A medium format pocketable folding camera
A 6×6 camera that easily fits into you pocket? Then the 1950’s Carl Zeiss Nettar is one of the camera’s you might consider. This German made camera has tons of quality and character as well as limitations. My reviews are not objective nor complete. They represent my personal experience with equipment and as such may completely differ from your own experience. That’s ok!
The facts
I have owned two version of ths camera. The oldest is a postwar type 515/16 with aviewfinder consisting of two folding frames with lenses and a 1949 518/16 IIb with pronto shutter, integrated viewfinde and a double exposure prevention mechanism. Both came with the Novar-Anastigmat 1:4,5 f=7,5cm lens. The size is about 135x78x45 mm and the wieght is about 0,5 kilo.
| film format | 120 (6×6) |
| Shutter speed | B, 1/25, 1/50, 1/100, 1/200 |
| Aperture | 4.5-22 (no clicks) |
| ISO | film speed |
| film transport | knob |
| frame counter | window (film back) |
The pro’s
The main reasons I bought this camera are (1) the medium format which offers so much more in size and detail than the 135 format and (2) the fact that this camera will easily fit in any pocket: it is super portable. Most 6×6 camera’s are rather bulky up to gigantic like the nFuji GX680. But this Nettar is well build but nit too heavy and when folded, very compact.
The handling is also ok for me. Everything is manual. You need yto cock the shutter, set the aperture, set the distance and advance the firm manually with a knob while lookinng through the red windows in the back. The newer versions have double exposure protection which is nice. I did get some double exposures with the older version which can sometimes be a nuisance or even a disater if you just ruined your best shot ever! The way aroiun d this is to devolp a shooting routine where you always advance the fila right after taking a picture. I do this with all camera’s. It is better to end up with one blank, unexposed frame because you advanced two times, then to end up with a ruined photo due to an unintenede double exposure.
A nice feature is that this camera can be positioned level when unfolded. The lens platform is flat with the body and this offers a very stable support platform. I like that.
Also, that old style frame counter window on the back, the one with the red stained glass, is one of my favorites: if you use many camera’s like I do you often don’t know which one is loaded, and which one is not. Just open the slide on the back frame counter window and you will see insgtantly if a film is loaded. Great feature.
The cons
A thing that I found out is that the lens is not as good as I would have liked. The center is quite sharp when stopped down, but the corners will alwayts be soft. Often too soft to my likings. This of couse depend on the subject and artistic intentions but in many cases I like at least to be able to get really sharp images.
One of the main functional con is the lack of a rangefinder. So you have to use the ‘zone system’ which basically is: guess the distance to the main subject and convert it to the lens. For many applications like landscape, most architecture and even street photography this is not really an issue all the time. Fort portrait and close up[ it is a huge problem.
I do not consider the lack of a light meter a real con. On older camera’s they tend to create more issues that what they add to the uaability. Film is quite forgiving so even with the “sunny 16” rule you come a long way.