the beauty and the beast.

"If you want to change your photographs, you need to change cameras. Changing cameras means that your photographs will change. A really good camera has something I suppose you might describe as its own distinctive aura."

Nobuyoshi Araki


I like the opinion of master Araki, 'cause I also believe that each camera has got its own aura or rather its own soul.

In this post I show two cameras, the beauty and the beast.

The Beauty is really a beauty. A well made rangefinder from Japan out of the 1960s. I've got the Beauty Lite III alias the Beauty Lightomatic III.







The Beast is in fact not a beast, but she has seen better days. She came to me as a mangled wreck. It is a Icarette No. III A - 503 made by the glorious ICA company, which was one of the most important camera factories in the first 20 years of the 19th century.
You can find the camera in the french photo catalogue Photo-Plait of 1925 on this site.
And here you can find the original ICA cameras catalogue with pricelist of 1925 in German.

Specifications of the ICA Icarette No. III A - 503:

• Type: folding camera
• Years of launch: 1925
• Film: roll film
• Lens: Novar-Anastigmat 1:6.8/135 mm
• Shutter: leaf shutter with speeds 1/25, 1/50, 1/100sec. , Z and B
• Image size: 6,5x11cm
• Size: 200 × 37× 90 cm
• Weight: 675 g
• Price in France in 1925: 405 Franc