digest 