In the five months or so since I stopped writing, I really didn't stop writing. I've been busy adding to other parts of my site, as well as the usual stuff at work. And I've also been shooting, sometimes with the Zeiss Ikon but more often other cameras, usually a so-called classic.

I completed work on a Voigtlander Vito III and an Agfa Super Solinette. Both had been cameras that I started more than a year ago and have sat on my desk in various stages of disassembly for about 15 months. Surprisingly, both were reassembled without having any leftover screws or springs, and both work correctly.

Lately, I've felt a desire to shoot with something a bit more modern and a nicer viewfinder. That led me back to the Zeiss Ikon.

Side note: Over the summer, the U.K. publication Amateur Photographer reviewed the Zeiss and also did a real-world side-by-side test that included the Leica M7, the Voigtlander Bessa-R3A and the Zeiss Ikon. The reviewer's primary criticism of the Zeiss Ikon was that its viewfinder was too large. I think that's the first time that I've ever read that a viewfinder was too large.

In early October, I took my daughter and wife to an "Introduction to Birding" outing at the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania. They own a very large piece of land in Indiana Township, and it's heavily wooded with small hiking trails.

It's quite beautiful this time of year. We went on consecutive weekends. The first week I brought the Zeiss Ikon, and the second weekend I took a Rolleiflex SL 35 E with three lenses (35, 50 and 135).

Out in the field, literally, the Zeiss Ikon was a joy to use. I was shooting on auto but dialing in exposure compensation as needed. Focusing was a breeze, and eye placement long ago became a non-issue. The shutter went un-noticed for the most part. The Rolleiflex, on the other hand, spooked some birds at certain points.

I was shooting Sensia 200, and the film is somewhere between the local shop and the processor.

In the meantime, I've been shooting the Zeiss Ikon off and on this summer. I took it on a camping trip to North Carolina and then shot around town a bit with some Kodak infrared film, after I picked up some 43mm and 46mm red filters.

I think it's time to pick up some backup batteries, just in case.

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I've been shooting again with my Contax IIa (and a number of other cameras). Getting back photos from that camera always reminds me how great the lenses were for that period and how great they still are today.

It really makes me want to pick up the f/1.5 C-Sonnar for the Zeiss Ikon. I have a couple of Super Ikonta C cameras that I'll probably restore and then sell to pay for the C-Sonnar.

I guess that I'll need a lot of Super Ikonta C cameras for that ZM 85mm Sonnar.

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The rangefinder continues to be problem-free since being repaired. One thing that often trips me up is that it sometimes seems that it's miscalibrated. But then when I'm in town and I'm able to focus on a truly distant object, I can see that it's fine. An object that is a quarter mile away simply isn't far enough from the camera, it seems.