Ica Icarette 1 (496)

Freshly received and cleaned this Ica Icarette 1 from around 1923-24. It's a tiny 6x6 folder, really impressive how small it is for the film size. Closed, it's shorter in length and the same width as my smartphone. I got lucky and scored a higher spec version with Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 4.5/7.5 cm and Compur shutter with top speed of 1/300. Everything is in working order, except for lagging slow shutter speeds which isn't surprising. There's a bit of haze/fungus on the edges behind the front element which I could try disassembling and cleaning... maybe I will. Anyway, this is an early version of the 496 model: it has a removable back that enables the use of 4.5×6 cm plates as well as roll film but it takes the smaller spool of 117 format rather than regular 120 which was introduced to the model later. I clipped the edges on a 120 spool, however, and it fits now (saved myself some respooling!). I hope the film will lay flat enough inside. I can't wait to shoot with this small lady.

Experience

And so, I did shoot with her rather soon. And let me tell you, it was... quirky? Absolutely lovely. But quirky. I think the most startling part for me was that this camera doesn't offer what we have in the recent decades agreed upon to be a viewfinder. I mean it does have a viewfinder. It has two. It's just an early 20th century version of it: one wireframe (sports finder, they used to call it, for speedy framing) and one brilliant. Originally, it would also have a third: a matte screen for plate work. One wouldn't be able to use it with roll film, obviously, but the option was there. Framing with the two available can only be expected to fall within reason of what you're actually seeing through them, so you have to be lax and allow error. That's fine. It's fun and adds to the unexpectedness of the results. But it is a little quirky.

Otherwise, it's a breeze to use. You focus with a pin on the bottom plate along a scale that goes from 75 cm to infinity. Btw, it's a distance of around 5mm between 8 meters and infinity on the scale, and maybe a centimeter between 4 meters and infinity, so focus accuracy clearly wasn't the main point of this camera. You then set the shutter speed dial to where you want it, cock the shutter with the larger lever and release with the smaller, and ta-da. Btw, this part was a bit non-intuitive to me, somehow, and I kept wanting to release the shutter with the larger lever, even though it's located on the left. Film winding is effortless and comes with a satisfying 'trrrt' sound of a small gear turning.

Results 

I quickly finished the roll I had put into the Icarette, and anxiously awaited some results from the lab. After a couple of less than stellar rolls from other cameras/films that I've had in the mean time, I was a bit nervous. Is it bad luck time of the year? This time, though, I was very pleasantly surprised.

The 4.5/7,5 cm Tessar performs wonderfully clean and sharp. I was able to scout down some images taken with other Icarettes and the results were... how shall I put it? Dreamy. Yes, hazy, dreamy, poetic. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but I was hoping the Icarette, with its very pocketable size, would become something of a general go-to camera for me. 'Dreamy' is more of a special effect in my book, and while useful in many situations --in many it is not. The tool dictates the use, you know, and all that.

So yeah. Having this unit perform in a manner that is pretty much transparent on the negative, meaning you can't tell a photo was taken by a camera that's almost 100 years old, ticked an important box in my book. Not that there's anything wrong with... ah, screw this. It's nice to be able to shoot with something old and get modern results. It's a nice combo, okay?

There is a bit of pleasant vignetting and somewhat of a lens fall off near the edges when the lens is open wide. I don't mind. I had a bit of a film flatness problem at some point in the roll, though. Looks like the film has curled and so the focus is all over the place. I mean, literally, it's in the weirdest places at the same time --check out the last two photos. I hope it's some rookie mistake with film loading and maybe it won't happen again.

See the photos here, shot on Ilford Delta 100, my usual fix.

Bottom line

All in all, it was very pleasant shooting with this small camera and then inspecting the large negatives that came out well exposed and perfectly sharp. This would quickly put the Icarette in my top 10 if I ever had such a list. It's a camera that's full of great things: it has a fanstastic lens, wide shutter speed selection, easy focusing mechanism, it delivers 6x6 negatives and it's really very small. I can't keep stressing  this last point enough. You think your mid 50s folding camera is 'pocket sized' but let's be honest: it's not. The Icarette is, though. Closed, it's the same size or smaller than some of my 135 folding cameras, the Retina IIa included.

That's a Kodak Retina IIa on top, Ica Icarette 1 in the middle and Agfa Isolette III on the bottom. Yeah.

Surely, some will say size does not matter but I'm not getting younger these days and smaller is better. Lol. In all seriousness, though, if I want to carry two or three cameras on me, they can't be too large or heavy or the walk/trip won't be very long.

If you get a chance to get an Icarette with good specs, that would be a no brainer to me, especially if the price is right. If it turns out too old fashioned for you to shoot with, well, then it's a beautiful piece to put on the proverbial mantle. It's designed for its looks as much as it is for performance. So either way, get yourself one.