Quality Personified : The Zeiss Ikon Icarette

rick_drawbridge · July 1, 2017

One of the oldest cameras in my possession is also one of the loveliest. It's the Zeiss Ikon Icarette, from around 1927.

Zeiss Ikon Icarette

The Icarette was originally designed and manufactured by Internationale Camera A.G. (ICA) in Dresden in the early 1920's. In 1926 ICA , in association with Ernemann, Contessa-Nettle and Goerz, formed what became Zeiss-Ikon, and the Icarette was kept in production until about 1934. It's a very solid metal camera clad in a fine leatherette, and it's a testimony to the quality of construction and components that this camera, almost a century old, is still in excellent cosmetic and working condition. I believe this example to be an Icarette I; the slightly later Icarette II had a removable back enabling the use of a plate holder. Here's a proper portrait of the Icarette.

Icarette

The Icarette takes photographs in the 6cm x 9cm format on 120 rollfilm. A variety of lenses and shutters were available, and this example is probably the top-of-the line model with a 105mm f/4.5 Tessar lens and a Compur shutter with speeds of T,B and 1-1/250th. The camera features a limited amount of rising front, a "brilliant" mirror viewfinder and a wire frame and peephole viewfinder, called the Iconometer. Most of the sample images I'll post were framed in the Iconometer and I found it surprisingly accurate; the "brilliant" viewfinder is really anything but, as it's very small and almost useless in bright light. It does, however, fold up in a really ingenious fashion when the camera closes. Focusing is by a quadrant on the tray that moves the front standard to and fro, true unit focusing. Here's a close-up of the front.

Front

Note the chrome knob at top left that winds the lens and shutter assembly up and down for perspective correction, and the little ivory plate on the tray at bottom left that has the engraved distance scale and pointer. Setting the Compur shutter is quite a procedure; T,B or I (instant) has to be selected on the dial at 9.0 o'clock, the speed selected on the dial at 12.0 o'clock, the shutter cocked with the lever at 3.0 o'clock, and tripped by the lever at 7.0 o'clock. Pinching together the two upright chrome knobs below the shutter releases the standard, allowing it to slide on it's rails for folding or unfolding. Used handheld, the camera requires two totally different grips for landscape or portrait formats, and it can all turn into something of a juggling act.

I ran three rolls of film, either Ilford HP5 Plus or Arista EDU 100, and gradually began to feel at home with the Icarette. It's very light and easy to carry; I've recently been doing some work with a Kodak Medallion, a solid 6x9 camera, and the Icarette weighs less than half the weight for the same format. The lens is astonishingly good for it's age, though the lack of coatings limits it's use against bright skies and high-contrast subjects. Landscapes under subdued sunlight seems to suit it best. The samples I'll post were developed in PMK Pyro and scanned on an Epson V700 Photo using Silverfast SE software.

Yard