Shooting a role of Ilford HP5 in an old Ikoflex build in the 1950s

Zeiss Ikon Ikoflex

Do you want to slow down? Then you should shoot film. And doing so is even more fun (and more challenging) using an old camera. My father left me a Zeiss Ikon Ikoflex. It was not used for at least 40 years. I was not even sure if this camera would still work. So I tried.

The Zeiss Ikon Ikoflex Ib (856/16)  was build in the years 1954 to 1957. The main lens is a Carl Zeiss Tessar with 75 mm f/3.5. 

I loaded a role of Ilford HP5 Plus (ISO 400) 120 roll film. For metering  I used the exposure I got from my Sony A7RIII, adjusted it slightly using spot metering, zone system and imagination how I wanted the final image to look like. This process already worked very well for films I shot in my Rolleiflex SL35. Then I sent the film for developing and scanning to a lab.

The results are pretty amazing. The shutter seems to work very well, the defects in the front lens element seem not to disturb the image quality too much. The Tessar is very sharp and gives a nice Bokeh if used wide open. The tonal contrast and the grain of the film is beautiful. Due to the large medium format the photographs are very sharp with finer grain when compared to the same film in full frame (135/36).  

Scroll down and have a look at a few examples of my first roll of film in this wonderful camera.