A comparison of an old medium format folding camera with the latest digital camera phone
I loaded up the Zeiss Ikonta 531/16 with Portra 400, fired 24 exposures over two rolls*, and took the same photo from the same spot with my new Honor 200 camera phone. This is one of the most fun projects I’ve embarked on recently. I’ve only received one roll back so far, so I’ll follow this article up with a second installment.
Zeiss Super Ikonta 531/16
The Zeiss Super Ikonta 531/16 was launched in 1953. It is also known as the Super Ikonta III, and is a 6×6 medium format folding range-finder camera. My copy has the Anastigmat 75mm f3.5 lens, although they were also produced with the Carl Zeiss 75mm f3.5 Tessar, both of which sport ten aperture blades.
The shutter was either the Prontor-SVS or, like mine, the Synchro-Compur leaf, with speeds between 1s – 1/500s and Bulb. Although the camera can go to 1/500, you’ll see below that I think mine started developing issues at this speed.
How to cock the shutter
The Zeiss is fun to shoot with, and I mean a lot of fun! After popping open the bellows by pressing the small button next to the coldshoe, the shutter speed and the aperture are set on the lens.
The focus ring is a thin, knurled dial that can be accessed from the left side. Before taking a shot, the shutter must be cocked by pushing a short lever upwards.
Zeiss ergonomics
For a medium format camera, this is rather slim at 138x103x43 mm when folded. That’s the beauty of bellows. Weighing 660g, it’s comfortable enough to wear around the neck secured in its leather case.
Setting the aperture and the shutter speed does require looking down onto the lens, but that tends to be the first thing I do. With no light meter, I just used the sunny sixteen rule.
Rangefinder
The Ikonta has a coupled range-finder, combined into the viewfinder, unlike my Leica iiif from the same era. Although my viewfinder is a little misty, albeit still good for its age, the patch itself is pretty clear and focusing is easy. The difficult bit is ensuring you are turning the focus ring and not the aperture ring. This slows the shooting workflow until you become adept at where to place your fingers.
Honor 200
I’ve written about the Honor 200 previously, which I bought specifically for the camera features.
- Primary: 50MP, f/1.95 aperture lens, OIS
- Ultra-wide:12MP, f/2.2 aperture lens
- Tele: 50MP, f/2.4 aperture lens, OIS
However, in this experiment, I simply chose the standard shooting mode and just changed the dimensions to 1:1.
Incidentally, all of the above shots of the Zeiss were taken with the Honor 200 in super-macro mode, straight out the camera jpgs.
Methodology
I used the sunny sixteen rule to expose the Zeiss but did not record my settings. On sunny days with the Portra 400 it was rare I went below f/11. I remained in the same position and took the same photo with my phone, which has a slightly wider field of view.
The Zeiss images were processed and scanned by AG Photolab, based in Birmingham, UK, and returned as 8bit TIF files. They came in at 2079x2048px. I ran them through Photoshop hitting Auto Tone and Auto Contrast only. No other changes have been made. The Honor images were taken with the main camera and came in at 3072px. They are straight-out-the-camera jpegs with no alterations. The Zeiss scans are on the left, and the Honor photos on the right.
My favourite image
I’ll start with this image taken in the Cambridge Waterways. With the sun behind me at around 1pm, the Zeiss handled infinity focus beautifully. I’d noticed this two years ago when I took a shot down the Thames looking at Canary Wharf and being impressed with the detail it returned. The colours of Kodak’s Portra 400 are just beautiful, almost painterly. That minimum focusing distance of the Anastigmat lens at 1.2m is evident in the slightly blurred foreground (post and flowers), but the detail it captures in the tree branches is impressive for a 70 year old lens. Those colours though!
The image taken with the Honor 200 is pretty sweet too, to be honest. No oversharpening and not too much saturation in colour either, but when I showed these two images to my mum, she immediately pointed at the Zeiss shot as being the better of the two. I agree with her!
Nailing close focus
The next two shots come courtesy of the Saffron Walden Motorshow on 18th August, 2024. I’d already wandered the Common earlier that day but because I was shooting in the midday sun, I was having to set the shutter speed to 1/500, and that’s when I started developing issues with it sticking (discussed below). I returned to the Common around 4pm, by which time all but three cars remained, but this did allow me to drop the shutter speed to 1/250. I’m pleased with the first shot and I remember zooming my camera a little to match the frame in the digital version.
I’m a little less pleased with the second shot, only because the framing didn’t come out as I was hoping, nearly cutting the wheel off at the bottom. The digital version is what I was after, but the overall quality of the Zeiss is excellent. I love seeing how muted that Portra blue is compared to the more realistic digital version.
The following images were taken on the wettest day of the year at Bressingham Steam and Gardens, Suffolk. Of my first roll, this was the only salvageable shot. I had to use Photoshop’s Generative Fill to remove the ghastly flare that I will now discuss.
Sticking Shutter?
I think the issue that developed was a sticking shutter at 1/500. I don’t recall having this problem when I shot with this camera two years ago, but it happened a number of times this summer.
You’d think looking at these images I love classic cars! I’m no petrol-head but I am old enough to remember when Stags and MGs were common-place, but I’m particularly put out by the MG shot as I thought the composition was pretty cool. Never mind, I have another roll to be processed and by the time I loaded it up I was fully aware of the sticking shutter issue. I avoided 1/500 shutter speed on all shots on that second roll so it’ll be interesting to see if that was the problem.
*Addendum
Having written this article I was inspired to remove my second roll from the Zeiss to be sent off for processing. It was only when I removed the film that I realised my second roll is not Portra 400, but Ektar 100! I shot all 12 exposures thinking it was 400, so now I’m really intrigued to see how the images came out. Portra is pretty forgiving, Ektar less so. I’ll ask AG to push it two stops.