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Something interesting on an Ikonta 520/16

M. Axel Wikstrom

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Location
Albuquerque
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Multi Format
I found something engraved on the viewfinder of my Ikonta 520/16, purchased on eBay, from South Carolina. According to the lens serial number it was made around 1937, but engraving has me thinking that it was sold somewhere in the Orient. I can't tell if it's Japanese or Chinese writing, and would love to see a translation!

Thanks.

 
I asked some friends. This is 德國製 (déguó zhi4) - which means "Made in Germany" in traditional chinese.
 
Anders E said:
I asked some friends. This is 德國製 (déguó zhi4) - which means "Made in Germany" in traditional chinese.
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Anders, Thank you so much.

It was a time when China was at war with Japan. Makes one wonder about who originally bought the camera, and what that person saw and photographed. There are no other markings on the camera other than a hand-written meter to foot conversion table taped to the inside of the case, so an American likely owned it at some point, maybe from new. Could have been an American GI stationed in China.
 
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Thank you for bringing up this subject. This is the first time I see something as this.
Is the lettering embossed or engraved?
It is so far at the edge that embossing seems unlikely.
 
Embossing has depth to it too. What I wanted to know was wether it was done with a premade tool (embossingt) or by hand (writing with a tool).
But I admit that would be hard to discern.
 
AgX said:
Embossing has depth to it too. What I wanted to know was wether it was done with a premade tool (embossingt) or by hand (writing with a tool).
But I admit that would be hard to discern.
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If that's the case, then it was probably embossed. I can't imagine someone being able to write that small. The symbols are about 2mm in height.
 
Small? What about serial numbers on screw mount Elmars?
 
Such gravures as with the Elmar were made by using pantagraphs and larger forms being reduced.
We are speaking about actually handwriting though.
 
AgX said:
Such gravures as with the Elmar were made by using pantagraphs and larger forms being reduced.
We are speaking about actually handwriting though.
Click to expand...
With a very fine nib, I can write (cursive) legibly 1mm in height. With a fine scribe on metal, a bit smaller. But that isn't engraving.
 
Are there other engravings on or inside the camera? Sometimes dealer representatives would engrave their own names or the name of the destination country, such as China, Japan or Manchukuo.
 
guangong said:
Are there other engravings on or inside the camera? Sometimes dealer representatives would engrave their own names or the name of the destination country, such as China, Japan or Manchukuo.
Click to expand...
I don't see any more outside, and didn't notice any while loading film the other day. I'll check inside again once this roll is used. Far as I can remember, there's nothing but the green and red Zeiss Ikon film sticker and standard film size stampings on the inside metal.
 
germany and china cooperated very closely until 1937, the germans tried to help them build a modern industry. even after the war between china and japan broke out, the germans kept their interests in china until 1941. so the camera might well have been produced for the chinese market and have been sold there. as the u.s. made military operations in parts of china until 1949 it might have been brought from there to the u.s. it's just one more guess...
 
Interesting. In the 1980s I had the same model Ikonta with the exact markings, which I bought in Malaysia.

I no longer own this camera, but I remember that lettering very well.I thought it unusual that it would have been engraved on the finder.

My thoughts are the camera was produced in Germany for the Chinese amateur photo market in Asia. Mine may (or may not) have been sold to its original owner in Malaya or Singapore, but that's where it was when I came across it in a camera shop in, as I recall, Melaka,and bought it.

I used it for several years and it produced very sharp negatives. It had (again going on memory) the Novar 75mm f/4.5 in a Compur-Rapid shutter.

I now have a later model (circa 1950) 520/16 with the same lens in a Synchro-Compur shutter. This one also produces superb negatives.

FYI...
 
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