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In 1930 the various German camera manufacturers were, in general, making roll film cameras (apart from box cameras) to a design that had evolved from folding plate cameras. A film holder at the back, a bellows in between and a lens/shutter unit at the front. They folded into a more compact size for carrying and, like today's motor cars, it would have been difficult to identify the maker at first glance as they all looked very similar.
The Kolibri 523/18 was one of the first cameras designed to use the 16-exposure 3x4cm. picture size on 127 roll film and was manufactured in Dresden by Zeiss Ikon A.G. from 1930 until 1935. This is a very compact little camera with quite an original shape and appearance. It has a metal body covered in nicely grained leather. 'Kolibri' is embossed in the leather on the front with a Zeiss Ikon logo embossed in the back of the camera and the back of its case. When holding it in your hand it feels very solid as it weighs 480 grams.
Because it did not have a bellows the Kolibri looked quite different to the many folding roll film cameras of the time.
It is described by the National Media Museum in Bradford UK as “a high-quality pocket camera advertised as 'the new all year round camera, no opening for use, simply draw out the lens in its focusing mount'.”
Instead of a bellows the lens and shutter are mounted on a tube that springs out into position with a slight turn of the mount. To remind you to do just that, the focusing scale is partly obscured behind a metal strip when the tube is pushed in.
While it was made to be a simple to use camera it is quite capable of making excellent pictures, especially as you could purchase one fitted with a Zeiss Tessar 5cm. f3.5 lens in the new rim set Compur shutter. A cheaper model was also offered, it came with a Zeiss Novar 5cm. F4.5 lens in a Telma shutter. As was typical of the many other 1930s Zeiss cameras other variations of these lens/shutter combinations later became available: Novar f3.5 in Telma, Tessar f2.8 in Compur and the rare Biotar f2 in Compur. I have seen a Zeiss instruction book (C2410a in English) that illustrates a Kolibri with a Novar f6.3 lens but I have not seen that lens listed in any printed reference nor any other picture of it.
There is a flip-up two-piece optical viewfinder on one end of the camera that shows a small but bright image. When the camera is held with the viewfinder on top the pictures will be horizontal. The helical focusing is scaled to 3' 6'' and closer focusing was possible by using one of the two Proxar supplementary lenses that were supplied with the camera. With a Proxar 1 focus was from 3' 5'' to 1' 8'' and with a Proxar 2 from 1' 8'' to 1' 2''. The instruction book provided these helpful instructions for framing your subject to allow for viewfinder parallax: When using a Proxar Lens 1 incline the camera slightly so that the centre of the object to be photographed lies about half way between the centre and the lower edge of the view finder. With a Proxar 2 the centre of the object to be photographed should appear almost on the level of the lower edge of the view finder frame.
127 roll film had been manufactured since 1912 and the backing paper in 1930 was still only numbered for 8 exposures 4x6.5cm, so Zeiss had to make the Kolibri with two red windows in the back of the camera. Each 8-exposure frame number is wound to appear twice: first in the bottom window and then in the top window. While frame numbers for 12 exposure 4x4cm. pictures were added later, 127 film was never numbered for 16 exposures.
When using slow shutter speeds, or for time exposures, you would probably use the supplied screw-in strut (strut is the word used in the instruction book, not foot as it is often called). When attached to the focus mount the camera will stand in the upright position. For taking vertical pictures you could stand the camera on its side or use the tripod bush.
The Kolibri came with a fitted velvet-lined 'clamshell' case in either brown or black leather. The case lid held the two Proxars and a cable release, they fitted snugly in place behind two leather snap covers. The screw-in strut is screwed into its own small section of the case but over the years many of them have been lost; cameras seen for sale now often do not come with the strut, or even the case.
In 1930-32 other rigid-bodied cameras for the 3x4cm. size were made in Germany:
the Wirgin Gewirette, Ihagee Parvola, Nagel Pupille and Mentor Dreivier are four,
but I think the Kolibri has the most style!
Footnotes:
Kolibri is the German word for Hummingbird.
A 1931 advertisement in France used the French word for Hummingbird: Colibri.
Some bodies were made without a lens or shutter for use as microscope cameras.
Text and photographs ©2018 Geoff Harrisson
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