I frequent antique stores. I’m always looking for that deal. I like old military stuff, old wooden containers, and old cameras. Decent cameras are hard to find in antique stores. They’re either junk, already picked up by someone else, or have a stupid ridiculous price tag on them.
I found this Zeiss in a local antique store in the Carmel Arts District for $15. It was a unique camera that I hadn’t seen before. After inspecting it, and determining that it probably does work, I set it back on the shelf and went home. For some reason, I wasn’t thinking about buying it. But over night, I realized that I may have made a mistake.
The next morning, I hopped on my bicycle and rode back to the store, and to my disappointment, the camera was not on the shelf any more. Nope, wasn’t on that shelf any more. It was on the one above it. Someone else had admired it and decided not to buy it. It was mine now.
The thing I love about this camera is that it’s a full manual, 120 film camera. You can’t just pick this up and start shooting. You have to know how to load the 120 film and you have to have an understanding of shutter speed, aperture, and the distance to your subject. See, there’s no automatic focus and you’re not even looking through the lens. There’s no way to even see if your subject is in focus. You have to dial the wheel to the number of feet the subject is away and hope you’ve got it. It’s that cool of a camera!
This camera was probably made shortly after the war. They only made them until 1951.