Gear Acquisition Syndrome Strikes Again! Welcome to Quirky Cameras.

I have decided to change things up a little in 2024 and introduce a new feature for my Blog where I talk about Quirky Cameras. It maybe something old or new, maybe borrowed but definitely not blue. Get yourself your favourite beverage, kick the old shoes off and settle down as we take a dive into our first Quirky Camera. 

2024 is less than 3 weeks old and my plan to stick with the gear I have for the whole year has been blown out of the water. I have purchased another camera. I say to myself every year that I will not purchase another camera, but then something intriguing and camera shaped appears, my impulsive instincts take over and I end up owning another one. This time I have a decent excuse and my wife actually approves of my purchase courtesy of its age and media format it uses.

I have bought a vintage Zeiss Ikon Maximar 207/3 medium format folding camera. It is not your average folding camera that requires you use 120 medium format film, oh no. This is one that also uses 6x9 glass plates and I couldn't be happier. 

I spotted the camera on the excellent Camera Go Camera blog written by Peggy. She acquired it as she needed a couple of bits for a Maximar 207/5 she owns and bought the 207/3 thinking she could make one good camera kit from two. Alas, that's where her plan fell apart. The Maximar 207/5 is larger than the 207/3 and neither the glass plate holders, nor the roll film holder from the 207/3 will fit. 

Peggy decided to give the camera a try and see if she could get a decent blog post from it before deciding what to do with it. You can read her blog via the link below, as I did, where I posted a comment saying; "That Maximar would be in my regular rotation. I like it, it's got the charm I associate with photography before the SLR came to dominance." Peggy had taken a few decent photos with it and I rather liked the results she had been able to achieve. 

In my reply I had left my email address and Peggy got in touch offering the camera to me. After around 0.000001 seconds I asked for the price. To be honest I was thinking such an old camera would be out of my reach. I have been looking for a 6x9 medium format camera to use for the Frugal Film Project in 2025 and the ones I have seen are all beyond my meagre budget.

Bearing in mind the budget for the Frugal Film Project is $75/£75, I crossed my fingers, toes and any other appendages I could get my hands on. (stop sniggering at the back!) All Peggy wanted was some Uncle Joe's Mint Balls and a few rolls of film from my stash. That's what I call a great deal!

I refuse to pay more than £10 for a roll of film. Half a dozen rolls from my fridge and a jar of Uncle Joe's Mint Balls, delivered straight from the company to Peggy ensured I was under budget. A couple of days later I received the camera in the post and took my first proper look at my Zeiss Ikon Maximar 207/3.

The camera is around 100 years old and looks a little bedraggled, but that's what I like about it. It's had a life, It has patina, although some may call it rust. I can easily amend that with some careful cleaning. The bellows look to be in good condition, it just needs a clean and some gentle brushing will shift the dust. It will cost me nothing more than time and elbow grease to give the camera a good clean. 

The camera has a 120 roll film back and dark slide that I know works as Peggy has already used the camera. 8 6x9 shots per standard roll are not going to be hard to shoot on one walk, so I need to pick my shots and not indulge in happy snapping. I did that with my Minolta X-700 loaded with Ferrania P30. You can read about it next week.

It also came with 6 6x9 plate holders with dark slides. Before roll film was invented, photographs were produced on glass plates with a light sensitive emulsion on called "Dry Plates" to differentiate them from the previous "Wet Plate" collodion process. They were the high tech of the late 19th and very early 20th century.

I have never used anything other than roll film or digital cameras, this will be a first for me. I am expecting a very steep learning curve and yes, Dry Glass Plates are still available. There's a few intrepid photographers who make their own, which is exactly how Kodak and Ilford started out. 

I have always been amazed that just about every process, from Daguerreotypes to Roll Film, are still enjoyed by photographers around the world and we all have our favourite one. Will dry glass plates capture me in their thrall? There's only one way to find out, but that's a story for another blog. For my first use of my Zeiss Ikon Maximar 207/3, I loaded a roll of Kentmere 400 medium format film and headed out for a walk in my local countryside. It was a beautiful sunny and dry day at the back end of January 2024 and I took full advantage of it.

I wasn't expecting anything spectacular from my first try at using a hundredish year old camera. These things need time and patience. What did help was the Compur shutter fitted to the Maximar is similar to the one on Baldy the Baldax, both shutter speed and aperture are set on the rim, hence the name rimset.

Focus is done by moving the bellows and it has a mechanism on the side to lock the bellows and give a nice focus between 8 feet and infinity. This means I can set it up quickly and take a shot without having to faff about with a ground glass on the back of the camera to find my focal point. I need to find one of those. I had no problems using it and metering was done with light meter free app on my smartphone. I also used my K&F tripod, L bracket and cable release.

I always enjoy a wander around my local woods. The contrast between winter skies and bare trees still in their winter slumber never gets old for me. I tried a few old favourite compositions which helped me dial in my basic settings. It was a good day to be out and about, but it never seems to last long. However, my legs and clock on my phone were both telling me I had been out for nigh on three hours. I finished my film in both cameras and headed home.

I developed my roll of Kentmere 400 using Kodak HC110 1+47 dilution E from concentrate. Kentmere film responds well to this dilution and it wasn't long before my first roll shot with my Zeiss Ikon Mixamar camera was hanging in my bathroom to dry. 

Digitising was done with my Nikon D700 and Tamron Adaptall 2 90mm f/2.5 macro lens. My film was held nice and flat with my Valoi Film holder on my Pixl-Latr and illuminated with my A5 led light source. RAW files were processed with Affinity Photo 2.

I enjoyed using the camera, despite it giving me flares and light leaks. I suspect those are down to user error rather than anything seriously wrong with the camera. It was a great learning experience for me and it gives me confidence to keep at it and hopefully use it for the Frugal Film Project in 2025. I still need to buy some dry glass plates to give myself that option and try something different. I need to make sure the camera is light tight, which shouldn't cause me too much trouble, but as I said, I think that's my inexperience using this new to me system with the quirks the camera already has.

I have time to give the body of the camera, the dark slides and glass plate holders a clean to remove surface rust and grime accumulated over the century of life it has had. I don't want to go for a full restoration, just stabilise it and ensure it doesn't get worse. Hopefully this will help the camera last a few decades more.

Here's all of my shots from my first roll shot in my Zeiss Ikon Maximar 207/3. We don't get a lot of nice days here during winter, but when we do I have to take a swing at it. This camera gave me a chance to try something a little different to what I am used to and use a camera that a century ago was high tech.

It gave photographers back then a reasonably priced way to shoot the new Roll film and keep using their beloved Dry Glass Plates. I thoroughly approve of it and I will be using this camera again to give Dry Plates a go at some point this year. As always I have placed them and more in an album in Flickr for you to view in full resolution by clicking the link below. I hope you enjoy them.

Zeiss Ikon 207/3 Maximar - Kentmere 400
Camera Go Camera - Maximar 207/3 (maximar-a)