helimat
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Desmolicious wrote:
And back it goes...
First roll of film had uneven frame spacing, but perhaps more worryingly, a couple of times the shutter wasn't cocked/activated even though I gave the film advance lever the full throw as I always do. It required a second slight increase of pressure to activate the shutter (it is electronic and the vf exposure leds don't light until it is properly cycled).
I first chalked this down to possible user error, but I think at this time of my life I know how to work the film advance lever on a camera.
2nd roll - and this one was pretty much to test the camera more thoroughly instead of assuming it was fine because it was in perfect cosmetic condition - this time it malfunctioned consistently every 4th shot.
Interestingly with no film in it, it works just fine, so obviously the additional load/tension of having to move film through the camera upset things. But that's why we buy cameras, no?
More interestingly (that's good grammar dammit!) I had a Voigtlander Bessa L that brand new out of the box had film transport failure. The replacement has been fine, but I have been distinctly gentle with it. Eyeballing the inners of the ZM, it looks remarkably much like that $90 brand new Bessa L. I'm not saying it's exactly the same, but I'm pretty sure an awful lot of those dainty plastic gears are shared by Cosina.
It is interesting to now go back and compare it to a Leica M. My impressions - and I'm sure others have a different opinion - is that this is a cute cheap camera that is built for part time wanna be Leica shooters, who didn't really have much interest in (or weren't able to) pony up the frankly breathtaking prices for a Leica M. But cheap being relative, because this is still a $1500 + camera.
And yet, when you hold it and feel that lighter build - which has been excused as a design choice by intentionally using lighter weight metals - and feel that lighter and less precise film advance, it seems to me that that impression is very real. It isn't deceptive, this thing is not built to a Leica standard. Or a Nikon standard. My old Nikon S2 rf camera shades this Zeiss in build quality and use. There is zero impression that it can be broken by anything but kid glove use.
In testing the RF accuracy (which by the way was great), I switched between several lenses - Zeiss 50 Planar, 50 Sonnar, CV 50 2.5, Rollei 40 2.8, 7A 50 1.1. Every one of them were not tight when mounted. They went on a little too easily, and there was a little play after they were locked on.
On any of my Ms, all these lenses went on much more firmly, and had zero play when locked. It gives, again, a much higher quality impression. Once the lenses lock on, the camera/lens interface feels a solid unit.
So I'm going to update my view on the Zeiss Ikon ZM.
It is a cheaper RF camera, with a poorly implemented RF mechanism, that has very hard to see exposure LEDs, with a poorly placed AE lock and fragile build quality.
Perhaps mine was a lemon. Perhaps. But all that eliminates from the above is the film transport issue. Now that I have experienced that twice with Cosina products, I'm not so sure.
...Show more →
I didn't want to s**t on your new purchase, but now that you have come to the same realization that I did, I can say that I had looked at the ZM for a long time before picking up the M6. At the time, they were going for about $700-$800, had a longer rangefinder base, purportedly better viewfinder, and aperture priority so seemed like a great option over the Leica. However, so many came up with shutter issues, spacing issues, etc and combined with the lack of service options led me to the M6.
Long story short, I really, really wanted to like it. Deep down, I'm a Zeissaholic... But I'm glad I held out & did my due diligence. Which is not typically my modus operandi at all..... 
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