Originally posted by nickthetasmaniac ..
I've often wondered about this. Does the ZM actually share anything with the Bessa line? Other than being made by Cosina obviously...
Well my Zeiss Ikon ZM failed and was returned to the seller (who was a complete gentleman to deal with).
On the second roll of film the shutter would not cock every 4th exposure - it required a second effort on the film winder. On the first roll it 'only' did this twice so I attributed that to user error, but this was obviously not so.
And the film suffered from uneven spacing. Online searches reveal this to be a common issue.
Eyeballing the insides, it looked remarkably similar to my Bessa L, which also suffered from film transport failure.
My takeaway is save up for the real thing - the M7. Or pay less and get an M2/3/4 etc and use a hotshoe meter if that's your thing.
My 50 yr old Ms still are rock solid in every way. And so is my Nikon S2 which completely shades the Zeiss in build and feel, and has a 100% vf. And is only about $500.
I am glad I got to try the Zeiss, it scratched that curiosity itch.