Zeiss Ikon Cocarette - making light tight

A follow-up to my Ensign Ful-Vue experiment a while back - this is another old

camera I have owned for years and used solely as a living room ornament. I

assumed until recently that it was beyond salvaging but... perhaps not.

 

Its red window is loose and would need to be taped or otherwise reattached; but

its biggest problem is that the circular cover at the back, which could be

removed to clean the lens apparatus, is gone. So there's a big 2" hole in the

back of the camera. Is it possible to cover this in a way that would make the

camera usable? All I can think of is some sort of hamfisted plastic/cloth/tape

combination. Any advice out there? I'd love to have a working Zeiss camera,

even if it struggles a bit :)

 

I found this page, which shows the back cover in the 2nd row of photos:

http://galactinus.net/vilva/retro/cocarette.html

Nice color images, they look a lot like pre-WW2 Agfachrome. What film did you use?

Ha! I'd love to think I could make such nice images with this camera, Bill, but I can't take the credit - that's just a site I found via Google that had good pictures of the type of camera (showing the back cover etc.).

..and my version is in waaaaaay less good condition than the one on that site, having sat on my mantlepiece for years gathering dust. Even if I can re-cover the back, it's going to need serious cleaning.

It seems like your first idea would be ok as a way to find out how well the camera might perform, assuming you can clean up the lens and shutter. For covering the hole, I think I might try some Walmart foamy material and electrical tape. Looks like a fun camera to shoot, and there aren't many Zeiss cameras that give less than excellent results.

wow,a Cocarette with the supporting pin still in tact, behold, they are very rare. Mr. Naylor, if you see this, check out the link. At any rate, I posted something on the Cocarette a couple of months back, it's a fun camera, but on mine the bellows is leaking late, and have been too lazy to close it up. Check it out.

 

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00KGar

My Cocarette has the supporting leg in place - shame about the missing back cover. I'll give it a go with tape and stuff, I'd love to get it working. The bellows look fine, so fingers crossed the back cover's the only problem. It's a curious example, as some nutcase has painted the outside of the bellows red, looks nicely garish but very uncool from a collector's point of view. Just as well I'm not a collector!

Thanks, Ralf, for that link. Now I can die happy, having seen at last what a Cocarette leg looks like! Funny that it doesn't look all that different from many other German cameras of that era, with that characteristic tripod shape, yet so many of them have fallen off.

 

Arfur, it seems your camera has gone against the usual trend and kept its leg, but lost the porthole. Seeing as somebody's already modified it with the red bellows paint job, I reckon some black duct tape over the orifice wouldn't look too additionally weird. At least you'll be able to use it, and that's the main thing. I'd like to hear how you get on inserting the film, because it appears to be a job for somebody with three hands.

OK, my camera back now has a unique gaffer tape and foam attachment. It's not going to win any beauty contests but if it works, I'll be delighted.

 

Next question. How do I focus this thing? The front element slides out on a rail, and there's a small thumb-operated switch at the right-hand side of the rail marked off with distances from infinity. This advances the element on the rail incrementally. BUT - there's no click anywhere to tell me where the front element should be *before* you use the focusing switch. I was going to assume it should be lined up with the end of the camera door (i.e. the focusing swtich then moves the rail slightly past the end of the door). Any guesses? I've searched this forum and elsewhere, found a few people similarly puzzled but no definite answer. Also heard something about using a plain piece of glass to find the infinity focus, but this went clear over my head. All advice appreciated.

Hi, Arfur Regarding focussing, if your Cocarette is one of the simpler versions like mine (f6.3 lens, 3-speed Derval dial shutter) then you might be looking for something that isn't there. The lens doesn't focus - all you do is hit that little lever gizmo to release the focus lock, and move the lens/shutter assembly forward on the tramtracks to the appropriate slot. Mine just has "Infinity - 15 - 10 - 6", so you only got four slots to worry about.

 

So it has THREE shutter speeds, FOUR focussing positions, and SIX aperture settings, but no partridge in a pear tree..........

 

Then again, yours could be one of the more sophisticated versions. Both Contessa-Nettel and Zeiss-Ikon made umpteen variations on a theme for these Cocarettes, so maybe you need to post a close-up pic of the focussing setup if my previous comments don't apply, mate!

Peter, I think from the description my version is a slightly different, there don't seem to be any slots on the tram track. There's a small sliding scale marked from infinity to 1.5 which advances the front element but, there's no click or mark to show where the front element should start off. Will try and post a pic.<div></div>

The issue with the above is that you can manually move the front back and forth to wherever you want *before* you use the thumb scale pictured to adjust it further. Thus, where's it meant to be at the beginning, for infinity to be in focus?

 

Actually, I may have worked out what people were talking about re: using a flat piece of ground glass to find the infinity point. If you take the back off your folding camera and tape a piece of opaque wax paper (or ground glass) across the back - or in my case across the open porthole - you can see what the lens sees, reflected upside down on the paper more or less as it'll be shot onto the film. I believe the theory is that you fiddle about with the front element until a distant point or the horizon line is in focus, and that represents your infinity point. I then marked this point on the tramlines with a pencil. There looks to be a small hole in the tram track floor about there, where perhaps some kind of stopping pin used to be.

Hi, Arfur Thanks for the pic - and here's mine FWIW, as the Bishop Said To The Actress reputedly. No doubt about it - yours is a totally differently styled model, with the focussing plumbing on t'other side.

 

I don't think the name change aspect is all that relevant though, with mine being the earlier Contessa-Nettel variety compared to your later Zeiss-Ikon one. I've seen pics before of Z-I models that looked identical to mine. Clearly this was a money-spinner for C-N in all its various guises, which Z-I continued on with post 1926.

 

I hope you note just how nice mine looks, condition-wise, but how it only sits up and begs courtesy of the AGFA reel film .........curse you Cocarette owners still with legs in situ!<div></div>

Now, just to make you even more jealous - here's a close up of the porthole coverplate. Ok, so it's embossed "Contessa-Nettel" whereas yours would presumably read "Zeiss-Ikon", but I reckon they'd be interchangeable.

 

(Sigh) OK, so who's got a spare Cocarette leg looking for a new home Down-Under?<div></div>

For a laugh, here's the homemade version. Timeless elegance, no?<div></div>

Ten out of ten for ingenuity, Arfur!