I have a lovely little Zeiss Ikon 6x4.5 of pre-war vintage. It has been sitting in a display case, but as the shutter fires about as it should and an inspection of the bellows revealed no pin holes, I decided to take it out on this lovely autumn day. The film loads backwards from all my other folders, i.e. the take-up is on your right as you are looking into the back of the camera. So I loaded the full spool on the left (upside down), closed the back, and started winding.
The next thing that seemed odd is that there are two ruby windows. I have other cameras with two windows but those take a mask for various aspect ratios, and you open one or the other window as is appropriate for the mask. The Zeiss only shoots 6x4.5 and both windows are operated by the same button, so they are either both open or both closed. I figured as long as I picked the same window each time, everything should be fine. The numbers were upside down, but I had expected that.
The sky is clear, the afternoon sun is low; my Ikophot reads sunny 16 and I'm shooting away, anticipating the sixteen bright, colorful Provia frames I'll get back in the mail in a couple of weeks. Instead, I got eight frames and then the telltale indicator for the end of the roll. On checking a spent roll the reason was obvious. The ruby windows align to the 6x9 counters; the 6x4.5 counters are along the other edge of the backing.
I gather that this is the reason for the two windows. You advance the film until the (6x9) number 1 shows in the left window, take the shot, then advance the 1 to the right window, take the shot, then advance the 2 to the left window, lather rinse repeat.
The camera does have a sticker inside telling you to use Zeiss film. Was the paper backing on Zeiss film turned 180 degrees from Kodak and Fuji? Who came up with this crazy scheme?
The next thing that seemed odd is that there are two ruby windows. I have other cameras with two windows but those take a mask for various aspect ratios, and you open one or the other window as is appropriate for the mask. The Zeiss only shoots 6x4.5 and both windows are operated by the same button, so they are either both open or both closed. I figured as long as I picked the same window each time, everything should be fine. The numbers were upside down, but I had expected that.
The sky is clear, the afternoon sun is low; my Ikophot reads sunny 16 and I'm shooting away, anticipating the sixteen bright, colorful Provia frames I'll get back in the mail in a couple of weeks. Instead, I got eight frames and then the telltale indicator for the end of the roll. On checking a spent roll the reason was obvious. The ruby windows align to the 6x9 counters; the 6x4.5 counters are along the other edge of the backing.
I gather that this is the reason for the two windows. You advance the film until the (6x9) number 1 shows in the left window, take the shot, then advance the 1 to the right window, take the shot, then advance the 2 to the left window, lather rinse repeat.
The camera does have a sticker inside telling you to use Zeiss film. Was the paper backing on Zeiss film turned 180 degrees from Kodak and Fuji? Who came up with this crazy scheme?
