Analog photography revisited in the digital age
Volvo, Saab, Ikea, ABBA and…Hasselblad. Sweden has exported famous brands. Quality and innovation. This certainly applies to the King of medium format cameras, the famous Hasselblad. What Leica is for 35mm, the Hasselblad is for 120 film. Expensive, but quality down to the last detail.
Continue reading “Made in Sweden: Hasselblad 500 CM”
Imagine the world with smoking factory chimneys, black limousines, black bowler hats, white zeppelins. Back to the fantasy of Fritz Lang and the music video of Queen. A world where the Perkeo of Voigtlander saw light.
Continue reading “The ‘Flash Gordon’ camera: Voigtlander Perkeo 3×4”
In 2003 Cosina Voigtlander began the daring adventure of reviving analogue photography with her brand new Bessaflex SLR camera. While the demand for digital cameras surpassed the supply, Hirofumi Kobayashi, CEO and fan of the great German camera, wanted to relive the rich past once more.
Continue reading “Reviving analog with Voigtlander Bessaflex”
Texas: Big, bigger, biggest. Leica: better, best. That’s the idea behind the Fujica G690 from 1969, a medium format camera for the huge 6×9 size. For ‘Leica’ quality, the superior Fujinon lens weighs in. Still it sounds crazy coming from a country where the 35mm SLR was becoming increasingly popular worldwide. Fortunately, Fujica has always remained a maverick.
Continue reading “The Texas Leica: Fujica G690”
No enthusiast camera collector will escape one or more Leicas sooner or later. Once I was a fierce opponent of Leicas, because of the absurd prices and the arrogance that radiated from the brand. But with my first Barnack, a 1934 Leica IIIa, it was love at first sight and it didn’t stop there. In the meantime I own two more cameras which this story is about and show why my Leica heart has grown even bigger.
Continue reading “The tale of the three Leicas”
The rediscovery and appreciation of medium format is steadily increasing. But not everyone wants to pay a fortune for a Hasselblad or Leica and is looking for cheaper alternatives such as a Bronica or Kiev. But there are much smaller options at Zeiss Ikon and Voigtlander. Imagine, top quality and compact in medium format.
Continue reading “Compact medium format: Ikonta and Perkeo”
There are very few camera manufacturers who were as keen on flexibility as Zeiss Ikon. In the fifties, the Contaflex became a unique series with interchangeable front lenses. The rear lens and shutter remained on the camera and the very high quality Tessar Pro lenses could be alternated at the front. From wide to Tele. Welcome to the wonderous world of Zeiss Ikon.
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Owners call it the Hasselbladsky, the Russian clone of the famous 1600F. We write the end of the 1950s when the Salyut C sess the light of day in the Kiev factories. With confidence the medium sized camera exports to the West, but soon it turns out to be a love-hate relationship. Although the camera is budget friendly priced, it also seems to be a matter of luck to get one that is actually working.
Continue reading “Kiev 80: From Russia with love”
“It was now light enough to start taking pictures, and I brought my first Contax II camera out of its waterproof oilskin. The flat bottom of our barge hit the earth of France. The boatswain lowered the steel-covered barge front, and there, between the grotesque designs of steel obstacles sticking out of the water, was a thin line of land covered with smoke – our Europe, the ‘Easy Red’ beach” – Robert Capa, June 6th, 1944. D-day, one of the most import days in modern history. Captured by on the most famous photographers, with a Zeiss Ikon Contax II camera.
Continue reading “Contax IIa: the ‘Leica’ of Zeiss Ikon”
It is the camera of the superlatives, the Zeiss Ikon Contarex, the most complicated camera of all time. 1100 parts are located in the almost 1 kilo housing. A repairman must first remove 43 parts to get inside. No wonder the repair costs more than the almost priceless camera from the last glory years of Zeiss Ikon. Pride comes before the fall.