1935 Voigtlander Inos II 6x9 Folder, CLA’d, Freshly Serviced!

Cleaned, Lubricated & Adjusted. Ready for immediate use!

This is a rather hard to find Voigtlander Inos II 6x9 medium format folder. It was built in circa 1935 and uses 120 roll film. It’s very popular with owners, users and collectors and few are willing to give them up and it’s easy to see why. It is certainly one of the prettiest and most unusual 6x9 cameras ever built. I absolutely love its 1930’s Science Fiction, Flash Gordon look. It’s covered with very attractive knobs and buttons and a complex looking depth of field chart.

An especially nice touch are the three knobs which look like the electrical insulators from a 1930’s Frankenstein film. These ribbed knobs lift up and lock, allowing easy access to the film spools. The two pierced dials used to focus the camera and advance the film are nice too. They have a fine gripable texture while at the same time providing the camera with a unique look. It's a look that was rather fashionable at a time when Zeppelins and aircraft design were at the cutting edge of technology and that technology was obsessed with losing weight and mass with lightening holes and grooves. Like the closely related prewar Voigtlander Prominent, one of the wheels is for advancing the film and the other, interestingly enough, is for focusing. This leads us right into the Inos’s strongest point. In a period when most folding cameras focused the image by using “front cell focusing” in which the first lens element is screwed in and out, the Inos took a different approach. Its lens and shutter moved back and forth as a unit. This improved optical performance quite a bit, especially when working up close. As a result, in the 1930’s when many 6x9 cameras could only close focus to 2 meters, the Inos beat them all by focusing down to a meter. This is pretty impressive for a 105 mm lens and it does make a difference when shooting portraits. But not satisfied with that, Voigtlander also arranged things in such a way that you can even focus the camera when it is closed. The focus can be preset whenever desired and when the camera is opened, the lens automatically slides out of the body to the correct focus, allowing you as a photographer to concentrate on finding the right composition and the decisive moment. Used properly, a shot could be taken within seconds of unfolding the Inos, combining its relatively compact size with speed.

This Inos II is in fine condition. The real leather covering is in great shape. The bellows which are a bit wrinkled with age are soft, supple and completely light tight. Additionally this camera has been carefully cleaned, lubricated and adjusted. The quality Compur shutter works as it should. The slow speeds buzz along very smoothly and the fast speeds are clean and snappy. All speeds (T,B & 1 sec - 1/250th) are appropriate.

The lens is a 4.5/105mm Skopar, (a top quality four element lens similar in design and performance as the Zeiss Tessar). The glass looks virtually like new. There are no separated elements, crystallization or other problems. There are no scratches or polishing marks and it’s capable of producing lovely photos with modern color and B&W films.

It comes complete with a used brown leather case.

All in all, it’s a wonderful gem of a camera. A perfect addition to your collection and a perfect companion in the hunt for that perfect photo. You know the one… the one with the Ansel Adams light breaking through the dark storm clouds that leaves you wishing you had a classic camera with you.

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