Sometimes I feel the pull of Medium Format, kind of like the tide during full moon. These are first rate cameras and the beauty of these is they fold up real nice and small. You could even put it in your pocket!

• The Full Deal Having never owned one of these folders before let alone take one apart, I had some trepidations whether I was getting in over my head by doing a full tear down cleaning. You know what, it is easier than you think. See how easy it is to clean up an Ikonta with a Prontor shutter.

• Super-duper Ikonta Steep learning curve here. Just when I thought I aced the Ikonta, the Super Ikonta has the more challenging Synchro Compur shutter just to put one in their place. Pay attention to the small details and this one comes together very nicely as well.

• Another day, another Super Ikonta Seems there's no stopping it. I happened to stumble upon and Ikonta that had the more popular type of shutter mechanism, the Synchro Compur MX. Off we go on yet another adventure.

Novar VS Tessar

Ikonta with Novar 75/4 lens (above), Super Ikonta with Tessar 75/3.5 lens (below), images 20x magnification

August 28, 2007