I was at a party at my son's last week taking pictures with my Leica IIIc and Zorki 3M. A friend I hadn't seen in some time, J.P. (as in Morgan), noticed it and mentioned that he had his father's old camera and that I could have it if I wanted it. That got me quivering. Yesterday I dropped by and picked it up. It's an Akarelle.

I had never heard of Aka cameras before. The Akarelle was built between 1954 and 1957. J.P.'s dad picked it up in the mid 50s when he was living in Germany. It's really a pretty little thing.

The Zorki 3M towers above it.

The bevel on the viewfinder is missing. The viewfinder is pretty dim. Something that cleaning up some glass surfaces should take care of. The double windows suggest a rangefinder with the worlds smallest rangefinder base but there is no internal rangefinder. There are brightlines for 50mm and 90mm.It has a cute little film advance lever. Push on the R lever and you can rewind.

The back opens up along the split line.

Once inside you see some very nice die castings in a black crinkle finish. Really nicely finished inside. And outside, too.

If you were paying attention at the inside shot you would have seen that the Akarelle has a leaf shutter. This is something that I've never seen before -- a leaf shutter camera with interchangeable lenses where the shutter is not in the lenses. (Does anyone know of another one?) The shutter is a Prontor SVS very much like the Prontor SV in my Agfa Isolette II. The shutter was jammed but, with a little fiddling, I got it to start firing again, except for the slow speeds. 1/25, 1/50, 1/100, and 1/300, plus B, seem to work fine. 1/10, 1/5, 1/2, and 1 second open but do not close. The lens cap screws into filter threads. The lens screws on to the shutter with a threaded collar. The lens is am Isco-Gottingen Color-Isconar 1:2.8/50. Not one I've ever heard of. There were a variety of lenses for this camera in 35mm, 50mm, 75mm, and 90mm. J.P said he was always impressed with how sharp the pictures were. The lens seems to be a four element in two groups. It focuses just like my Isolette by rotating the front group.

The collar that attaches to the front focusing element is missing a set screw so it falls off. Even it is a nice casting.

Attached to the strap of the never ready case is a leather pouch that contains the Akameter -- an external rangefinder.

Looking through the rangefinder window you see a center orange area. Just match the images. Read the distance on the dial and then set the focus ring on the lens to that distance.

It will work just fine on my Agfa Isolette II, too.

The little Akarelle is a curious mixture of sophisticated manufacturing and old technology with it's Prontor shutter and front element lens focus. I really like it. When I get some of my other camera projects done I will get this one working again. It doesn't really give me anything that my Leica and Zorki don't already have but it's so cute! It would be a shame for such a nice little camera to sit on a shelf. I have no idea what I will do with it but I will worry about that later. I do thank J.P. for sharing this little jewel with me.