Zeiss Ikon Ikoflex II (851/16)

You can see how the camera scratched the film on the black and white photos, and finally fixed when I ran a roll of color through

The Zeiss IKON TLR

TLR cameras were around since the late 1800s but did not really garner much attention until Rollei released the Rolleiflex and Rolleicord in the late 1920s. The Ikoflex line was an early attempt as a competitor for Rollei. The particular Ikoflex model I have was an early iteration of the Ikoflex II, deemed the 851/16 version from 1937. Having a chrome and leather Art Deco inspired design, this camera screams quality and style. The Zeiss Ikon logo is featured multiple times on this camera (front, top, and back) definitely showing the pride they had when creating it. The Ikoflex logo on the front seems humble though, not fancy but refined and noticeable. Even with some of the chrome tarnishing and corroding a bit on my example, it still retains that air of elegance and presence in a room.

Zeiss Ikon is well known for their over complicated design and over engineering on most cameras, but this seems very straight forward and to the point. The lever on the back of the camera (towards the top) releases the viewfinder hood, and you are greeted with a large and somewhat bright viewfinder. No markings or anything on the ground glass, but you do get a sports finder (or as they call it a “direct vision viewfinder”) and a flip out the magnifying glass for fine focus. Another interesting feature is that there is a handy chart on the left side of the hood to help you when you don’t have a light meter handy. Never used it myself, but it seems that it would be a pretty accurate estimate for around a 400 speed film today.

The early Ikoflex models had a lever type focusing mechanism. It gives you multiple increments of distance as well as an aperture scale to really dial in the focusing. It seems accurate, but the lever has a bit of play. It is completely usable though, and I’m still not sure if I prefer this lever system or a focus knob. Although the one benefit of having a lever like this is it’s very quick to get to from one end to another on a focus scale. Winding the film is located on the opposite side to the focus, and there are no stops. You have to do everything a certain way to get the film to be spaced correctly. You start by loading the film into the camera; it’s like most 120 film TLR cameras, nothing too different. Then close the back and use the red window on the bottom of the camera to advance to frame -1-. This is where most people would mess up, and where I have myself the first time. You do NOT go by the numbers in the bottom red window, you will lose around two frames per roll if you do it this way. Under the film advance knob toward the bottom of the camera, there is a small chrome circle protruding from the camera body. You want to pull that toward the back of the camera and it should reset the counter next to the hood. Then when you advance, you go by those numbers and you should get 12 exposures per roll. Once again I must reiterate, the camera will not stop on each exposure, you must wind until you see the number in the center.

There were many lens variations within the Ikoflex line, but the best of the bunch was the Carl Zeiss Jenna Tessar. Coming in at 75mm with a decent aperture of f/3.5, it is a very capable lens. On par to any other TLR camera I’ve used, and I would say one of the better ones. It performs wonderfully in black and white, delivering crisp photos and decent contrast. But in color, the Ikoflex adds an interesting flair. I’ve found in regular or bright light that the colors are vibrant and pop, but in a softer light with a longer exposure, the camera produces a softer color palette and it looks incredible. It’s a unique look that happens with longer exposures I’ve found, and it has that Zeiss feeling I love.

Multiple different shutters were used on the Ikoflex line as well, the fastest available was the Compur-Rapid. Looking at the front of the camera, the winding lever is on the right hand side, and the similar looking shutter release is on the left. Having an impressive top speed of 1/500th of a second in 1937, this shutter has the typical shutter speeds from one second on up. The bulb and time modes are a bit different than normal though. You cannot wind the shutter on either setting, all you do is trip the shutter with no winding necessary. The aperture goes from f/3.5 to a healthy f/22, no complaints here. With the shutter not being connected to the film advance, you are able to do multiple exposures as well. A neat feature, but one I personally rarely use.

The Experience

This camera came to me in very good condition given its age. There was a bit of corrosion on the chrome parts and some of the leather was peeling, but I left the corrosion (because it wasn’t that bad) and glued the leather back in place. The lens didn’t have any haze and the shutter was working perfectly, perfect right? I threw a roll of film in and found out the hard way that it was scratching the living hell out of the film, you can even see on one of the rollers where it wore down the paint. It took me a few months, and a couple of rolls to find the problem. It turns out the bottom roller was getting stuck on a protruding metal piece and when the film was rolling across it, it would lock up and cause the film to drag across. I bent the piece back, oiled the ends of the roller and all has been well so far.

After the scratch phase of this camera was fixed, I really grew to like it and was very satisfied with its performance. With no meter and no flash option, I can see how that might turn people off from this camera. Being an early TLR camera there are some issues. The two I have are not deal breakers, more along the lines of slight annoyances. The first is the shutter release socket where you insert the cable is way too close to the body and causes the cable releases that I have to not work properly and get stuck. I’m sure there are some alternatives, but it's annoying none the less. Second is there are protrusions off the bottom of the camera, to stand it up, and they get in the way of both of my tripods and cause the camera to sit at a funky angle. I was able to correct this with a spacer, but once again it was annoying to deal with.

Given the couple of faults I have with the camera, I can still safely come to the conclusion that it’s most certainly an amazing camera. Zeiss Ikon really knew what they were doing when it came to making a solidly built camera and an outstanding quality of glass. It astounds me that this camera is over 80 years old and how it rivals quite a few of the newer cameras I own. I highly recommend any Ikoflex you can find, they are well made and have fantastic picture quality and color rendering. Once you give an Ikoflex a try and see the results, it really shines with the quality of the glass. It may not be the most inexpensive camera you can get today, but the quality really shines bringing it up to the ranks of Rollei and Yashica TLR cameras.