Photography of Simon Galbally - f8Vision

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Classic 120 Roll Film Cameras - Enduring technology

With all the talk about digital versus film, it makes you realise how enduring some camera technologies are. One often overlooked example of enduring technology is indeed a film example - 120 roll film. Despite the advent of outstanding digital MF backs, 120 roll film remains alive and well even if sales volumes have declined significantly. Of course two major factors contribute to that survival of 120 film: the relatively very high cost of digital backs and the absence of a full frame MF digital back alternative.

However, with all that in mind, the specific enduring 120 film camera technology I refer to here is the vintage “folder camera” – 120 folding cameras - the 6x4.5, 6x6, and 6x9 format folding cameras. For those unaware of such treats, these are the cameras with the lens that sits on the front of a bellows that pops out of the camera when the front door is opened. In any of their iterations these wonderfully compact and high quality cameras remain excellent and very usable MF cameras today – about 70 years later!

Zeiss was the largest manufacturer of these remarkably compact cameras boasting various iterations of good to outstanding quality optics – the most modern example provided the user with a coupled rangefinder / viewfinder focusing aid and in camera metering uncoupled metering. The optics range from simple early lens designs, to single-coated and later multi-coated more sophisticated designs. Many are still capable of producing quality colour images requiring little enlargement to produce high quality large prints. And if you are a keen B&W shooter, then any one of these marvels will suffice.

While photographers often get hung up about technical features, automation and the ergonomic perfection of much more modern MF cameras, some good attributes of the early mechanical 120 folder cameras are often overlooked.

I often suggest to those seeking to experiment with MF photography that they initially purchase a later model quality folder camera – such as a Zeiss Ikon, Super Ikonta 6x6 with a coupled viewfinder/rangefinder. An all-mechanical camera with a quality fixed focal length prime lens, there is nothing to get in the way of the creative process. These are also X synch flash capable with a cold shoe on top enabling easy mounting of a compact flash unit when necessary.

If the experiment proves a success the new entrant will never find his folder camera redundant. Even today while I am a committed 6x6 SLR Hasselblad system shooter, I regularly take a 6x6 folder camera in my kit enabling some more “nimble” shooting while my ‘blad remains fixed to a tripod.

Folder Cameras?

In the early 1900's 120 roll film became a mainstream media for photographic images; today 120 roll film remains the most commonly used media for artistic, commercial and industrial image making. In around 1909 Carl Zeiss/Jena led a consortium of German manufacturers to establish a conglomerate of dominant camera manufacturing which was called Zeiss Ikon. The range of cameras was massive with a peak number of stock items in the thousands by World War II around which time the conglomerate was abandoned and Carl Zeiss ultimately concentrated on lens design and making. Why the history lesson?

Well in 1932, Zeiss Ikon made a compact "folding" 120 roll film camera that was so well designed it could fit in a "gentleman's" coat pocket. Providing 6cmx4.5cm images it offered 16 exposures in a horizontal profile (thus requiring the camera to be held vertically to take a horizontal image and vice versa). This was the Zeiss Ikon - Ikonta A.

Fitted with a single-coated Zeiss Novar 75mm f4.5 lens; B to 1/175th second Compur shutter; f 4.5 to f22 aperture range it is optimised (with settings marked in red) to shoot at f 8 at 1/100th sec focused at 24 feet in daylight when in doubt!

It is an ergonomic marvel, fitting neatly in one's hands with all the controls where you'd expect them! Taking shots is quite simple. The pop-up viewer (no - no visible focusing, you have to take a guess and set the lens focus ring) gives 100% coverage (a nice magnifying glass and chrome square to look through)!! Multiple exposures are possible - simply because you have to remember to manually roll on the film with markers showing in the two rear red glass windows. Then slide the dark cover across before pressing the fold-out bellows release button on the top to fold out the lens and bellows to make your settings and take a shot. It’s quite intuitive and great to use. Batteries are not needed as it is naturally powered through the use of one's hands for all functions required.

The upshot is that for $75.00 I purchased one in great condition but likely unused for about 30 years. I ran a roll of colour film (remembering that colour film had not been invented in 1932) through it the same day. Every shot was perfectly exposed! Where I thought I guessed the distance correctly, all shots were quite sharp!

That's enduring technology. And by the way, I can still have my images scanned, with the result being the equivalent of a 20MP image. Now the best quote I got for a 20MP digital back was $23,000.00! So, maybe even $75 is a good investment to get large images with good detail and nice optical attributes! As a media, 120 roll film has survived and remains revered for over 70 years while other media like 110, 126, and 127 etc have come and gone.

Now in its attempts to dominate the photographic media market, digital imaging still compares itself to how closely it resembles the qualities of film.



But, consumers wrestle with a range of digital issues like: initial cost; equipment redundancy (life-cycles shrinking from 3 years towards 1 year); lens focal length and cropped sensors' impact; speed of capture (start-up and recording delays); risk of data corruption (the loss of everything); need for copious battery power (unusable without battery power); resolution quality and quantity (size and quality of data captured); ISO range (typically limited between 100 and 400 or to 1600 ASA at the top end compared to 25 and 6400ASA using film).

Well, regardless of all that, I have a 120 MF camera that folds up, can be carried in my pocket and requires nothing more than film to take great shots on large negatives - all for $75.00. Seems I don't need a mini point and shot digi gizmo after all.

Folder Camera Options

Going beyond the initial Zeiss Ikon Ikontas (lack a viewfinder / rangefinder), it is still a very affordable choice to progress up the folder camera development chain to the Super Ikontas and their viewfinder and rangefinder (the term Super differentiates the rangefinder / viewfinder models from those without focus and viewing aids. The last iterations of the Super Ikontas became more compact as the viewfinder and rangefinder became an integrated unit. The 75mm and 80mm Planar and Tessar lenses built onto these cameras and their progressively developing versions remain very capable lenses today and a great testament to Zeiss’ legacy.

Of course, Zeiss was not the only maker of excellent folder cameras – Voigtlander being another very successful German brand of very high quality alternatives. However, it was Zeiss that mastered the integrated viewfinder / rangefinder.

However, Voigtlander did manage more compact 6x6 cameras in the guise of the Bessa 66 and the Perkeo I & II. Some versions of the Voigtlander folders remain highly prized cameras for their outstanding optics. The most notably prised lens is the Heliar with the Skopar not too far behind.

Of course there are a number of other fine folding cameras some of which are beautifully restored to “like new” by highly skilled enthusiasts such as Jurgen Kreckel (his web site is www.certo6.com.) Here, Agfa’s Isolette and its huge 6x9 frame can be bought for very reasonable money and provide enormous joy to serious photographers with that huge 6x9 120 roll film frame providing a superb aspect ratio especially for landscape shooters. I often recommend such cameras to very serious 135 format landscape shooters looking for a much bigger negative to do justice to scenes worthy of large prints. And if nothing else the owner has something very special in his possession.

Now, more recently I also suggest such cameras to 135 format digital shooters who are keen to make big prints of cityscape and landscape scenes and who accept that even a full-frame 135 format camera has enlargement limitations. Sure, a much more modern MF camera would surpass the resolving power and sharpness of even the best vintage folder; but, at a far higher cost and inconvenience of kit dimensions and weight. The final results may not even be all that visible to an admirer of the print – an issue of cost versus benefit.

So, if you are looking for something different; something capable of producing excellent MF film frames; something compact and light and dependable; something to “test the MF water” or just something well engineered and built using a freely available film stock – track down one of the many iterations of folder cameras and the enduring 120 roll film – your digital-convert photography friends will be embarrassed by the quality of images you produce with absolutely no fuss at all!

I know that my very hard worn 1940s vintage Zeiss Ikonta C has produced 6x9 images some thought must have been taken with the latest and most expensive 135 format DSLR, while I knew that the AU$90 I spent on this marvel was about the best value for money I’ve ever had from any camera! When asked, I just say the image is a 389MP frame shot on $90 1940s camera!


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