The
glamorous old lady
more than 80 years and still fit and beautiful.
Zeiss Ikon
Ideal 225 with interchangeable lens/shutter.
These cameras were made out of the
finest quality metal parts, very reliable Compur shutters and perfect Zeiss
Tessar 1: 4,5 lenses.
Further more equipped with double extension tracks
made out of first class heavy chromed metal, mounted on a black shiny drop bed.
The double extension track offers space to more than 10 inch of fine
leather bellows.
All these beautiful, breathtaking and fine designed components
are handy boxed in a light metal leathered body with a total weight of less than
1,5 kilo...
Comparing to its American competitors it was light and easy to
handle.
Production
of Zeiss Ideal 225 started in 1920 and was discontinued in the late thirties.
The camera became a very good reputation as a precision camera.
Not only because
of facilities, such as drop bed, interchangeable objectives and its light metal
housing, but also because of its light tight easy to handle sheet film
cassettes.
Thanks to the ingenious "drop in"-"snap on"
was changing the film or plate holders even in extreme cold conditions no
problem.
The camera was available in 6,5 x 9: 9x12: 10x 15 and 13 x 18
cm.
Original 1925 invoice found on a flea market.
The Franz drugstore Kesselsdorferstrasse 30 in Dresden still existed in
2017
Google street view 2017
For long
focusing. Double extension track. U shaped front standard with horizontal and
vertical movements are of assistance in
centring the image on the film without
tilting the camera.
These movements can be done by turning the curled knob on
top of the standard for vertical movements and the knob on the bottom side of
the standard for horizontal movements.
The Zeiss Ica Ideal 225 was a successor
of previous marketed cameras like the Maximar, Tronar and the Ica Ideal
111.
On the right photo an invoice of the Ica company addressed to Wilhelm
Franz, Kesselsdorferstrasse 36, in Dresden, just a few blocks away from the ICA
factory plant.
In those days (1925) an Ideal 111 camera cost 152 Marks.
However
the retailers cost price was 99.82 M. Unfortunately for the nowadays retailers, these fancy profits are no more usual.
Instead
of sliding holders, Zeiss Ica Ideal was equipped with profile shaped
holders.
ICA Holder number 726/6. This holder can be placed against the camera
back. Just a slight pressure is needed to click the holder tight against
the back of the camera body.
Unlike some other photo plate holders, this
one can be equipped with a sheath or septum for sheet film. (Photo
left).
If you do not have such a septum you may use a home made plastic
sheet serving as a sort of a underlay for your sheet film.
It sure works very fine.
Photo on the right shows the holder with an original photo- glass plate, which
can be used as an underlay for sheet film as well.