Film Zeiss Ikon Ikonta 520

Been doing a bit of research with regard to my Dad's old camera. He won it in a two-up game during the war, but had no idea of anything much about it. I inherited it after both my parents had passed away and for 26 years I've just had it sitting in the cupboard, unused and unloved.

So, I've established that its an Ikonta 520, and its likely an A, and made some time between 1931 and 1933. It takes 120 size film, and the negs are either 6x4.5 or 6x9. It has two red windows in back which makes it difficult not to let light in, apparently, though my Dad never seemed to have overexposed shots.

I've also discovered that there is a local source of film, either Fuji or Ilford, so I'm pretty happy about that. They also do processing by hand so thats a plus. I don't have either space or inclination to do it myself. I really just want to run a roll through it to see if the bellows is intact, other functions appear to work as they should. If it all works out, I'll post some shots at some time :)
 
Hi Sue, couple of things. The red windows would have prevented fogging on mono film by stopping the red wavelength. I think if you use 120 rollfilm (as opposed to 220) it still has the backing paper so you should be fine.

You can check the bellows for light-tightness by opening (or removing) the back and putting your eye there with a strong light source outside. Any holes will show as pinpoints of light.

If it hasn't been serviced, expect the shutter speeds to be way off. The good news is that it's still possible to get these gems CLA'd. Try it first before springing for the cost of a service, though.
 
Thanks for that link, Luke. My Ikonta is almost identical to the one shown, but it does not have a release button down near the bottom. It may not be the A version at all. Another difference is that I can see the focus ring on the photograph in that link has vertical "stripes" (for gripping, they arent that easy to turn) but mine has "waves" running horizontally. More research needed, but all things being equal, I may switch to film for a while unless it proves too expensive to keep up.

Bill: light tightness. I tried doing that yesterday, and could not see any points of light. My eyes are less than reliable, however, so I'll run a test roll through :)
 
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