On my way to work, I called the local camera shop to verify they had the camera I found on their website the night before. I was so excited when the employee reported that he had the Zeiss Super Ikonta in his hand that I replied “I’ll be there in about ten minutes to buy it!”
It’s amazing that I didn’t notice the Zeiss when I’d visited the shop just a week ago looking for a 70-200 Nikkor for my wife. When I was looking that lens over, the clerk emphasized the benefits of buying camera gear in person at a store instead of over the internet. He said they often get repair inquiries for gear bought online that didn’t show up in the condition that was described.
I also feel a sense of pride when supporting a local shop. It makes the purchase a little more special to keep help an important business continue to serve the community when so many photography stores have shut down.
It was going to be great, I wouldn’t have to overpay to a dicey eBay seller. I could proudly support my local camera shop and I personally feel that buying from local shops makes for a better story than “I ordered it off eBay.”
Arriving At The Shop
I arrived to the shop but was in a hurry because I needed to get into work. I would have to do a quick assessment, hand over my card and get moving. The camera looks perfect on the website pictures and I trust these guys. This should be a fast, smooth transaction.
But I walked in to find a pretty busy store – all clerks were helping customers there long before me. I tried to remain calm by looking around at all the cool photographic paraphernalia, thinking what I could do with it all. As I waited, I convinced myself that being a little late to work was worth taking ownership of a beautiful Zeiss rangefinder that might change the direction of my photography.
Fully mellowed with transcendental mediation, I looked on in vicarious happiness as the customer at the counter in front of me ensured all the details of his humble development order for just two rolls of 35mm were correct.
It was like watching a baby bird leaving the nest. He probably took photos of his own feet with a Canon AE-1 that he’d soon find out needed new light seals. God bless his heart. Really. I don’t mean to sound condescending when I say this. I just felt that I recognized my younger naïve self in him; the way he went over largely unimportant details over a largely unimportant amount of photos. But it’s great that he’s there and shooting film! Who knows where it could lead?! Maybe he’ll be the next influencer film photographer!
What I Was There For
I nearly tripped on my own feet approaching the counter when it was my turn. It’s a good thing nobody here knows who I am.
I nearly forgot how to speak too. I was so energized that it seemed like I shouldn’t have to stop to explain myself. The employee should have psychically known that I am Johnny Martyr and I’m here to buy that Zeiss Super Ikonta B 532/16 in order to take widely published backstage photos of comedian Nikki Glaser and talk about using funky vintage cameras and film for professional work on the Camerosity Podcast.
Because I was so consumed with my mission, it seemed as if everyone around me should know that for the last several months I’ve been searching for a 6×6 rangefinder with a 2.8 lens that is in perfect condition and ready for some important wedding and portrait work I have scheduled for June. A Zeiss Super Ikonta B was my next choice after finding that I’m not confident that the left-handed nature of the Welta Weltur that I bought last month is going to work out for my purpose.
Somehow, I managed to utter the non-fanatical part of these thoughts and the employee stared at me quizzically as if I had accidently uttered the fanatical part.
But through the fog of social anxiety and excitement I elaborated “it’s a folding camera that I called about a few minutes ago. I was told it was on hold for me?” To this he replied,
“Oh right!”
Meet the Zeiss Super Ikonta B
As the clerk walked the tatty old brown leather case out from the back, my anticipation piqued. I was convinced that gold light would wash over my face as I flicked open the case and this post-war Super Ikonta and I met for the first time.
It was dirtier than it looked online.
The precisely stamped chrome trim was lined with gunk. “I can get that off” I thought to myself. “It’s good practice to run some alcohol over a new-to-you vintage camera anyway.”
But what really made me stop and consider was that Tessar 80mm 2.8. I stared at it for a long moment.
It doesn’t look like it’s coated. It should be a coated postwar Tessar. The photos online made it look coated and I hadn’t yet learned that pre-war uncoated Tessars were not labled “Opton” or marked with a red “T” as were postwar coated Tessars. “Maybe I’m just looking at it in bad light.” It was the first of many excuses I made for this camera. I wanted it to work out so badly.
I pressed the lens deployment button. Rather than springing out of the body and snapping into place like a mechanical marvel, I had to press the button a second time before the drawbridge door fell open lazily and the bellows stretched out like you stretch your arms during a big sleepy yawn.
The viewfinder was covered in dust from the case. Maybe this dust was just on the outside and was why the finder wasn’t very bright when I looked through it.
The speeds seemed slow to me. I tried the slower speeds again, one-by-one setting them, charging the shutter, pressing the release. Listening closely as the clerk watched me without an offer for help.
“Has this been serviced?” I broke the near silence. “The speeds seem slow.”
“Well… cameras are evaluated to see if they need work. If they don’t need any work, nothing is done. But you have a 100 day warranty to bring it back if there’s a problem.”
That was a great way of saying “no.”
It wouldn’t be the first time that I bought a funky old German camera that worked differently than what I’m used to. And I really just didn’t have time to pick the camera apart. It was the first time I’d held a Zeiss Super Ikonta and so I had the entire experience of using one to parse from evaluating the condition of this particular example.
Notably less enthusiastic than when I arrived, but still hopeful, I asked for a box of TMAX 100 in 120, handed over my card and the $550ish dollars were whisked out my account.
Goddamnit
Fast forward to the next day when I had time to play with the Ikonta. It took me all of two minutes to see that the the blades of the aperture diaphragm were completely detached from their assembly and shifted chaotically around the lens with each change in f-stop. The dust was definitely on the inside, not the outside of the viewfinder, and yes, indeed were the shutter speeds slow and the lens deployment in need of service.
I referred back to the local camera shop’s website, to the images of the Ikonta that I intended to buy and was told was what I was buying as per the SKU. I found that the camera looked different to me because it was different. Totally different serial numbers! This indicated a wide difference in year of manufacture – I wanted as late a model as I could find, from the 1950s. This camera might have been from the late 1930s. And clearly, the copy I purchased had not been serviced. It hadn’t even been properly evaluated. And yet it was marked for the same price and filed under the same SKU as the pristine post-war Ikonta B featured online.
I phoned the shop and explained everything. While I waited for the clerk to verify my story with another employee, I could hear him exclaiming “goddamnit” in the background. I hoped that they still had the Ikonta featured on their website and this was just a mistake. But when he returned to the phone and I asked this, without hesitation, the clerk said they didn’t have anymore Zeiss Ikontas. I told him I’d be over soon to return it then. He didn’t apologize for the trouble but I figured that, based on his off-phone reaction, he was as frustrated as I was.
Even though I had to return this camera, it was cool to handle an Ikonta and see if this might be a good choice of 6×6 rangefinder for me. And it was. It seemed pretty damn perfect actually. If I could find a working copy.
A bit angry about what seemed like worse than a simple mix-up, I was still hopeful someone there might be able to point me in the direction of a good Ikonta, or maybe even offer to clean and repair this one.
Will I Get The Right Ikonta After all?
When I arrived at this trusted local camera shop, a women I’d never seen there before was standing at the counter next to the person I knew was the owner who I hadn’t previously met but recognized from photos. He had a label printer in parts on the counter and was clearly deep in thought over making it work. Nobody said anything to me. I approached the counter and said I’d called about returning the Zeiss Ikonta. Though I’d just called a little while ago, nobody appears to have passed the message onto these two and so the woman asked me to explain why I was returning the camera again. The owner didn’t look up at any point.
She didn’t seem fully convinced of the malfunction as she examined the camera with the tips of her fingers as if it were an ancient Greek relic that she was afraid to touch. I told her “if you just put the shutter in bulb mode and hold it, you can run the aperture settings and look at the blades.” She clearly had no idea how how to do this and I wondered if she even understood what I was talking about. I understand that some employees there might only be familiar with modern cameras and I didn’t want to make her feel dumb. So I began sauntering around, looking in the glass counters and display cases while she fumbled with the Ikonta. I figured I’d give her a minute to get up to speed without my leering.
I never heard the shutter release on the Ikonta so I don’t think anyone actually verified my claim. Maybe the owner was aware of the camera’s condition because I did hear him telling her in a low voice, that there’s another more expensive Ikonta upstairs. “Go get it, have him look at it and give him $100 off what he paid for the broken one.” I pretended not to hear what he said since he hadn’t actually addressed me. I was excited that the camera I wanted might actually still be available after all. And with a generous discount! The woman approached me and repeated what was said to her. I asked “was that the model that is online?” The owner said to her, not to me, “I don’t know, it’s a BX.”
“Oh, is that the one with the built-in meter?” I asked him. But he just kept tinkering with the printer and the woman responded to me “I have no idea” as if asking about a light meter in a camera shop was an unreasonable question.
A few minutes later she returned with a Super Ikonta BX that of course is the version of this camera with a selenium light meter bulging inelegantly from the top plate. For a split-second, I was tempted to review it but reminded myself that I liked how my AstrHori AH-M1 brass OLED meter fit on the Ikonta B and I’d need an OLED meter to use the camera with Ilford Delta 3200 – the whole point of my interest in a 6×6 rangefinder with a 2.8 lens. I simply said “ah, yeah, that’s the metered version, I can’t use that.” Wordlessly, the woman put the BX down and walked to the cash register with my receipt. Again, as if I was being unreasonable.
How Do Shops Like This Stay In Business?
I noticed that the employee who sold the first camera to me was at another counter and could see what was going on.
Nobody said anything further to me. Nobody apologized or offered an explanation or said anything about repairing this dirty broken camera that they tried to sell me for the price of a good one.
I stood there wondering if it is this hard for an experienced photographer to get a serviced camera to reliably shoot paid gigs with, how hard it must be for someone like the apparent newbie who dropped off two rolls of 35mm for processing yesterday to get reliable service and advice just to learn the basics. I mean, how many rolls of film would he have bought and put through this camera and had processed before finding out that it was garbage?
When she handed me the receipt for the refund, still in complete silence, I thanked the woman for her help. And out of a lingering obligation to do right by my fellow photographers, I instinctively and nonsensically apologized for the trouble – as if all this was my fault. Or maybe I was unconsciously signaling that it would have been basic courtesy if one of the three people standing before me had apologized for causing their customer trouble and shaking his faith in their store.
I was excited to buy this $500 camera from my local shop instead of paying as much or more for a Zeiss Super Ikonta from a rando with manipulated feedback on eBay. But that is exactly what I did that evening.
I bought a $700 serviced 1952 Zeiss Super Ikonta B 532/16 with multi-coated Opton Tessar from a Japanese seller with thousands of transactions and nearly 100% feedback.
And a few days after the new Ikonta arrived and I began to load it, I noticed that box of TMAX that the local shop sold me was over a year expired. I was reminded of all the bad experiences I’ve had at this place and ignored. The time I tried to buy a used Leica tripod head there and was told that it didn’t have a price yet but it was going to be expensive. So come back later if I was really interested, like I was a little kid with no money and it was normal not to put prices on things on display in a camera store. The time I asked if they offered discounts on bulk film purchases and was laughed at and told that if I bought about a hundred rolls a month they could work something out. Which was itself funny because some months, I actually do buy a hundred rolls. Only not from these people.
I do not support my local camera shop and my local camera shop does not support me. Yet somehow, we are both still in business and I credit internet shopping for my survival. Theirs? Who knows.
Soon to come, my first rolls and impressions of the Welta Weltur 6×6 folding rangefinder as well as, of course the Zeiss Super Ikonta B.
Thank for reading, happy shooting!
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Johnny Martyr
Or, if you’re all stocked up on film but still have some cash to burn, don’t let me stop you from purchasing unremarkable but necessary domestic junk, shamelessly plastered with my photographs from this REDBUBBLE site!
The Thoughts & Photography of Johnny Martyr 
Recently I tried to buy a nice Nikon D810 (yeah, digital… 99,5% of the time I’ll only use it to “scan” my negatives, but: for that purpose I’ve so far used an Olympus OM-D E-M5mkII, a camera that I just dislike. Whenever I need to make some digital photos I just rather use my phone than the Olympus. So I figured that it could be a bit less unpleasant with a camera that can natively mount all the lovely old Nikkors I have) from a “trusted and recommended” online used camera gear shop. I chose a D810 that was described being in excellent condition and with a really low shutter count. Looks good! I thought. Only to notice a minute after the camera arrived at my door that the Ai aperture feeler sensor was broken and so basically all my lovely old lenses were completely useless with this camera body. Well, at least in my case the shop replied quickly and in a very friendly way. No probelm, just send the camera back (they emailed me a prepaid shipping label) and I’ll get a full refund. Minus, of course, the original shipping costs. And I’d have to wait a week or two to actually receive that refund.
There and then I decided that from now on, any piece of gear more complex than a Leitz ABLON I’ll only buy from a physical store (or from an online store of a physical store that I have visited in person and now from experience can be trusted) and the only safe eBay and other random online purchases would be really simple stuff like lens hoods. Luckily the leading European store selling properly inspected and/or serviced vintage camera gear happens to operate in my home town (though they mostly sell online and a great chunk of their stock to foreign customers).
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I totally agree with you – I don’t typically buy cameras or lenses from eBay and don’t recommend it to anyone else either. I’m usually strictly simple things like an ABLON or hoods like you say. Unfortunately, I’ve been unable to find a serviced Ikonta B at any other US retailer.
Good luck with finding another D810 – my wife uses a pair of them for her paid work and I sometimes snag one for scanning too.
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Oh man, I hope that Super Ikonta works out for you. I tried twice and in both the complicated winding mechanism (vs. the simpler winding methods of most folders) failed before the end of the first roll (and yes, I knew what I was doing with old folders). The image quality of the 10 images I got out of one was nice and the rangefinder did work on one, but they made my old Leica and Nikons feel like reliable tanks in comparison.
Sorry to hear about the store experience, I’d consider them dead to me if I were you. I’ve learned to appreciate some of the Japanese Ebay sellers with no fuss return policies.
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I’m sorry to hear that! If I were just doing day-to-day stream of consciousness type work, I’d prefer the conventional ruby window advance. But I like the idea of an automatic, non-overlapping advance for critical work. Of the two Ikonta B’s I’ve now handled, the advance worked/s fine on both and I haven’t read about them having a high failure rate like something like the Agfa Super Isolette but I can appreciate the complication could become a problem. It also seems common for Ikontas to be sold unserviced and/or thrashed – very hard to find them in respectable condition in my experience over the last few months. Were the copies you tired serviced? So far, my current Ikonta B is rockin’ out and I can’t wait to share my thoughts on it. The camera and lens have been excellent out of the gate. The lens doesn’t flare like similarly aged Leitz, RF is dead-on and contrasty and all the controls are smooth and operate as the manual lays out. Feels like I’d expect a Leica folding camera to feel!
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Mine were both in cosmetically excellent condition and priced near the top of of the range. Reminds me of Mike Eckman’s frequent advice that the best looking old cameras can be riskier than well-used examples. Thankfully the second one that failed was an ebay purchase that I could return for a refund, but the first one became expensive landfill 😦
Great to hear yours is going well, looking forward to seeing some images.
My next medium format coated Tessar adventure is likely to be a Rolleicord – fingers crossed. Have to say I prefer looking through a rangefinder vs down a chimney at a flipped scene though. So maybe a more modern Mamiya C iteration with a porro finder, or something along those lines.
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I agree with Mike Eckman – buying recently serviced gear is vastly more important than cosmetics. Good cosmetics usually just means lack of use and therefore hardened lubricants.
Sounds like you’ve got some good ideas in mind – I have only handled Rolleis but don’t like using TLRs enough to invest beyond Yashica! WLFs don’t bother me, it’s the reverse lateral movement that messes me up if I’m moving fast. I’ve never used a prism finder on a TLR but that could be cool.
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Hey Johnny,
What a painful experience with local shops digging their own grave. In German, we have a tragedy around what we call “Einzelhandel”, i.e. local retail shops, with a narrow selection of products and lackluster consulting by the sales people. That is across pretty much any genre. The only decent retail shops we have in town are a clothing shop, and espresso shop and my local camera shop – but the latter only sell new stuff. I do pick up the occasional roll of film when I walk by, that’s it.
I have purchased a Plaubel Makina 670 from Japan which was in perfect shape and as described. The later a Fujica GS645 Pro with an equally positive description of its condition from a Japanese seller with excellent ratings, wonderful images of the camera and truly excellent outer condition. CLA and bellows replacement supposedly done before offering it on ebay. Unfortunately, a few rolls into using it I became more and more suspicious of the focus accuracy. Sent it to one of the German repair guys I trust, and sure enough the rangefinder was completely out of alignment and the bellows had pinholes. 350€ on top of the purchase price to receive it back in working condition tomorrow.
I think I will try to follow common advice of resisting GAS when it comes with repeated service cost with used equipment, and of course also with new equipment over time. But it will be hard…
Wishing you good luck and lots of fun with the Zeiss Super Ikonta B!
Cheers,
Erik
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Interesting to hear what German retail is like. In the US the vast majority of retail experience is controlled by large corporations employing people who are too far removed from the core business to care much about their job. For years, camera shops remained locally owned and operated but most of them went out of business as digital photography and internet shopping took over. Consequently, many of us want to support the few locally owned shops left who cater to non-mainstream and vintage items that the film community needs. To be fair, the business I’ve described is simply going through its own struggles to say alive in this difficult environment and I’m as frustrated to have to give them bad report as I’m sure they are to get it.
You might be interested in my blog about boutique camera shops in Paris. https://johnnymartyr.wordpress.com/2023/02/28/exploring-used-camera-shops-in-paris/
And yes, I also have shifted away from buying more cameras in favor of investing in service for those that I already own. It’s important that we keep our repair techs in business and our equipment in perfect working order. I hope you continue to enjoy your Plaubel, what a cool camera!
Thanks for your perspective!
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I think that the retail experience in the US is probably not too far away from what we have in Germany, just that your corporations are probably much larger than ours. Fortunately, even in the smaller cities like mine with only 150,000 people (I guess that’s small in US standards anyway) we have quite a few of what the British would call highstreet shops. Specialty shops, most of which selling stuff I don’t need. And in my city, the only remaining camera shop only sells new stuff, as I mentioned, which I kind of understand as selling used stuff would still require them to cover it with one year of warranty, of course not backed by any manufacturer. That’s a lot of risk and potential hassle for them.
Sure enough I have read your article on camera shops in Paris. And I need to put that on the list of things to do whenever I visit bigger cities across Europe. Next up: Strasbourg in May… :-)
However, I better hold back and stick to the stuff I have, making sure it remains properly serviced, supporting the dwindling number of repair technicians in Germany. It’s a pity. One by one they retire.
If only there wasn’t that itch for 4×5 and 6×17 large format…
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Such a shame to hear stories like this. It baffles me how people can be in a shrinking business and not think about the fundamentals to stay viable. Simple evaluation: If you cannot win on price, you MUST compete on other things.
It could be convenience/timeliness. Being able to walk in NOW and get what I need has value. But if I walk in to the shop and you don’t have any rolls of common film while claiming to support film photography, you’ve failed. I don’t expect the wide range of film stocks to be well inventoried but at least the basics.
Similarly, if you process film but tell me – without apology – that it’s going to be “maybe a week or two” to get it back, you FAIL. I can mail it out to a lab faster than that with a promise of turn around time. Sure, this could happen on any one day but not consistently. And the estimate should be available. (Oh, and if you say you’ll call me when it gets in, don’t make me call you after 3 weeks to find out it’s been sitting there)
It could be expertise: Like you were seeking, the shop selling used film gear (or digital for that matter should have competence to evaluate and describe the gear. Not necessarily the ability to service it, but I shouldn’t have to explain to them how to check it. Ever. Similarly, I don’t expect every clerk to be an expert in esoteric, old German cameras. But I do expect that they can understand what I’m talking about and recommend who on their staff can really help (whether present at that moment or not)
It could be community: Running classes, get togethers and more. This can be part of the engagement for a local store. Its worth something.
So yeah. Sadly, you’re describing a not uncommon style of camera shop. One that is not likely to succeed in the long run unfortunately and will damage others in the process.
FWIW, I’ve seen similar problems in other local specialty shops I frequent like bike shops. Parts are all available online. Whole bikes even. But when going in, they never have what’s needed and rarely know how to identify the right one, all while acting like I’m not worth the time. Sad to see. Not naming names in either example but both local reality for me.
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Johnny – a sadly familiar story unfortunately. The camera shop in the last city we lived in had been there for many years, but five or six years ago was sold to a new owner who didn’t seem to have a passion for photography, photographers or cameras. He did still process C41 film, but really showed no interest in film photographers. Went broke and closed two or three years ago now. In the town near where we now live there is what used to be a camera shop who markets himself to professional photographers a the place to have high quality prints done. I went in for a chat and discovered he does still process C41, and sells a few rolls of Fujifilm C200 – to his surprise it is young people buying the film. There is a camera display case with a few old cameras on display as ornaments…..I need to go and have another chat to see if he will develop and scan for me at a reasonable price, like the labs I currently send my work to. And perhaps to see if he is interested in actually engaging with those “young people” who may just be the future professional photographers he needs to keep his business afloat!
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There used to be a film lab near me that sounds like what you’re describing – owned by someone with no passion or interest in what the customers are doing. They relocated several times before losing their last property, doing crappy work and being rude about it all along the way. It blows my mind that people try to make money like this.
Maybe you can give this guy some helpful information and guidance, if he’s willing to listen! Good luck!
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An interesting second conversation…no he does not do develop and scan, it is develop and print for $30 take it or leave it. Digging a little deeper I asked if he only does C41 processing – no, only 35mm. I don’t think I can trust my work to this guy sadly!!!
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It’s really sickening how the mentality has shifted from correctly being “the customer is always right” to what it is almost universal today, which is “the customer is always wrong” — precisely the opposite of what it should be, and what it used to be. Between this, greed, and the sheer level of incompetence of most employees today, it’s a miracle to me that any of these types of shops are still in business. And it’s a shame as I, too, like to try and support local, non-mega-corporate businesses. But they need to get their act together…
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I can’t draw any conclusions about why this sort of thing keeps happening to me at this place but I don’t think the owner or most of the staff are bad people or have bad intentions. In fact, I hear rave reviews of the shop from time to time. I just think they are perhaps not aware how important their place in the world is to the film community and I might be examining things a little more tightly than some. I don’t think I’m coming off to them as rude or picky but I suppose it’s possible. Still, just some basic communication would have prevented me from walking away feeling as disappointed and concerned as l do.
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