Icarex

The Icarex 35 was a 35mm SLR made by the German company Zeiss Ikon at the end of the 1960s and beginning of the 1970s.

Zeiss Ikon Icarex 35S TM Pro (image by Alex Gee)

It was originally developed by Voigtländer, but was released after the fusion of Zeiss Ikon and Voigtländer in 1966. The original Icarex 35 model, or Icarex 35, had a focal plane shutter to 1/1000, a special bayonet mount, and an interchangeable finder, with the choice between a waist-level finder, a pentaprism or a metered pentaprism, marked Icarex 35 CS. The exposure meter in the pentaprism was of the through the lens type, but the exposure could only be read with the diaphragm closed. The Icarex 35 also had interchangeable finder screens.

The next model, called the Icarex 35S, was basically the same body with a fixed pentaprism and a built-in through the lens meter, still with closed diaphragm exposure reading.

The special bayonet mount and the limited range of lenses were hampering the Icarex sales, so the two models were released in a modified version accepting 42mm screw lenses. They had a TM badge to distinguish them from the bayonet versions, that remained in production with a BM badge. An Icarex with no BM or TM badge is a bayonet body made before the thread mount version was introduced.

So the range finally comprised four models:

• Icarex 35 (BM)
• Icarex 35 (TM)
• Icarex 35S (BM)
• Icarex 35S (TM)

Apparently all four were sold in chrome or black. Some black bodies had an additional PRO badge, that added nothing at all.

In 1971, the Icarex was replaced by the SL706, which is like the Icarex 35S (TM) with open aperture metering and a slightly redesigned body.

Icarex bayonet lenses

The range of lenses for the Icarex bayonet mount was quite small. Apparently they were former Voigtländer designs.

• 35/3.4 Skoparex
• 50/1.8 Ultron (concave front element)
• 50/2.8 Tessar (4 element)
• 50/2.8 Color-Pantar (3 element)
• 90/3.4 Dynarex
• 135/4 Super-Dynarex
• 200/4 Super-Dynarex
• 400/5 Telomar
• 36-82/2.8 Zoomar

The 25/4 Distagon possibly existed in Icarex bayonet mount. It did exist in the thread mount, and in Contaflex 126 mount.

There was an adaptor to mount a Carl Zeiss monocular 8x30 B.

Bibliography

• Afalter, Udo. Voigtländer Kameras & Objective. Stuttgart: Lindemanns Verlag, 2nd edition, 1998. ISBN 3-89506-137-9.
• Barringer, C. and Small, M. Zeiss Compendium East and West — 1940–1972. Small Dole, UK: Hove Books, 1999 (2nd edition). ISBN 1-874707-24-3.
• Matanle, Ivor. Collecting and Using Classic SLRs. London: Thames & Hudson, 1996. ISBN 0-500-01726-3. Pp.104–7.

Links

In English:

• Icarex repair notes at Robert Ian Axford's Camera Works
• Zeiss Ikon Icarex 35S BM at The Camera Site by Reijo Lauro

In German:

• Icarex 35 — die tragische Gestalt der Zeiss-Ikon-Werke, an article in Frank Mechelhoff's camera website

In Japanese:

• Icarex and SL706 at Voigtländer Office Heliar

In French:

• On www.collection-appareils.com by Sylvain Halgand
  • Zeiss Ikon Icarex 35 (10.2200)
  • Zeiss Ikon Icarex 35 cs (10.2300)
  • Zeiss Ikon Icarex 35 cs Pro (10.2300)
  • Zeiss Ikon Icarex 35 S (10.3300)
  • Zeiss Ikon Icarex 35 S BM
  • Zeiss Ikon Icarex 35 S BM
  • Zeiss Ikon Icarex 35 TM (10.3500)
  • Zeiss Ikon Icarex 35S TM
  • Zeiss Ikon Icarex 35S TM Pro