My favourite folding camera

[rumtea]

I always have a crush on folding camera. They are just so charming and fun to use. I use the Zeiss Ikon Ikonta 521/16 the most because it took excellent picture with the Tessar lens. Some others camera I can't find film for it.
Kodak Retina 1a is small and easy to use but didn't give me good picture as the Zeiss.
The SHOWA SEMI LEOTAX DL is very similar to the Zeiss but I haven't tried it yet.
Please come in and share your favorite folder camera and experience

[PFMcFarland]

Could you please try posting a smaller sized image? I'm getting kind of tired of waiting five minutes for everything to load in the Imager. Thanks.

PF

ps: Excellent images by the way

[rumtea]

I am so sorry. I didn't realize the problem since it load the small thumbnail on my laptop

[melek]

If you use photos that are maybe 1000 pixels max width, they will display quicker. The more large photos you display, the longer it takes to download.

But we all like photos of older cameras, so do continue to show us what you have.

[minoly]

Those are fine looking folders! I'm sorry to hear that the Retina 1a doesn't work well for you. Besides being good looking it has an advantage in being quite small. Thanks for the fine pictures of the different cameras.

Bill Delehanty

[melek]

I agree with Bill about the Retina Ia. It should give you better photos than the Ikonta/Contina 35, because the Xenar is a Tessar design (four element), while the Novar is a three-element lens.

I've found the Novar can be soft in the corners. By the time you stop down to f/8, both lenses should perform similarly.

I have owned and used a lot of folding cameras - most of them being Agfa, Zeiss Ikon and Kodak/Nagel. I love folding cameras.

[rumtea]

Oh, I do like the Kodak Retina 1a. It's small and use 35mm. I got some nice picture with it. It's just not as good as the Zeiss 512/12. Maybe because the 120mm film I used with the Zeiss were better quality .
Here is some sample photo from the Retina 1a. I will post sample from the Zeiss when I scan them . Thank you very much for stopping by.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/vietnamfr ... 882479444/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Julio1fer]

Nice folder collection! I used to shoot a lot more with folders.

I have three of these, Retina Ia, a Novar which looks like yours, and a Contina / Ikonta 35. I must say that those triplets are way underrated - as Mike said, below f/5.6 they will give equal or better results than four-element lenses, in my experience.

The Novar is a special favorite of mine, because it was the first 120 camera I bought (in a local flea market) when coming back to 6x6 format.

[rumtea]

Hi have two Kodak Retina Ia which have different lens. One is the one in picture has a Xenar lens. I don't really see the different between them accept the Xenar lens seem to appear on the market more often than the Shnieder lens

[RonB]

It would be hard for me to pick a favorite, I have quite a few.