Super Ikonta B

The 6x6 Super Ikonta B is surprisingly large and heavy for a folding camera. It does however have a superb build quality and its mass helps avoid camera shake at slow shutter speed. The weight is due to an extremely strong and dimensionally stable die-cast body and it’s wrapped in fine Moroccan leather. You’d be very hard pressed to find a better built classic folder. The Super B was always more expensive than the either the Super A or the Super C.

Other than a few early examples, all Super B’s have the additional advantage of auto-stop winding. This is a sophisticated film advance mechanism that counts the exposures for you and automatically stops when you’ve wound far enough. In use this means all you have to do is take a shot, advance the film until it stops and you’re already for another one. You won’t be slowed down by the need to look for exposure numbers through a red ruby window.

Very early versions came with a 3.5/8cm (80mm) Tessar lens but most B’s had the faster 2.8/80mm Tessar lens which proved to be very popular. Interestingly, some Super B’s produce 11 6x6 exposures on a single roll of film, while other B’s produce 12 exposures.