Hello Pawel,
You are lucky the selenium meter on your 533/16 works. Mine works excellent in
all respects except for the meter. Looking for a trusted repair person in
Germany who could fix it. I could even supply a working Zeiss Ikophot to use
for a “new” cell.
It seems there is a real niche in Germany for this expertise as more and more
people start using older cameras again and 120 film is being revived.
Jan
On Mar 6, 2020, at 12:27 AM, Paweł Mazur <pawel.ma@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hello everyone,
I've been reading this great forum for years, but it’s my first post here.
I'm impressed with your knowledge!
There were a number of Zeiss Super Ikonta 6x6 cameras. The letter “B” in the
name stood for “6x6 cm format”. What was sold in the US as Super Ikomat B
(and as Super Ikonta 530/16 here in Europe) was an exception: they redesigned
it to reduce the number of frames from 12 to 11, because the previous model
had a problem with overlapping frames. Super Ikomat B was produced from 1935
to 1938. It used uncoated Tessar 3.5 (or 2.8)/8.0 lenses in a Compur-Rapid
shutter. I don't think it would make sense to buy it and force it to take 12
pictures. Later models were greatly improved and they took 12 pictures
again. I would recommend one of the postwar models from this series: Super
Ikonta BX 533/16 (aka Super Ikonta II, 1939-1955, Tessars in the postwar
version were coated), Super Ikonta III 531/16 (1953 to 1957) or Super Ikonta
IV 534/16 (1955 to 1959, unit focusing).
I have a postwar Super Ikonta BX 533/16 with a coated Tessar 2.8/80 and a
WORKING selenium meter (that is nearly as accurate as the matrix light
metering mode in my Nikon D/SLRs). Ikonta BX has a coupled rangefinder, as in
all Super Ikontas. When you load a film, you advance it till the arrows on
the paper back align with dots on the film chamber – like in my Rolleicord
V), I love it as much as I love my Rolleicord V, Certo Six and Iskra (they
are both 6x6 rangefinders with unit focusing, while my Super Ikonta BX is
front-focusing). BTW, Iskra also has this feeler that senses the beginning of
the film. I don’t see any significant differences between the 4 cameras in
terms of IQ or the ease of use. And I have more than a dozen of other 6x6
folders and TLRs to compare, most of them with Tessar-type lenses.
-Pawel
