Making squares with the Zeiss Ikon Nettax and Portra 400
Big thanks to Jack of @jjsfilmndev for lending me the camera, if you’re in need of film developing and scanning in Norwich and beyond, he’s your man.
My previous experience of folders was so-so, I’d tried to shoot a roll through a Kodak Brownie of some kind a few years back and hadn’t enjoyed the experience. However, the Zeiss was around 3 decades newer so boasted a few ‘luxuries’ that the former had lacked. Without delving into the technical specs of the Zeiss too much, there was a seemingly operational selenium cell light meter up-front and an uncoupled rangefinder window which gave me a rough idea of my framing. Beyond that it’s fairly basic. Focusing is achieved by approximating the distance in feet and setting the lens to suit. This was probably my only major gripe but turned out to be unfounded since shooting predominantly at F11 or F16, the depth of field was more than enough to keep everything in focus.
Operating the camera was reasonably straight forward provided you’re not in a hurry. Measure the light, read off the shutter speed and aperture values and transfer them to the lens, approximate distance from the subject then cock the shutter and finally point and shoot. To advance to the next frame a viewing window must be opened on the back to reveal a red screen. Looking through this while turning the right-hand side knob shows the film advancing to the next frame. It would’ve been nice to have the mechanism stop automatically for each frame but apart from missing the first of the roll by advancing straight past it (doh!), this wasn’t too much of an issue. The built in meter proved to be more than good enough for me and matched closely enough with the metering app I have on my phone.
I was really surprised with the sharpness of the lens and how well focused all the images were considering I approximated each time. There are many variations of the Zeiss Ikon series, some of which offer a coupled rangefinder therefore allowing more critical focusing. However I think that’s half the fun of shooting these old folders. The mystery of whether or not a photo came out as imagined is much more present with a camera like this compared to an SLR like my 645N. Dare I say I enjoyed shooting it more than the latter. .
The ability to fold the camera into a neat, slim box was a huge plus too. The camera was super easy to carry in the hand (although some strap lugs would be nice) or just slipped into a tote bag. Medium format cameras are traditionally on the large side but the Zeiss, although quite heavy for its size, was tiny by comparison and therefore I felt like I actually wanted to take it out with me. In the past I've shot cameras which may take lovely photos but they’re big, heavy lumps of metal and more often or not, end up being left at home.
The image above is probably one of my favourites of the roll, shooting in square is a very different challenge to the traditional landscape/ portrait but sometimes it can really work for a scene. The lines of the cabling and the pop of red from the door in an otherwise neutral scene are what I like most, although some cropping and perspective correction was needed because of the somewhat vague Zeiss viewfinder.
I feel these two work great as a pair, Laura and I took a trip to the beach and the light was real nice. Laura was good enough to pose for the camera, looking wonderful as always and with her Vejas in hand, of course.
The light on the image above was really strong and to one side but the built in light meter did a good job of keeping things fairly even. There’s a bit of flaring present but to me it adds a touch more character to the photo. If you’re from Norwich you’ll probably know where to find one or two of these little guys!
Of course there’s some bins! It looks as though the lens loses a fair bit of contrast in the highlights, especially in the image below but otherwise I think for a 70-odd year old bit of glass it does a fantastic job.
Overall the Zeiss was a pleasant surprise, it ticks a lot of the boxes that other medium format cameras don’t, in particular, portability. Prices are very reasonable too and as mentioned previously there are plenty of different models to choose from depending on your intended use and budget. I imagine these are the sorts of cameras easily overlooked in charity and antique shops but I would encourage anyone to give one a try.
I’ll be back soon with another post on the Lomography redscale film I shot through this too, just as soon as I have the patience to sit in front of the scanner again.
Larry