Zeiss Nettar 515/2

Zeiss made many cameras under de Nettar name, with various choices of formats, lenses and shutters.

Like all Zeiss cameras, this one is very well made, with a black enameled body and a nice leatherette finish. 

Zeiss Nettar 515/2

Compur Shutter and Nettar Anastigmat

The one I have is a prewar 6x9 with a Nettar Anastigmat and a Compur shutter. It uses 120 film and gives 8 beautiful and large frames. The last Nettars were made in 1955.

The lens, a 105mm f4.5 uncoated triplet is quite simple, with the expected optical aberrations for this kind of lens, especially at large apertures and at the corners, but it can be sharp enough if stopped down to f11. Keep in mind that this lens is uncoated and very prone to flare without using a suitable lens hood. This lens works beautifully with a black and white film.

Nettars have many shutter flavors: Compur, Prontor, Pronto, Vario, Prontor-S, Prontor-SV, Prontor-SVS, Klio, Telma, Derval and Vero. Yes, is this crazy. There are at least 12 Nettar types: 510, 510/2, 515, 515/2, 516, 516/2, 517/2, 518/2, 515/16, 516/16, 517/16, 518/16

My 515/2 has a nice Compur with 1s to 1/250s + B and is supposed to by one of the "high end" Nettars along with the top model with the Compur-Rapid (1/500s) and a f3.5 Nettar Anastigmat.

There's no rangefinder, just a barebones foldable viewfinder (open type, Galilean) for framing.