Zeiss Ikon Icarex 35BM

Good lens quality.

Robust, yet pleasant to handle & use.

Excellent material quality.

Price 120 USD without light meter.

160USD with L/M is Very Good Buy.

Well recommend Zeiss Ikon Icarex 35BM.

I bought my Zeiss Icarex 35 CS new in 1967, preferring it to the better selling Minolta SRT 101. I have never regretted the choice. I am a keen amateur photographer, and the camera has had extensive use. It has travelled the world a few times, and remains one of my favourite cameras. It is always my first choice for 35mm black and white photography, for which the Zeiss Tessar lens is ideally suited. The camera has been extremely reliable and has not required any servicing or repairs.

Solid, back to basics SLR. Will probably outlast most modern autofocus SLRs. Mine is 30 years old and works fine. The 50mm 2.8 Tessar is an excellent lens, and with the new faster films, f2.8 isn't really all that bad unless you need all the lens speed you can get. There is also a f1.8 Ultron which I don't have but I'm sure that is also a very good lens.

In my opinion, the Zeiss Ikon Icarex 35 BM is a very under-rated system. The Carl Zeiss lenses are first class, even if compared to much newer designs, and can be found at pretty reasonable prices if one is prepared to hunt around a bit.The exceptions to this are the 90/f3.4 Dynarex (which is probably one of the best of the lot) and the 36-82mm Zoomar- both of these, especially the latter are pretty rare. The interchangeable finders are one of the better features although the CS prism is big and bulky and, being uncoupled to the shutter speed dial, is very slow to use. The waist level finder is useful for close up work etc.(Bellows and extension tubes were both available)

Altogether capable of really first-class results, especially if you are prepared to work a little more slowly than with a more modern system.The less than ideal finder coverage is the one thing that really lets the side down here - more of a problem for slide work than for negs of course.