This is a Zeiss-Ikon Voigtländer Vitessa 1000SR, a 35mm rangefinder camera produced under both the Zeiss-Ikon and Voigtländer names from about 1967 to 1970. This camera’s dual branding was a byproduct of Zeiss-Ikon’s 1965 merger with Voigtländer AG. Despite having the Zeiss-Ikon name, the camera was entirely designed and built…
Mistakes were made. Pulling back the curtains here , I can imagine at least a few readers of this site believe there is a vault filled with a never-ending supply of mint condition, perfectly working cameras, glistening under hi-powered LED lights, much like how you might see fine works of…
This is a Zeiss-Ikon Cocarette 519/2, a folding bed camera that shoots 6cm x 9cm images on 120 roll film. The Cocarette was considered a premium model in Zeiss-Ikon’s post merger catalog. Originally a Contessa-Nettel model that was first produced around 1919, the Cocarette was continued under the Zeiss-Ikon brand…
This is a Zeiss-Ikon Contax III, a 35mm rangefinder camera built by Zeiss-Ikon in Dresden, Germany between the years 1936 and 1942. The Contax III was an upgrade to the Contax II from the same era, adding a selenium exposure meter to the top plate. The Contax II and III…
This is a Tenax II, an interchangeable lens 35mm rangefinder camera made by Zeiss-Ikon in Dresden starting in 1938. It shot 24mm x 24mm square images on regular 35mm film and was created by famed designer Hubert Nerwin who previously designed the Contax rangefinder. It was an unusually designed camera…
Earlier this week, I posted my take on the Zeiss-Ikon Contarex “Bullseye”. Feedback to that article has been very good with most people who’ve handled it before, agreed with my assessment that while it was a pretty camera with an amazing Rube-Goldberg-like complexity, it wasn’t a very good user. Sometimes,…
This is the Contarex, a professional grade 35mm SLR camera produced by Zeiss-Ikon starting in 1960. This first generation Contarex earned the nickname “Bullseye” for the large prominent circular exposure meter above the lens. The Contarex was one of the first West German SLRs with a focal plane shutter, and…
This is a Zeiss-Ikon Box Tengor 54/2, medium format 6×9 box camera, made by Zeiss-Ikon between the years of 1931 – 1938. This is the third version of the original Box-Tengor, featuring larger viewfinders and an updated design. The Zeiss-Ikon Box-Tengor was a higher quality box camera compared to inexpensive…
This is a Zeiss-Ikon Contaflex Super, a 35mm Single Lens Reflex leaf shutter camera made by Zeiss-Ikon AG in Stuttgart, West Germany between the years 1959 and 1962. It was part of the long lived Contaflex series that saw many variations between the original Contaflex I in 1953 all the…
This is a Contessa 35 (model 533/24), a compact folding 35mm rangefinder camera made in Stuttgart, Germany by Zeiss-Ikon between the years 1950 and 1955. The Contessa was designed as a premiere fixed lens compact folding camera that had the features and quality of the best of what Germany could…
This is a Pentacon FM 35mm SLR made by VEB Zeiss-Ikon Dresden in East Germany between the years of 1958 and 1961. This camera is part of the Contax S series which debuted in 1949 as the first German built SLR camera with a fixed pentaprism viewfinder. It is identical…
What is it? This is an Icarette 500/15 folding camera made by Zeiss-Ikon in Dresden, Germany around 1930. It takes 116 roll film and shoots negatives that are 6.5cm x 11cm in size making it one of the largest roll film cameras. This camera was most likely one of the…
