Still shooting, 94 years on: Ihagee Auto-Ultrix.
This is the oldest camera I currently own.
It's an Auto-Ultrix, made by Ihagee from 1931-1932 before being replaced by the Zweiformat Auto-Ultrix. I may not have the age of the thing right, but there were SO SO FUCKING MANY different Ultrixes and info on them is a bit of a chore to find. The most informative I've found was Sylvain Hagland's website, but he doesn't have this shutter model listed, so. Who fuckin' knows.
This particular model uses 120 film (Some were smaller and used 127, which is a rare film these days), takes 8 6x9 exposures per roll (later Zweiformats had 6x4.5 masks for 16 exposures per roll. This does not support that, hence the single window in the back), possesses a Carl Zeiss (apparently. it's labeled an Ihagee but they never made their own lenses afaik) Tessar f/4.5 105mm lens, and an Ihagee Zenith shutter.
The Zenith Shutter is a really rather interesting little thing. Most of it's fairly regular: Speeds from 1/25 to 1/100 plus Bulb and Zeit (Time) settings, a threaded release cable socket, nothing out of the ordinary for an early 30s shutter. The interesting thing about it is it doesn't need cocking. As seen in the picture above, all it has is a shutter release lever on the left of the shutter front. You press down on it, and the shutter fires and automatically re-cocks itself. It's a really rather interesting little thing, I'm quite fond. I've never seen anything like it before, it's really rather lovely.
The focusing and aperture adjustments are done with little metal fingernail-shredding arms around the shutter assembly, focus above and aperture below. The focus helical is exposed (which I didn't get a photo of, I am dense) so care needs to be taken to not let it get dirty or it'll damage the lens. The lens also needs to be set to infinity for the camera to fully fold up properly. Something to keep in mind.
My particular example is showing its age somewhat. Not surprising for a near-centennial, but still. They were built good back in the day. Most of the issues with it are that of clear use and age: It's been dropped at some point, the rear door is dented and hard to close, the aperture adjustment arm works, but is rather loose and wobbly, the Film winder is so seized up I didn't even realise I could pull it out to aid film loading until my second roll, the body coating is worn and flaking, and there's a tiny speck of fungus in the lens. But,
The bellows are pristine, the springs are still plenty powerful (see above, it nearly launched itself out of my weak-ass cripple grip when I opened it), aside from the fungus speck the lens is pristine, the focus is smooth despite the decades of dirt I cleaned off the exposed helical, the shutter reliably fires on all speeds, despite the back door damage it seals well, even the flimsy little red window door is intact!
Once I get home I'm going to give it a proper clean, get the rolls I've shot developed, and see if I can find anyone to take care of that little bit of fungus internally, provided I can't do it myself. Overall I'm really happy with the thing; yes it's worn, yes it's damaged, but for being nearly a century old it's stunning. I couldn't be happier.
(Masterlist)
