The Icarex is my only 135 SLR camera so far. Quite interesting, it is said to be the tragic symbol of the fall of the German camera industry (in the race against the Japanese). At some point it became clear that Canon made Leica copies just as good as the originals from Leitz, and Nikon made the Contax copies even better than the originals. Then came the famous SLR's that we all know. The Icarex was a clumsy attempt from Zeiss Ikon to keep up in the competition when the Japanese SLR's entered the market at full speed.
It is not a bad camera, but the shutter sounds like a sledge hammer in to a scrap heap, and the operation of the camera is complicated and time-consuming. It's appearence is not exactly eye candy eiter. However, the nice (and cheap) bayonet lenses from Carl Zeiss are some of the few perks. The original Carl Zeiss Skoparex 3,4 wide angle lens has a handy close-up limit of 30 cm. The Icarex is also one of the cameras from this period that has an interchangeable viewfinder, one being a TTL metered pentaprism viewfinder. I kind of like the other option which is a hinged light shade, allowing access to the fresnel screen itself.
Format: 135 (24x36mm)
Lenses: Carl Zeiss skoparex 3,4/35mm + Carl Zeiss Dynarex 4/135mm
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