Contessa Nettel Cocarette Special II/0 Folding Roll Film Camera From 1926
- Kamera Ostalgie
- 3 days ago
- 5 min read
Well, I have a confession to make here, I know very little about Contessa Nettle cameras, I have never really got into them like I do with most old folders, so never took the time to use them or even research their history, but today I just grabbed a random camera from the attic to do a post on, this is the camera I picked up, so come on lets have a look at it in the very least, we might even learn something as we go!
First impressions, well it looks a really well made solid quality camera, if a little dull and lacking in any style. But it is rock solid, there is no wag at all in the front standard, no play, it is as vertical and parallel as the day it left Germany, which must be about a hundred years ago. You cannot fault the quality of the engineering here on the Cocarette, this is real quality, not thrown together like many cameras of the period. It's quite a heavy camera too, weighing in at 764g !
The Cocarette opens from the side ! The little catch you see here in the middle of the body is marked Z and A. I think the Z is for Zu, which means closed or locked, and A is for Auf which is open or released.
The other side of the camera body just has a small button near the top of the camera which opens the camera base board holding the lens etc, and a tripod bush near the bottom of the camera.
This leaves the back very uncluttered with just the red window and a round panel with Contessa Nettel embossed into the leatherette.
Now I had not a clue what this round panel was for at first, so I did a bit of investigating and it turns out that this panel, which by the way is removeable, is so that the owner can clean the lens ! Yes it is a lens access panel ! What a brilliant idea! I'm starting to like this camera more and more now as I seriously start investigating it.
I have to thank this posts writer for confirming that I was correct about the lens cleaning feature!
From the front we can see that the shutter is a Derval dial set shutter, with speeds of T, B, 100, 50, and 25th of a second.
The lens is a Contessa-Nettel Trinastigmat of 13cm, and f6.8. The lens number is 407438.
There is a plate around the shutter dial that does not have a purpose at all apart from saying Zeiss Ikon.
This makes me think that it was made just after Contessa Nettel were taken over by Zeiss Ikon in 1926 and being Zeiss, they had to get their name on the camera somehow.
The pre takeover Cocarettes did not have this plate, but did have a plate around the aperture panel with Contessa-Nettel on it !
You focus the camera by using this little neat scale on the base board, the black foot on the bottom of the standard lines up with the distance, at 6 feet, as close as you can go this foot drops into a little slot to stop you pushing the lens out any further.
It took me a minute or two to realise that to be able to move the focus mark from 6', you have to flick the chrome surround of the focus panel in towards the centre rails to release the front standard before you can move it or indeed slide back the standard to close the camera. Neat when the penny drops, head scratching before it does though.
The Contessa Nettel logo is very noticeable engraved into the front standard where you pull out the bellows, it is filled in with white enamel over black, which really makes it stand out.
The part that is nearly always missing or
damaged on these old Cocarettes is the little stand foot. Luckily on my example it is still present.
I was really struggling to find out what exact model this Cocarette was, as there were lots of different models while still being very similar. Eventually I found what I had been searching for, Cocarette II/0 is very faintly marked on the leather handle, but it is very faint now and really took some finding. Some sources on the web state that it is II 10, but no it is clearly II/0. other sources say 210. After 1929 the Zeiss Ikon number codes were used.
As mentioned above, the lens is of 13cm f6.8, the lens number is 407438, it is a Contessa Nettel Trinastigmat. Apertures range from 6.8, 9, 12.5, 18, 25, to a tiny 36! It still looks crisp and bright after it's one hundred years!
The body number, in this case 433392 is located inside and can be seen when you take off the side as though you were going to load it with film.
Opening the camera back from the side is unusual, but typical of the individual design of the Cocarette.
The picture on the right shows the removeable frame which holds the film spools. Not conventional design for the mid 1920's.
The felt type material light trap is quite interesting, I did not expect to find one.
Even the actual spool holding design is unusual, shown here on the right.
Regular blog readers will know that I usually cover the case that the camera came in. To me it is as interesting as the camera. So lets have a look at this case. It is of really good quality, has stood up to a hundred years of use really well, and is fitted with a very nice catch which is lockable, although I do not have the key.
So what did I find out about this folder? I suppose the main thing is the little design details which lift it out of the ordinary, the quality of its construction, the lens cleaning access point on the camera back, the film loading design, all make this a very interesting camera.
I bought this thirty or so years ago at one of my weekly house clearance auction visits along with another camera. I'm sad to say it just had a quick look at it and put it in a box, carefully stored and that was it. More fool me, a little investigation shows that this camera, now a hundred years old is quite a quality camera with loads of different features you don't see on the run of the mill folders.
I have some new respect for this camera in particular and Contessa Nettel in general. They made some unique designs and some quality cameras. It just took me over thirty years of ownership to realise it!
So that is it, a quick look at the Contessa-Nettel Cocarette!
Further reading.
Should keep you entertained for a bit.
Phil
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