a 1927 ad for the ICA line of cameras
Toronto. The late Larry Gubas, once president of the Zeiss Historical Society, editor of its journal (Zeiss Historica), and author of a number of Zeiss historical books (including the massive Zeiss and Photography, perhaps his best publication) wrote an interesting article in issue 27-2 of our journal titled, “Pre- Zeiss Ikon Camera Design”.
The article describes the efforts by those companies to improved their products to compete in the struggling post-war German camera industry. Sadly, as Larry explained, they misunderstood what was truly needed in those pivotal years.
Larry begins his story, “In the difficult business years of the 1920s, before the Leica and Contax, the new fashion of cameras were all outgrowths of old designs but included improved materials –wood giving way to more expensive light-weight metals, and faster lenses being applied.
“In this context predecessor companies of Zeiss Ikon were innovative and hoping to be competitive. But their ideas for better design were not necessarily along the lines of ‘smaller and lighter’ but rather to incorporate a better strut or camera-body support system, a new viewfinder or a better focusing scale, (maybe in ivory).
“True, there was a bit of a rush towards focal-plane cameras, but the majority of these could not be called ‘candid cameras.’
“This article is intended to give a sampling of some of the new ‘wonders’ produced by these predecessor companies and a competitor at the moment of financial disaster when Zeiss money and business acumen came to the table to rescue the German photographic industry.
“As the above [at left in this post] advertisement shows (figure 1) Ica was, for the most part, a company making various cameras of the same sort. This February 1927 advertisement shows a great number of similar cameras with little to set one apart from the other except size and materials.
“The most modern of the bunch shown is the very snappy personal Kinamo movie camera from Emmanuel Goldberg’s design. However, even this marvellous camera was a real handful. Notice that Carl Zeiss Inc. of New York is still selling Ica cameras, but with no real mention of Zeiss Ikon which had come into existence some months before.
“Ernemann was a stand-alone organization that manufactured every part of its product itself. It had Ludwig Bertele in its lens-design department making (for 1924) an incredible speed lens that made the Ermanox camera an outstanding value for its day. The camera changed over the years from 1924 to 1930, when its manufacture ceased. There were at least three different film formats and two basic styles.
“The new lens was nearly as big as, and heavier than, the camera. One version had a bellows and locking struts (figure 2 in the journal), while another had a totally metal body with the lens built into the body of the camera (figure 3 in the journal).
“There must have been a lot of storage space in those years for, in the 1939 Willoughbys ad, it was still being sold as new a whole nine years after manufacturing had ended. This, like many cameras of the early days of Zeiss Ikon, was marked with both the Ernemann and Zeiss Ikon trademarks.” …
Members read all of Larry’s insightful illustrated article in the issue 27-2 pdf file on the free members-only DVD/memory stick. See ‘Membership’ above and at right to open/renew membership. Email any questions to member@phsc.ca.
Our 2026 events are beginning to arrive with the next two (May 3rd Auction and May 24th Fair) confirmed for next month. A poster and details will be pinned at the top of this site as we get closer to the event.
