Thank you for that walk down Memory Lane with you and your Dad. My Dad taught me photography when I was about 12 (I'm 78 now). My first darkroom prints were from his negatives. Little did he know at the time that photography would become my career and life's passion. I always enjoy your warmth and wry humor as well as the breadth of your interests as well as your philosophical reflections on photography. Oh - and the direct simplicity of your photos.
I came for the piano, stayed for the monochrome images and was touched by the zeroes. This brought back some good memories of my Grandpa teaching me the basics of sunny sixteen using his folding Kodak Retina!
My entire television engineering career and photography hobby is due to my father teaching me 8mm & 16mm filmmaking when I was only 6. Movies were my beginning, stills are where I ended up. Any images I create with my father’s old gear hold so much more importance than ones I make with fancy new equipment. Thanks for this one!
Your story made me positively sad (if this makes sense to you). Your theme may resonate to a lot of people, of similar age, of similar background. Here is my story: I inherited a Weltax/Rheinmetal/Trioplan 3,5/75, 6x6 camera from my Dad. Last week I purchaaed a second one of the exact same camera. It is going to land in my hands actually tomorrow. I purchased it to use it as a camera-on-the-go in order to keep my father's one at home securely as it is invaluable for me. I shoot Ilford Hp5 and Fp4, develop it Ilfosol3, scan in V600. The quality of both camera and negatives are perfect for my amateur shoots after 40+ years. Whatever these inherited cameras mean for us, at least they do anchor our lifeline and help to pass our heritage to our children and grandchildren. Thanks for sharing.
I haven’t shot Film about two years after I started to shoot digital, still have my old cameras, and a lots of film. I met a guy/friend who owns the same camera you have and I just contacted him to go out and shoot I’m in the mood again and really love your square images. 😊Thanks.
It does not matter how you slice the zeros, It is a beautiful camera and it made and still makes beautiful memories. It is definitely a keeper and can be used. I have one of those and a few more Ikontas and love them, event with all of their limitations. Jut embrace the limitations and keep your Father's memories alive! Thanks for the video! I really enjoyed it!
Your Dad held that camera and now you....Thats good enough right there. To use it even better . Brutal Honesty from you. Take it out once a year and shoot a roll in his memory. Thanks for the post. 👍
No it wasn’t weird, it was real and that’s what makes your videos so good. The honesty and a real person come through, loved it, and nice set of images as well. ✌️
A wonderful, touching video, Ari, thank you. That little Ikon is definitely not zero. It's priceless, for what it means to you. Btw I've recently been using an old Kodak 66 folder with a very similar spec to the Nettar. I got some quite pleasing results from it. Please keep these wonderful vlogs coming. Always an enjoyable watch. Thanks again.
Love it. I've just polishing my late father's football 'medals' and his coal miner tags. Just handling them took me back to late 2021 when he died but also back to my childhood. We all know the worth and the value lies in what something means to us, not what the tax man says. Loved this video, Ari and the wonderful shots.
Great moving video Ari , great images from a ninety year old camera , I shoot film but have just bought a fujifilm XH2 which I’m loving, I’ve just become a grandfather at the age of seventy, I’m wondering if my granddaughter Orla’s grandchildren or great grandchildren in ninety years time will be using the XH2 , I think not , long live film and analog cameras .
We are now living an era of throw away things. Use once - throw away. A new iPhone every year. That is a shame. I love these older intergenerational things that were built to last!
My grandfather had a variant of that Nettar, more square top. I still use it despite the cracked lens (courtesy of a drop to the ground while unfolded). I remember when my father died that he got a new permanent fiscal number. Taxes are always something very weird. Great photos and moody like the mood of the video. Thanks for it.
I'm sure I am just stating what someone else has already said better. But, life is truly beautiful when you can relate the death of a loved one to your own mortality. This camera and your melancholy-filled shots connect you and your dad and prove that you don't take life for granted but instead celebrate it's daily, mundane beauty. PS-will not give up on my 2.8 Radionar lens Balda folder now that I've seen what you have done with your technically inferior Nettar! Thanks again!
Thanks for another moving episode. I recently acquired an old Nettar 515/16, which does take 16 shots of 4.5 x 6. It is a beautiful camera but I also find it not much fun to use. I like to focus, not just guess. lol
Beautiful video! I learned photography on my Dad’s old Kodak Duo Six-20 folder. I still have that camera, although it is out of commission. I bought another working copy so that I can still shoot with it. I also have the Zeiss Nettar 517/16 with the f/4.5 lens and the Pronto shutter. I love the photos that come from that camera.
just purchased an Ikonta 523/16 and I am fully invested - what a great camera. Lens is sharp and with an external rangefinder every shot I nailed. So great!😊
Very touching video! I caught the "photography bug" when I was around 12 years old and my father let me use his Rolleicord III. The joy of looking down into that viewfinder, getting the film developed, and seeing the results remains with me to this day. I own a few folders; one is a Zeiss Super Ikonta III that, though I don't use all that often, I sure enjoy the heck out of it when I do.
Nice video. I occasionally shoot with my dad's old Lubitel 2. I have photos in my house he took of me as a child and I have photos of my son/his grandson taken with the same camera. They never met each other so I love that connection between them which the camera gives
Ari, I think this video really highlights our connections with physical things that have sentimental value over practical value. I too have cameras that were my grandfather's and father's (Zeiss Ikoflex, Kodak Bantam, and Nikkormat FT). I like using them because of family history, not ease of use or features, etc.. Of course there are better cameras out there, but none of them were used by ancestors that have passed on...
I have one camera, a Rollei XF35, I bought purely for nostalgia because my grandfather had one in the 70:s. It was the first 35mm camera I ever used though I had used some 110 pocket cameras before. I still remember how my grandfather taught me how to focus using the range finder. As an automatic exposure point-and-shoot it's not really "my kind of camera" but I do use it from time to time as it is small and handy.
Thank you for sharing. There is comfort in melancholy even if it's just in knowing that the night's long nadir has passed and that the sun that we all share is coming. That by sharing we all share again. Have a great week! mike
I love my Nettar. I use it much like I would a Holga. I usually shoot with the aperture wide open for as much softness as possible. And it has the advantage over a Holga in that you can get a filter on. And yes I do shoot at 1/25. No problem with a leaf shutter. Entertaining video as always.
Thanks for a wonderful video. Great memories of your dad. Sounds like an interesting guy. I had a 6x4.5 folder like that, made by Wollensak if I remember correctly. It made great pictures and was even smaller than yours, about half that size. It would fit into a pants pocket. I sold it when I concluded that I really only enjoy using cameras with through-the-lens viewing but I would definitely recommend something like it for a person just starting out in medium format photography. There are so many of the old scale focusing folders that I think you can always find one at a reasonable price and as you said, there is not much that can go wrong with them. For a beginning film photographer using this would really help to cement the concept of the sunny sixteen rule in your brain. Also, learning how to scale focus at least somewhat accurately and learning how to use depth of field is a great thing for a beginning photographer. Finding out how to work within the limitations of such a camera before you start getting used to all the modern conveniences is a great learning experience. 1/75 and 1/200 both are fine for stopping motion. The biggest disadvantage I can see is reducing the light when it is very bright outside. If stopping the lens all the way down is not enough for certain bright conditions, perhaps a series adapter and a set of neutral density filters along with a light meter could help.
Great idea for an episode, Ari. I like old cameras, and was recently gifted a battered TLR that had belonged to the donor's deceased wife, although he had no recollection of her ever using it--a Minolta Autocord from the late 1950s. The lens' lovely rendering stands comparison with the Planar on my Rollei of the same vintage. I'm going to make a thank-you card for him using a print from the first roll through the camera in many, many decades. I am also hanging onto a Bessa II, although I am not a 6x9 fan, because of the rendering of its lens--a "Color Heliar." (I guess adding "color" to the name of a lens was intended to denote "modern.")
Hi Ari, I also have one of those cameras, my first intro to 120 format. I have been taking pictures with that, and a Bronica SQA following my father's work as a pro photographer for more than 20 years. I'm also looking forward to revisiting Helsinki next month on a short break.
It has the same apertures except 4.5 for max & the shutter speeds include 50 & 100 instead of 75. A little better but not over the top but it does take good pictures.
Still hanging on to my dad's Argus C3. While I dont shoot it any longer, it tells a story. He said he brought it back with him, along with his B-17 flight manual and his side arm when he left the Army Air Corps. The C-3's were sold on the base PX store, he said, and pretty inexpensive. Funny - that I never saw him shoot it but rather only saw the very few pictures that had come out of it. In the early '60's he handed it to me and that was the start of my journey in photography. So, it goes that the story of my father's camera is written in many more words AND a few pictures. And, hey, isn't there some irony of sorts that the taxing agencies are still rooting around through our estates, long after we've departed? Expending time and energy, digging through the trash heaps of our lives - like the rodents that they are I suppose. Another nice chat over coffee on what is looking like a grey, overcast Saturday. Thanks, Ari!
Thank you for another wonderful video. What are your thoughts when you would compare the Zeiss IKON with a Holga? I mean both are 120, limiting and can be bought wit little money.
That is an interesting question. Nettar is a real camera. It can take good pictures. Holga is a toy. From the technical point of view, it sucks -- that's why it is fantastic. Whereas Nettar can be used as an actual entry to 120 films, it still has some limitations that I don't like. Holga - it's not an entry to serious 120 films. I suggest you buy it after you know what you want and are ready for some goofy lo-fi images.
I've just picked up a Voigtlander Baby Bessa that's the same concept but even smaller. My father is long gone in person but very much still a physical presence with lots of items he loved that I'm now curating and passing on to my kids (whether they want them or not!) ;-)
Great video Ari. Inspired by my grandfather's old kodak 620 which is not working I have just shot my first roll of gold 200 through a 521/16 tessar. Also have a 516/2, 517/16 and 531 looking forward to running some rolls through those. Really enjoying the stripped down experience with these old and portable folders.. bw gordon
Thank you very much for this video! I myself have the 517/16 with the Novar Anastigmat 1:4.5/75mm (coated) with a Prontor-SV leaf shutter. The fastest exp time is 1/300. The production period was 1951-1957 for both versions of 517/16, I have tested it and it is okay for medium range. Please let me know how many times you agitate the Rodinal 1+25, Thanks beforehand for your answer! By the way in German it is "Ikon" (not Aikon). Kind regards from Sweden
I got myself a Super Fujica 6 about a year ago. It is very similar design but it has a viewfinder, f3.5 lens and more shutter speeds. I think for beginners this style of camera is very good. The controls are simple and the prices are not that high. Mine was 100€ and it came with original leather case and a yellow filter. For me it is also nice that it only takes 12 photos.
I started this comment before watching the end of the video to say I found the empty bench overlooking the water to be especially poiniant, considering the story being told. The final picture with the seated subject on the bench finished the story beautifully.
It is interesting because I was looking at a Mamiya 6 which looks almost like your father’s camera. My father did not do any photography and he passed away 12 and 1/2 years now. The things we did together when I was a child like throwing a baseball back and forth, I have not done in 25 years, maybe 30. I wish I had something like a camera to physically hold onto. Thank you for a great video and a reflective one.
I understand your emotions. My parents sold most of their belongings and moved from the family home to an assisted living facility. After my father's death my mother moved to a smaller apartment, then a nursing home. By the time she died her room contained three bags of personal items. Time, like an ever-rolling stream, Bears all its sons away; They fly forgotten, as a dream Dies at the opening day.
I think you need to spend more time with it spending time with the lens markings, infrared?, etc. You might find it more fun than pinhole. I have an Agfa equivalent 6x9 I enjoy for landscape, odd street photography, and an easy travel camera.
I bought a flawless ikonta 6x6 524/16, really nice well made. However a non coupled rangefinder is quite awkward/ also red window. Anyone thinking of buying such a camera should try to get a coupled rangefinder
This is so freaking weird. I found exactly this camera at a flea market only 1 hour ago and almost bought it, but he wanted 350 DKK for it (47€, 50$), and I didn't feel like that was a great deal, although everything seemed in good condition. I also already have a very similar one (Franka Solida), so I walked away. Then I go on RU-vid, and this video is uploaded 44min ago. I freaking love these cameras though. I've taken some fabulous pictures with them, and I almost always keep one in my pocket. It's the only pocketable medium format option. Dirt cheap also. The only downside is zone focusing, but one could attach a rangefinder if necessary. I like the challenge though. Using a fast film helps a lot. Lately I've been using kentmere 400 @1600. Makes focusing more forgiving. Having a fast lens on that wouldn't make sense. You would never get anything in focus 😅
I simply cannot use cameras with no focusing! Rf or Reflex! That's why I seldom use my dad's gift, The Rollei 35T.It's tiny but hard to use! Meter long gone. That's easy! Exposures are easy! Distances? No! Zone focus not for me.. Use the 6x6 when it's high summer! I'd rather use a Rolleiflex! Bravo! Nice memory video..
These are among the best of the folders. Although the Ikonta was supposed to be the higher spec version and the Nettar the budget version, Zeiss was not really rigorous about this. I have two identical cameras, same lens, same shutter. One is marked Ikonta and the other marked Nettar. Yours is one of the lowest spec Nettars I've seen. Most I've seen have an f4.5 lens and upgraded shutter.
