Which camera from Dresden to get

ant!

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A total GAS question, and not an urgent one. And this could be in medium format or rangefinder as well...

The story:
I am from Dresden and lived a bit more then half my life there, and now since a quarter of my life in Canada. Always used film, but got really into photography (beside travel snapshots) only after I had left my hometown. And of course I know Dresden played until the end of WW2 and maybe into the 50s quite a role for the photography world. So now my thought (GAS!): I should get a nice camera which was made in my hometown.

Usually I am an SLR guy and like aperture priority and in-camera light meters. I use mainly Minolta manual focus and Pentax 645. So from this, I guess I should get a 70s/80s Praktica or Pentacon Six and call it a day. But that would be too easy, as it should be one of the highlights of the Dresden camera area. I also enjoy my Minolta Autocord TLR, and trying to figure out how much I like rangefinders (have an Agfa Ambi Silette and a Minolta Hi-Matic 7sII). I have my late grandfather's Zeiss Werra (first model), but this isn't from Dresden but from Jena, 2h away (I should send to repair nevertheless).

So, room for wild suggestions! Only limit: Must be made in Dresden! Ok, another limitation: Must use film which is still widely available, 35mm or 120. I have no time limit to find a nice one for a reasonable price (whatever this might be), will probably search on the German market, and it will most likely not become my main camera.

Some ideas:
Zeiss Ikon (can I assume for Zeiss Ikon that everything before the end of WW2 is from Dresden and everything after isn't?)
- Contax II or III (the IIa and IIIa were postwar and made in Stuttgart, right?)
- Ikonta / Super Ikonta / Mess-Ikonta
- Ikoflex or Contaflex TLR?

Exakta?
Meister-Korelle?
Certo Six or Super Sport Dolly or something?
Welta Penti halfframe (from Freital, but that's too close to exclude. My father had one and the poking stick film advance is funky. But does this use 35mm film or a strange cartridge?)
There are a dozen more manufacturers...
 

Sirius Glass

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Hasselblad with the 80mm lens. Get the best.
 

pentaxuser

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ant! said:
Just because it uses a Zeiss lens (from post-war west German Zeiss) does not make Göteborg a suburb of Dresden...
Click to expand...

True but if you are from the vast expanse of the U.S. everywhere in N Europe must seem very close to everywhere else

pentaxuser
 

chuck3565

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How about a Praktina or a Praktica IV or V? The latter two had brighter viewfinders than other Praktica cameras until the B series. By the way, the B series were excellent 35mm slrs.
 

Dustin McAmera

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Don't stop at one!

..but since you ask for a choice, get a Super Sport Dolly. Hold out for good spec, with a Xenar or Tessar, and good condition; there are some old rust-heaps out there to be had.

Also a Korelle K, for being adorable.
 
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ant!

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pentaxuser said:
True but if you are from the vast expanse of the U.S. everywhere in N Europe must seem very close to everywhere else

pentaxuser
Click to expand...
But even then Dresden is more center then north European, I felt always happier in Prague then in Berlin... (I mean, I studied in Denmark and Göteborg just over the Kattegat is cool as a city too, but that's another story... And I guess I can't get from every place I lived a camera, I don't think Aalborg, Vienna or Montreal had mayor camera makers, Munich did though, and from there I have the Agfa...)
 
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ant!

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Dustin McAmera said:
Don't stop at one!

..but since you ask for a choice, get a Super Sport Dolly. Hold out for good spec, with a Xenar or Tessar, and good condition; there are some old rust-heaps out there to be had.

Also a Korelle K, for being adorable.
Click to expand...

The K looks Kute indeed! I love this photo of it showing how narrow it is: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/6c/44/07/6c44075ce106465b607c7bcf4b9a8733.jpg , and it's halfframe with changeable lenses! I guess it would need to come with the special spool to wind in...

And yes, the Certo Super Sport Dolly is (as well as an Ikonta) definitely on my list, since I haven't any medium format folders now. But yes, condition is key...
 

Marcelo Paniagua

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I would go with Praktica's. Great robust and uncomplicated cameras, like MTL3 or MTL3 or even more basic L's. Have a L2 that is quite trustworthy.
 

Nicholas Lindan

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I'd vote for an early-ish Exakta. VXIIa probably, from when they were still very well made and hadn't yet been nationalized to the greater glory of the workers of the world. The later 'zebra' Zeiss Jena lenses are better built than the earlier shiny aluminum lenses - would it have killed the proletariat managers of the 50's to spend a few ost-pfennigs on anodizing said aluminum?
 

GDI

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Get something special like one of the Noblexes….
 

guangong

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Zeiss Ikon was a collection of camera makers throughout Germany, and not limited to Dresden or Jena.
 
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ant!

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Marcelo Paniagua said:
I would go with Praktica's. Great robust and uncomplicated cameras, like MTL3 or MTL3 or even more basic L's. Have a L2 that is quite trustworthy.
Click to expand...
Actually, I got a year ago the old Praktika LTL (with Pentacon auto 50/1.8) of an uncle of my partner, and kept it only since it shows the Ernemann tower icon (one of the Pentacon buildings in Dresden). But this camera seems crude compared to my Minolta SRT 102 of the same age (and even more the XE7, which was introduced within the lifetime of the LTL), with it's stop-down metering and screw lens mount. For this reason I am looking more for something earlier, where Dresden and Germany in general was still innovative in the camera industry, from the 70s the Japanese seem to be better. And maybe also because the Praktika's are too close to what I have with Minolta.
 
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ant!

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For an SLR, they seem to be quirky enough to be different to what I have and with unique features, and not as rare as a Korelle or something. So yes, these go on my list to look further into!
 
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ant!

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GDI said:
Get something special like one of the Noblexes….
Click to expand...
While I had come across the name before, I somehow missed these were made in the 90s in Dresden (so during my time there), and definitely interesting, especially in medium format! I only would need to figure out what to do with a panorama camera. But definitely fits!
 
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ant!

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guangong said:
Zeiss Ikon was a collection of camera makers throughout Germany, and not limited to Dresden or Jena.
Click to expand...
You are right of course, but Dresden was their main camera site until 45, with ICA and Ernemann as the founding members, and on the other side Contessa in Stuttgart. Is there somewhere an overview what was done where? Post-war it seems easier, e.g. Dresden made out of the Ikonta the Ercona and
The Contax II and III (not IIa and IIIa) were definitely made in Dresden as the machines were transported to Kyiv. Not sure about the folders etc. Maybe also some parts from one site and then moved to the other?
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeiss_Ikon says the Ikonta was the first model which was an actual cooperation in between the different founding companies on Zeiss Ikon, but no details of what and where.

I guess I'll dive as well into https://zeissikonveb.de/index.html and https://www.dresdner-kameras.de/ , let's see what comes up...
 
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ant!

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I found in https://zeissikonveb.de/start/kameras/ercona.html : Ikonta and Nettar were all built in Stuttgart, so these are out. Ercona was the Dresden post-war version of the Ikonta though. It says also: Basically, pre-45 all Zeiss Ikon medium format cameras were from Stuttgart, all 35mm from Dresden. So Contax, Nettel, Contaflex etc are in.
 
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Alan Johnson

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Praktica FX-3

<p> I was interested in the Praktica FX-2 and FX-3 series (1955-1959) since they come with both a waist level finder and a detachable prism.I believe this type of prism was outdated at the time and wonder if it was made on instruction of an official rather than the market as it may have had...
www.photo.net
I was interested in the development of the SLR post 1950 to 1992 and over the years collected about half a dozen old Prakitcas and sold most of them on again. Not expensive if you like this type of thing.
 

railwayman2

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I remember that my late father, who had been a keen photographer since the 1940's, told me that he bought a Varex IIb in the 1960's......the body had to be exchanged under warrenty twice with major shutter problems (unusuable high speeds) and also the
Zeiss Pancolor lens exchanged as being badly fuzzy at full aperture (in the end he swapped it for a Tessar, one stop smaller but much sharper.)
In seemed to down to poor quality control, as the accessories were well made, and the Meyer Optik Goerlitz wide-angle and short tele- lenses were, he said, apparently supurb.
 

Ian Grant

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Get a Praktina, far better build quality than the Exacta, I have both. These two FX cameras and a Varex IIb




The one on the left has a 5mm, f2 Biotar. There's some nice history to the KW company.

Ian
 

Nicholas Lindan

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railwayman2 said:
I remember that my late father, who had been a keen photographer since the 1940's, told me that he bought a Varex IIb in the 1960's......the body had to be exchanged under warrenty twice with major shutter problems
Click to expand...
In the early days of East Germany Ihagee/Exakta was a privately held firm incorporated in the Netherlands. When the East German government began to take over and the firm was subsumed into Pentacon the quality plummeted.

I think the VXIIa was old-school-quality; the VXIIb dates from after the fall. Although I am sure there are people with much more knowledge of Exakta on the forum who could say if this was a good choice or no.

I owned a late 60's Exakta/Exa 500 (the small chunky thing) - the automatic diaphragm mechanism in the lens quickly fell apart and it was soon clear (er, fuzzy, really) the focusing screen was improperly shimmed. As to lens quality, the Tessar performed well - I'm sure Zeiss Jena's optical quality was very variable. I remember hearing the Pancolar was a bit of a crap-shoot.
 

Ian Grant

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I had a Prakticamat with a Pancolar lens, optically it was excellent, but the exposures were inconsistent, turned out the aperture diaphragm was sloppy and didn't stop down exactly sometimes too little, other times too much (of the set aperture).

The Exa cameras are quirky, I have two, both work fine but the screens are dim, the best version was the Certo re-engineered M42 mount Ic version.

I had a Varex 1000 that was better than the Varex IIb, it came with a 35mm Flektagon, 50mm Pancolar. and 135mm f3.5 Sonnar, I was given it in payment for a lot of film and print processing by the original owner and the image quality of his three CZJ lenses was superb. Sadly I stored the camera, lenses, and some others in my cellar, very dry in the Winter, full of condensation in the Summer, so they were a write-off.

Ian
 

GDI

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A pano camera should not be your only camera for sure! But it is nice to use one ( especially a swing lens camera) occasionally for variety.

Here is a shot from a Noblex 175ux 6x17 version (it is fairly rare).
 
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