Zeiss Ikon Nettar II 518/16 camera and case, that arrived today.

A few days ago, I made the mistake of allowing myself to be diverted whilst seeking something necessary on Ebay, and ended up with something unnecessary. Yet another camera, though I have had a good clear out of several this year. It did look rather nice, and at £20, plus £5 for delivery, it wasn't expensive. So no big gamble.

It's another Zeiss 'folder'. Not as posh a model as the Super Ikonta that I was given by my parents. They'd bought that in the mid 1950's, whilst in Singapore. This one lacks: the rangefinder mechanism; the light meter; a few other features; and has a slower lens. But still, I was really surprised. It looks like it has hardly been used, and after some research, I find that it was made in 1953, so it's even older than the other one.

It is lovely. What's more, I found out later that there was a film in it! Made the mistake of winding that on a shot or two before realising, that unlike the Super Ikonta, there's no mechanism to stop you winding the spool too far, and you have to just wind it until the next number appears in the hole in the back of the camera. 120 film is unlike 35mm film, in that it has a paper backing, so that wee hole in the back of the camera just allows you to see the paper (and text on it), and the paper prevents light reaching the film. Trouble with 120 film is that with this square format camera (6 x 6), there are only 12 shots. So if I wound on two, that's a fair amount of the spool wasted. It's currently sitting ready for shot #5. Don't know what the first few shots were of. Nor do I know what speed or type of film is fitted. So there may be more surprises.

Other cameras have films needing  using up, so this one will be left for a while, before testing.



Ricoh KR-10 : f/16 1/8" : 50mm : ISO 400

Lens: SMC Pentax-M 50mm f/1.7
Film: Ilford XP2-Super 400 (B&W negative)

[Frame : 16]