Zeiss Mystery

[Doug T.]

Hi All!

I had a great day today
I had a surprise party for my 60th Birthday, all my friends were there.
I also got some cameras as well. A Petri ES Auto, 3 Argus A cameras (different models), and this Zeiss Ikon Ikonta. All 5 for the sum of 15 US Dollars!



The only number I can make out on the back is 521, then there's a small tear. It's got a 7.5cm , f4.5 Novar which would make me think it's an A.
Could anyone help me determine what model it is, and when it was made?
Whatever it is, it's going to make a nice restoration project.
There are no pinholes, and I've already got the shutter working again. It was all froze up.

Doug

[hansz]

Happy birthday Doug, in the 1st place.

Your Ikonta is a 521/16 (6x6cm rollfilm), first encountered in printed prospects February 1939, and as the focal distance is measured in cm, it is a pre-war version. It might be unreadable, but on the side the bodynumber was imprinted, 1 letter followed by 5 numbers max.
From this bodynumber maybe a better production date can be given.

Nice to see a camera like this one back into useful life!

Hans

[Stephen]

It is a Zeiss Model 521(A), 16 on 120, Klio shutter and Novar version, there were other shutters and lens in more expensive versions, dates from 1939 onwards, usually has un-coated lens.

Sounds like you have done it before, but notes for general restoration:

As long as serious corrosion has not got at things it should clean up, remove the bellows and strip the metal parts, clean with abrasive cloth, or fine emery paper etc., etc., then undercoat and finish in car black paint. Aluminium can be cleaned with diluted hydrochloric acid to remove white oxide, steel with phosphoric acid to remove rust.

Where paint on steel is to be saved, the rust can be removed with strong sugar solution, but it takes time.

The leather there may be irreplaceable if " hot impressed", so decide whether to conserve or patch or replace the lot, which can be re-impressed with book binding style tools if you are skilled enough. These days making a stylised logo press is easier, use a computer and CNC machining to make the stamp in brass, and hot press the leather, you will get an identical look.

To get complex logos into the computer, photograph, and then work through photoshop, and reduce to a line drawing which can then be converted to a tool control file. You may be able to get a company to do this for you from the drawing, and get them to make the stamp in brass.

The bellows can be replaced or patched internally if the damage is slight. Old sagging ones can be cleaned, and pressed under weights after folding carefully, subject to heat (under boiling point), and leave for a while, and the cool off, it should smooth out the wrinkles and sharpen the folds.etc. Makes sure there are no old repairs that might melt or glue the folds together.

You can get metal re-plated, but most chrome on camera clean up with chrome polish, but be careful with the dull nickel plate, it is thin and polishes way to steel or brass. This can be re-plated at home, there are kits.

If the shutter does not work, then open and clean with petrol, but if parts are needed then repair shop may be needed. If making the spanners to open the shutter is beyond you, then a repairman is needed. The lens elements will clean in a solution of hydrogen peroxide and ammonia.

Most screws are metric fine pitch, and available, some are near BA sizes, and so called optical screw packs for watch and glasses repairs can provide small screws that fit, without re-tapping to a new size. However there are inexpensive sets of micro metric taps made that will cover the tiniest metric sizes. They are meant for repair work, and not production tapping. In the UK, Chronos Ltd, or Proops, supply them, both on line, or Ebay.

Some older camera use Swiss clock fine threads, these are close to metric, and the tap nearest, pLus a new metric screw will work.
Stephen.

[hansz]

a Zeiss Model 521(A), 16 on 120

Small correction here:
US terminology consisted of 4 formats: A (16 exposures of 6x4.5cm - 2¼"x1¾"), B (11 or 12 exp. 6x6cm - 2¼"x2¼"), C (8 exp. 6x9cm - 2¼"x3½"), all on 120 rollfilm, and D (8 exp. 6.5x11cm - 2½"x4 one-third") on 616 rollfilm.
This D size format disappeared after WWII.

Zeiss Ikon used the numbers without a postfix for type A cameras, like 521; the B cameras had a /16 postfix (like your 521/16), and used the /2 postfix notation for type C cameras.

As your 521 is certainly a type B (6x6cm) the proper 'Bestellnummer' is 521/16. Maybe it is not legible...
BTW the 'Bestellnummer' is the code for a distributor to specify the gear he wanted to buy from the Ziess Ikon company, and translates to english as 'ordernumber'.

Hans