The Zeiss Ikon Box Tengor is often hailed online as the best box camera ever made. The reviews are effusive. The praise is consistent. I went into this expecting to be impressed.
I was not.
This article is an honest report on shooting with the Box Tengor 56/2 (the late-production version from around 1956) for an afternoon in the Johannesburg Botanical Gardens. The findings: it is a fine box camera, broadly comparable to other box cameras I have tried, but not the transcendent experience the online reputation suggests. The reputation may be deserved for earlier models or for cameras in better condition than mine. For my specific copy, on a single afternoon: it was OK.
Caveats up front, because I want to be fair about the limits of this assessment.
The caveats
I owe these to the reader before going further.
1. The lenses inside are dirty. Box Tengors with the close-focusing feature have additional lens elements that swing into position for the closer focus ranges. On mine, these elements have visible muck (probably fungus, possibly old dirt). A camera service would help. I have not done one.
2. No tripod. Box cameras have slow shutter speeds (the Box Tengor 56/2 is around 1/30th or 1/50th (sources disagree and I cannot confirm which) at those speeds, handheld camera shake is genuinely difficult to avoid, especially without a viewfinder you press against your face. A tripod would have made a meaningful difference.
3. First-time use of this specific camera. I have used other box cameras (Kodak Brownies, the Foth Synchro) but each box camera is its own beast. A second outing with this Tengor might give very different results.
4. It is old. Box Tengor production ran from 1924 to 1958. Mine is from near the end (1956), but it has still had nearly seventy years to develop subtle problems I might not have spotted.
With those caveats acknowledged: here is what happened.
What it is
The Box Tengor has an interesting genealogy worth understanding.
1924: the original Box Tengor was made by Goerz, one of the major German optical manufacturers of the era.
1926: a famous merger combined four German camera makers (Goerz, Ernemann, Contessa-Nettel, and ICA, the makers of the Ideal camera whose lens I rescued for my first large format hack) into a single company: Zeiss Ikon. The Box Tengor came along as part of the Goerz heritage and was rebranded as the Zeiss Ikon Box Tengor.
1926-1958: continuous production under the Zeiss Ikon name, with various model updates and refinements over the years.
The 56/2 model I have is from very near the end of this run, around 1956. So in vintage camera terms it is not actually that old. Younger than many of the medium format SLRs I have reviewed. It is a late-production refinement of a long-running design.
What it does
Simple, as box cameras are.
One-action shutter: cock and fire in a single motion. There is an interlock with the wind-on so you cannot double expose. Shutter speed is around 1/30th to 1/50th (one of those, depending on which source you trust).
Three apertures: f/9, f/11, f/16. No iris diaphragm: these are achieved with Waterhouse stops, small plates with circular holes that slide into position behind the lens.
Three focus zones: infinity to 20 (the markings say 20, presumably metres), 6-20 metres, and 3-6 metres. The closer focus zones are achieved by sliding additional lens elements into position behind the main taking lens. These are the elements that are dirty on my camera.
6x9 frames on 120 film: which gives you 8 exposures per roll. Big negatives, low frame count.
No viewfinder you press to your face: standard box camera waist-level brilliant finder, which lets you compose but does not let you stabilise the camera against your body.
That is the whole camera. Box cameras are not complicated.
![PLACEHOLDER: the Zeiss Ikon Box Tengor 56/2 from the side, showing the simple form factor and the shutter button on the front]
The Johannesburg trip
A note on context. This article comes from one of several trips I made to Johannesburg in 2023 for work. The trips gave me the rare opportunity to shoot in a completely different photographic environment from my usual West Country territory. I always have a route around the local marketplaces and camera shops when I travel.
The South African vintage camera market is sparse. Less variety than the UK or Europe, and what is around is surprisingly expensive (even with the favourable exchange rate at the time). I picked up a Moskva (which needs work, will be a project when I get home), a Kodak Vollenda 620 folder (I already have one but this was cheap), and the Box Tengor.
The Tengor was the one I was excited about.
The shoot
I went to the Johannesburg Botanical Gardens for an afternoon, with the Box Tengor and a roll of Ilford FP4 Plus loaded.
Loading a box camera is its own small adventure. You feed the leader, roll a turn or two, close the back, then advance through the paper backing while watching the red window: first arrows appear, then dots, then numbers. The first frame is at “1.” Standard 120 loading for a 6x9 frame, which gives 8 exposures.
The light was bright. The Tengor’s slowest aperture is f/16, and even at f/16 and 1/30th (assuming that is the actual shutter speed) on FP4 Plus 125, a sunny day puts you over-exposed. I tried to find shade where I could, but some frames were going to be brighter than ideal.
I tried for variety: tree-shadow compositions to play with the shapes, some attempts at boats on the reservoir, some compositions through the trees rather than the wide landscape views you might expect with a 6x9 frame. I tried to use the close-focus lenses for some of the abstract tree work, knowing they were dirty but curious how they would render.
Half a roll of black and white through it, mostly compositions I thought might suit the camera’s strengths.
![PLACEHOLDER: a Box Tengor frame from the Botanical Gardens, showing tree shadows and what the f/16 1/30th combination produces in bright South African afternoon light]
What the negatives showed
More than half of the frames were poor. Various combinations of:
- Motion blur from handheld shooting at slow shutter speeds
- Soft focus from the dirty close-focus lenses when I had used them
- Over-exposure from the bright conditions exceeding the camera’s exposure range
The sharp frames were sharp. The 6x9 frame on FP4 produces lovely big negatives when everything aligns, and the Tengor’s main taking lens (without the close-focus elements) is genuinely decent. The compositions I had shot at infinity focus with proper bright-but-shaded light came out properly.
But the keepers were maybe 30% of the roll. For a camera with a reputation as the best box camera, I expected a higher hit rate than that.
How it compares to other box cameras
This is the bit that matters for the verdict.
Kodak Brownies (various models from the early 20th century, which I have used a few of): broadly similar. Simple shutter, fixed-ish focus, simple exposure controls. Hit rate roughly comparable to the Tengor.
Foth Synchro: also similar. Slightly different feature set but similar limitations of slow shutter speed and small aperture range.
The Kodak Brownie 2A I converted to 120 film for the Thornbury Men’s Shed shoot: different beast because of the 6x11 panoramic conversion, but the underlying camera is comparable in capabilities.
In each case, the cameras have similar strengths (simple operation, big negatives, the charm of the format) and similar limitations (handheld shake at slow shutters, narrow exposure range, soft focus on the bargain ones).
The Box Tengor is in the same group. Not Head and Shoulders Above. Not in a different league. Just another box camera that does what box cameras do.
It joins the others on the shelf.
Why the reputation
I have a theory about why the Box Tengor’s reputation is higher than my experience justifies.
The Box Tengor was the premium box camera of its era. Zeiss Ikon made it as a quality product, marketed at customers who wanted something better than the cheap Brownie equivalents. In good condition, with the close-focus lenses clean, it probably is meaningfully better than the budget box cameras of the same era.
My copy is not in good condition. The dirty close-focus elements are not part of the design. They are an accumulation of seventy years of neglect. A serviced, cleaned Box Tengor would presumably perform considerably better than mine did.
The slow shutter speed is a limit of the design, not the condition. No service will fix that. A handheld 1/30th will always be a handheld 1/30th.
So the reputation is probably accurate for well-maintained examples. My disappointment is probably with this specific copy more than with the model.
What I would do differently
If I were to give the Box Tengor a second real try:
- Service the camera first, particularly cleaning the close-focus lens elements
- Use a tripod to handle the slow shutter speed properly
- Pick lighting that suits the limited f/9-f/16 aperture range (so not full sun on a bright day)
- Shoot at infinity focus to avoid the dirty close-focus elements
- Use slower film to handle the bright conditions
This is more or less the same advice that applies to most box cameras. The Tengor is not uniquely problematic, it just is what it is.
Verdict
A fine box camera with a slightly inflated reputation, at least in my experience with my specific example.
Buy it if:
- You want a 6x9 format box camera with the Zeiss Ikon brand prestige
- You can find one in good condition or are happy to service it
- You enjoy box camera shooting generally and want a quality example
- You will use it on a tripod (or accept the motion blur limitations)
Skip it if:
- You are expecting transcendent box camera performance based on the online reputation
- You only want one box camera and want it to be the best (the Kodak Brownie family does not get worse results than the Tengor in my experience)
- The fungus or dirt on a typical used example would frustrate you
- You want a camera you can shoot handheld in any conditions
The Box Tengor is fine. I expected more. That is on me, partly, and partly on the camera, partly on its condition.
If you have one and love it, I am genuinely glad. The condition of mine and the limits of one afternoon are real constraints on my opinion, and a better example with a tripod might change my view considerably. Comments below if you have shot one and have a different experience.
A note on what is next
The Box Tengor will go on the shelf with the other box cameras. Future use uncertain. If I do another box camera shoot specifically to test these properly with tripod and good light, I might revisit. For now: it is what it is.
Bigger plans coming up include some failed-but-interesting attempts at wildlife on a 4x5 view camera (spoiler: more on that in the next article) and some large format work from the same Johannesburg trip. South Africa was good for trying things that would not have worked at home.