To read/see about the collection of Nikkor 1.2/55mm. here
Since the first camera Nico has hold in his hands, a Kodak Brownie owned by his grandmother, he started to collect cameras and lenses.
That old Brownie (see above) is still an important member of his collection.
The two box cameras - pictured above - are Kodak cameras for 120 film. The first Hawk-Eye Camera was made by Blair Camera Co. from 1913, continued by Kodak Camera Co. Above left a No. 2 Cartridge Hawk-Eye Camera made in Great-Britain by Kodak Ltd. around 1926 (production period 1924-1934), owned by Nico's Dutch grandfather. The camera on the right is a No. 2 Brownie Model F (around 1910) made by Canadian Kodak Co. Ltd. (Toronto), owned by his grandmother.
The first camera Nico owned was a (second hand) Ilford Sportsman L, build around 1960 by Dacora Kamerawerk, Reutlingen, Germany,
followed by a
Yashica Rookie,
a (second hand too - around 1956) TLR camera with a Yashinon 3,5/80mm. to be used with 120 film. Nowadays a rather rare camera.
In 1967 Zeiss-Ikon announced the so called ´Golden Program´ including the Icarex camera system. It was a 35mm. system camera with interchangeable lenses and viewfinders (with and without TTL-mtering). In 1969 two models were introduced, one with a bayonet mount (BM - see above) and one with a 42 mm. thread mount (TM). The CdS-meter is coupled with stop-down metering. Excellent but rather slow Carl-Zeiss lenses with focal lengths from 25 - 400 mm. and various macro accessories were introduced. Both cameras were available in black and chrome. Some of them had an additional engraving (PRO) on the left front. A free pint of beer for those that can explain why!
One of the three standard lenses that could be ordered is the pictured Carl Zeiss Ultron 1.8/50 mm. It has a very rare optical Gaussian design, having a concave front element! The two others (Tessar and Color-Pantar) are simple triplets with a maximum aperture of f/2.8.
In the early 1970´s Zeiss-Ikon could not compete with the innovative Japanese camera manufacturers and it lost the race in the computer business from IBM and went broke. Both names Zeiss-Ikon and Voigtländer are now owned by companies that try to keep up the fading reputation of the brands.
The Icarex collection was sold and a Canon AE-1 (the world's first SLR with built-in CPU) entered the camera bag of Nico van Dijk. After Canon changed its lens mount (for the second time!) Nikon was chosen as THE camera system. The first camera was a Nikon FM, followed by the FM2, F3, F4, F70, D1, D1X, etc., etc. Nowadays there are over 20 cameras and more than 40 lenses in use. For each occasion a camera-lens combination is chosen and often it´s a film SLR. Lenses of focal lengths from 18 - 300 mm. are used frequently.
Favorite FM2/T with a Nikkor 1.2/55mm.
A little youth trauma has made one particular Nikkor lens his favorite. When working with an Icarex fitted with a Tessar 2.8-50mm. Nico met a fellow news photographer, working with a Nikon F fitted with a Nikkor-S 1.2-55mm. That impressive piece of glass was hard to forget. So Nico said to himself: "as soon as I have the money I´ll buy that lens". Nowadays he has over 30 examples of that particular lens in his collection. All varieties and versions, caps, boxes and hoods. Look here what he has to tell about that lens.
For certain (photographic) assignments other brands have to be used. A long time friend is a Hasselblad 500 C/M with several lenses and rings. Hasselblad slides are very difficult to beat. To do some unobserved work a Contax G1 fitted with a Biogon 28mm. is used, or a whispering Leica M4, since Nico was kicked out of church when imaging a wedding with a motorized Nikon F2.
Contax G1 with - probably - one of the best 28mm.-lenses in the world
Favorite 35mm.film cameras: Nikon F3/T, Nikon FM2/T, Leica M4 & Contax G1
Very rare binocular of C.F. Foth & Co. Danzig (branch of Foth & Co. Berlin)