Zeiss Ikon Nettar 515

The 1937 Zeiss Ikon Nettar 515, with a cheap Nettar Anastigmat lens. The camera takes 16 shots on a roll of 120 film, with each negative being... more

by Paul Cowan

Title

Zeiss Ikon Nettar 515

Artist

Paul Cowan

Medium

Photograph

Description

The 1937 Zeiss Ikon Nettar 515, with a cheap Nettar Anastigmat lens. The camera takes 16 shots on a roll of 120 film, with each negative being 4.5x6cm in size. It folds into a very convenient pocket-size but delivers negatives that are about three times the area of 35mm film, so they can be very detailed.
The camera has two red windows next to each other on the back to allow the frame number to be read, The reason for this was that early on the 6x4.5 frame markings were not included on the backing paper for 120 rollfilm, so the nettar read the numbers for 6x9 exposures. You would shoot when number 1 appeared in the first window, wind on until the 1 was in the second window and shoot again, before proceeding to 2 and repeating the process.
The red windows have no curtains, presumably fogging was not a problem with orthochromatic (blue-sensitive) film that had a slow ISO speed and thick backing paper. With panchromatic films, that are more sensitive to red, and higher ISOs the risk of fogging is much greater.
This photo was shot using a Pentacon Six medium format camera, a type that was designed in 1955, and Fomapan 200 black and white film. The quality is not perfect but I believe it meets the professional standards expected in the era these cameras were made, which was the objective of the project.

Uploaded

February 23rd, 2013