Zeiss Ikon Box-Tengor

awty · Sep 4, 2022

Hi
I bought one of these last night, it says it is 6x9, but looks like it has a 4.5 mask and two red windows on the back. I cant find any reference to it being able to do both.
Maybe its for a different format?
Anyone know about this?
Could wait till it got here and worked it out, but Im curious.
Was cheap only $30AUD, why wouldnt you buy.

gone · Sep 4, 2022

Hopefully this helps. They seem to have made these in a lot of different film formats. I can't think of any reason to have those 2 red windows except for 6x4.5.

Zeiss Ikon Box Tengor

Box Tengor is a series of medium format film box cameras made by Zeiss Ikon and produced between 1926-1956. It is a continuation model of Goerz Box Tengor that produced by Goerz before the merger to form the Zeiss Ikon. There are many types of the camera during its long production period for...

camerapedia.fandom.com

awty · Sep 5, 2022

momus said:
Hopefully this helps. They seem to have made these in a lot of different film formats. I can't think of any reason to have those 2 red windows except for 6x4.5.

Zeiss Ikon Box Tengor

Box Tengor is a series of medium format film box cameras made by Zeiss Ikon and produced between 1926-1956. It is a continuation model of Goerz Box Tengor that produced by Goerz before the merger to form the Zeiss Ikon. There are many types of the camera during its long production period for...

camerapedia.fandom.com

Must be a 6x4.5, run out of 6x4.5 stickers and just made a second window in the 6x9 model.
Edit: Needs two windows for winding the film on the 6x9 track.

This one is the correct 6x9.

JPD · Sep 5, 2022

awty said:
Must be a 6x4.5, run out of 6x4.5 stickers and just made a second window in the 6x9 model.
Edit: Needs two windows for winding the film on the 6x9 track.

This one is the correct 6x9.

Regardless of the negative format, 120-film was still called 6x9-film, B2/BII in Germany at that time.

henryvk · Sep 5, 2022

It's a 6x45 Box Tengor for sure and apparently *with* the original yellow filter. There's one single 6x45 Box Tengor in the classifieds or on eBay and maybe fifty 6x9 ones. It must be a little bit rare at least.

Here's a piece about it from the lomography website:

Lomography - Nifty Little Box - The Zeiss Ikon Box Tengor 54

This box camera is just a bit more then a simple box.

www.lomography.de

They are fun little cameras. This was taken handheld on Fomapan 100 with a 6x9 Box Tengor 54/2 using the 2-1 meter setting:

Jojje · Sep 5, 2022

Originally, 120 film didn't have numbering for 4,5x6, so you wound nr. 1 in the first window, exposed, and then wound "1" in the second window, and so on.
( 30 years ago while working in a museum a Baby Box Tengor with a 127 film still inside arrived for the museum collections, managed to develop the film, apparently exposed in 60's.)

awty · Sep 5, 2022

Thanks for all the info. Photos look good, great it has a filter, saves me having to fit one and a cable release is a big bonus for me.
4.5 is a great ratio, plenty of negatives and fits perfect on 8x10 photo paper. My only other 4.5 is my Holga, which doesnt have a cable release.

I take it the 4.5 is slightly smaller and has a shorter focal length than the 6x9?

henryvk · Sep 6, 2022

awty said:
I take it the 4.5 is slightly smaller and has a shorter focal length than the 6x9?

Good question. Judging from the pictures in that lomography piece, ~~I'd say the VOF looks like the lens is maybe a bit longer than normal?~~ The longer I look at them the more I feel it must be quite normal i.e. 75 mm or so. However, there's no information that I could find about it other than that the 6x9 version has a 100 mm lens.

The 6x45 is squatter and shorter than the 6x9.

awty · Sep 6, 2022

henryvk · Sep 6, 2022

Cool. That's a very helpful find! Indeed, the 90 mm lens is a tad longer than normal on 6x45.

There's some more interesting stuff here:

Zeiss Ikon Box Tengor - From the focal plane to infinity

Zeiss Ikon Box Tengor 54

sites.google.com

and in Spanish there's loads more:

Cámara Box

.

www.camarassinfronteras.com

I had a lot of fun with my Tengor. It's really easy to pop off the front plate and give everything a good clean. The viewfinders are comparatively big and the rest of the camera is practically fool-proof and too simple to ever fail.

awty · Sep 12, 2022

Camera arrived today, all in good shape except needing a clean, pulled apart with two screws, back together.Filter is perfect yellow/green....must be the cutest little camera around. Can't wait to put some film in and get picturing.

henryvk · Sep 12, 2022

Looking good! Please make sure to share some results here soon.

Nitroplait · Sep 12, 2022

Congratulations with the camera. It is one of the few box-cameras worth actually using for photography, IMO.
I have the last 6x9 model, don’t recall the model reference.
I find the biggest challenge, if you plan to do more than contact prints, is the very slow shutter speed.
It is very demanding to hold the camera steady at 1/30 (or there about).
Luckily it has provisions for tripod and cable release, should one wish to do more serious work.

henryvk · Sep 12, 2022

The shutter speed is definitely an issue. It is a bit tricky to hand-hold but not impossible. You can press, or rather pull, the shutter release very gently, but of course any snapshot will be somewhat hampered by the low speed of around 1/30.

I wonder if it's possible to make the shutter fire a bit faster by messing with the tension spring...

What I sometimes do (and I'm sure people did back in the day), is find a flat surface and set the camera on it or up against it.

Handheld:

awty · Sep 13, 2022

I find it best just working with a cameras personality. 30th is bloody slow, but I can work with camera shake, having a cable release, a good filter and two f stops gives me lots of opportunity.
The leather case is still in good condition, strap needs replacing and the original paper manual is surprisingly still in one piece. Looks like it was once loved with some braising and then packed away.

Nitroplait · Sep 13, 2022

Inspired by this thread, I think I'll take mine out for a spin.
It is the 56/2 and if I am not mistaken the last model made?
There are 3 distance settings and 3 apertures, double exposure prevention, cable release and tripod sockets - so very advanced for a box camera.
I am certainly not going to use the shown HP5. It is way too sensitive for a shutter speed of 1/30.

awty · Sep 14, 2022

Nitroplait said:
Inspired by this thread, I think I'll take mine out for a spin.
It is the 56/2 and if I am not mistaken the last model made?
There are 3 distance settings and 3 apertures, double exposure prevention, cable release and tripod sockets - so very advanced for a box camera.
I am certainly not going to use the shown HP5. It is way too sensitive for a shutter speed of 1/30.

Great, very nice camera. I'll be out with mine once my damn shoulder injury stops aching.

cramej · Sep 14, 2022

Nitroplait said:
Inspired by this thread, I think I'll take mine out for a spin.
It is the 56/2 and if I am not mistaken the last model made?
There are 3 distance settings and 3 apertures, double exposure prevention, cable release and tripod sockets - so very advanced for a box camera.
I am certainly not going to use the shown HP5. It is way too sensitive for a shutter speed of 1/30.

Is the lens on the 56/2 coated?

Nitroplait · Sep 15, 2022

cramej said:
Is the lens on the 56/2 coated?

It looks like it has a faint coating and I have often been in doubt - but this source:

Zeiss Ikon Box-Tengor

states the following about the 56/2:

"When looking at the camera from the front, it appears that the lens has been coated, but it turns out that is just a reflection from a deceptively tinted shield which flips over the aperture during the return rotation of the shutter disk."

I wouldn't know if that is a correct conclusion.

awty · Sep 19, 2022

What a great little camera. Got 16 evenly space, nicely exposed negs.
Only problem was user errors, had a couple of camera shakes, bad framing and ones where I had the wrong focus.
Went with f11 in shade and f22 full sun...mostly.
Biggest Delmer is my wife had a play and decided she wants to use to, might be some fights.

fp4 in pyro hd 2+2+100 13 mins

Zeiss Ikon Box-Tengor

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency