Anyone help me with identifying this camera - Ikon/Ernemann?

[m1tch]

Hi all,

I just got this camera yesterday, I took a gamble on it and won it, its got a working Luc shutter but says Zeiss Ikon on the back and has a 2" lens barrel (no lens unfortunately!)

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l49/m1tch_2006/DSC01194_zpsf24ae343.jpg (http://s93.photobucket.com/user/m1tch_2006/media/DSC01194_zpsf24ae343.jpg.html)

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l49/m1tch_2006/DSC01195_zps139a70e2.jpg (http://s93.photobucket.com/user/m1tch_2006/media/DSC01195_zps139a70e2.jpg.html)

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l49/m1tch_2006/DSC01196_zps782d56b2.jpg (http://s93.photobucket.com/user/m1tch_2006/media/DSC01196_zps782d56b2.jpg.html)

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l49/m1tch_2006/DSC01197_zps70301a4b.jpg (http://s93.photobucket.com/user/m1tch_2006/media/DSC01197_zps70301a4b.jpg.html)

It looks like a Ernemann Ermanox, however it doesn't have a focal plane shutter, it also has odd fixing at the top as if it were to bolted to something.

Can anyone help me find out what this is lol

[Steven Tribe]

Whatever this was originally from Zeiss-Ikon, it has been used for a special purpose. More photos from the side would help.

[m1tch]

Whatever this was originally from Zeiss-Ikon, it has been used for a special purpose. More photos from the side would help.

There are no additional controls, its basically a box with a shutter on the front and ground glass on the rear, someone else on another forum has suggested something like a microscope camera or maybe something scientific as its very simple. It looks like the same sort of size as an Ernemann Ermanox, just missing all the controls lol

Could it be something like a Carte de visite camera which would just be mounted portrait and a fixed distance?

[Sevo]

Could it be something like a Carte de visite camera which would just be mounted portrait and a fixed distance?

Not from Zeiss Ikon - such a thing would have been in their regular photography catalogues, which are all known (ZI was formed late and started large, so there is not much space for obscurity there). Somebody might have hacked some regular camera into such a thing - but if we consider it amateur after-market modified, we cannot determine its purpose from shape. The microscope (or other technical recording) camera explanation sounds more probable, given that ZI was part of a huge optics conglomerate, and turned out plenty of these (less easy to identify too as these may have been exclusively marketed by some other Zeiss subsidiary).

[m1tch]

I am tempted to adding a wooden handle to the screw threads and add a nice lens to it, doubt its worth much in its current condition/configuration, would be cool to know what it originally was though, I am thinking the shutter might have been changed but its odd that there aren't any other dials or controls or even a view finder on the camera body.

[IanG]

I suggested it was a microspoe or some other type of instrument camera, somewhere there's something similar in one of my older books. Leitz made one but with a dialset Compur shutter. I guess you could also use with a telescope.

Ian

[DrTang]

I'm thinking microscope or telescope camera..film in the back, tube goes over the eyepiece - shutter inbetween

[cowanw]

The front bit is a luc shutter, normally a front of lens shutter.

[IanG]

The front bit is a luc shutter, normally a front of lens shutter.

This one has a tube at the front though to mount on something.

Ian

[m1tch]

There are screwthreads all the way down the barrel but I didn't see any scratch marks for any lens being fitted like that so it could be something that would attach to a telescope etc