Week 216 - Zeiss Ikonette

Zeiss Ikonette, a photo by pho-Tony on Flickr.

Many dozens, if not hundreds, of cameras were made under the Zeiss Ikon brand. They included many fine precision models, but with such a large catalogue, I suppose it's inevitable that there would be the occasional failure. The Ikonette is a stylish plastic finished camera, but apparently the body wasn't light-tight, and Zeiss recalled many of them. This one belongs to my dad, he carefully painted the innards matt black, and there is certainly no light leak in this example, whether there ever was will remain a mystery. The Ikonette borrows the single lever advance/shutter release from earlier Zeiss models, notably the Tenax and Taxona ranges. They are quite rare, and are often described as not working, which in some cases may be due to the seller not realising that a film needs to be loaded in order to cock the shutter. I'm using a roll of Agfa Vista 200 colour negative film from Poundland.