Zeiss-ikon Ikonta - anyone had any experience with this camera?

Tom Pinchenzo

Tom Pinchenzo

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Hi All,

I’ve been medium-format curious for a while now and I recently found this chap in a charity shop. It’s going for £55 but it’s been there for yonks and so I could probably get it down a bit. It’s a Zeiss-Ikon Ikonta with a prontor-SV shutter and a Novar-anastigmat 105mm f/4.5 lens.

Is it a worth giving it a shot? I’ve not heard it mentioned in my medium format film research - it’s all about bronica, mamiya, Pentax etc. I guess these things are a bit older and so reliable...

Any insight welcome! :)

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I'm pretty sure that @kendo1 has/had one and liked it, although I'm not sure if it was exactly the same.
 
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£55 is way over-priced IMO. I bought a Mess Ikonta with the uncoupled rangefinder and in excellent condition for less than that about 3 years ago. I think the £20 that @kendo1 paid much closer to the correct value.
 
It is from the 1950s and made by one of the best camera makers there ever was - it should be excellent. You need to shoot at f/5.6 or f/8 to get the best from that lens. f/4.5 is likely to give poor IQ. The good news is that German engineering was good enough to not need any foam light seals (unlike Japanese cameras) so the seals cannot need replacing and Zeiss Ikon bellows rarely develop cracks or pin-holes.

It is a 6x9 format camera using 120 film so 8 shots to a roll. Expensive but probably worth it. I would spend half an hour dry firing the shutter before putting any film in it just to get the shutter exercised. I would not want to pay over £20 for it.
 
john.margetts said:
It is from the 1950s and made by one of the best camera makers there ever was - it should be excellent. You need to shoot at f/5.6 or f/8 to get the best from that lens. f/4.5 is likely to give poor IQ. The good news is that German engineering was good enough to not need any foam light seals (unlike Japanese cameras) so the seals cannot need replacing and Zeiss Ikon bellows rarely develop cracks or pin-holes.

It is a 6x9 format camera using 120 film so 8 shots to a roll. Expensive but probably worth it. I would spend half an hour dry firing the shutter before putting any film in it just to get the shutter exercised. I would not want to pay over £20 for it.
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Very useful knowledge John! Thanks.
 
Great cameras, I have thousands of negatives my father took with a 6*9 Zeiss Ikonta, similar to this one, and they are excellent. I also have his later 6*6 Ikonta (the 6*9 must have got lost or damaged). I've shot a couple of rolls through it, and, well, it's not my cup of tea. The viewfinder is very vague. If there's a rangefinder it's uncoupled, otherwise you have to estimate the subject distance and turn the lens appropriately. And the wind-on is very tricky, a combination of a knurled knob and staring at the red window on the back waiting for the appropriate number to appear. But, everyone's different, and lots of people love these cameras. And there aren't that many ways of getting a camera with a huge 6*9 negative that fits in a coat pocket!
 
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