Precise focus is not possible but this was not important as the user would only have had 6 by 6 cm contact prints made which would not show up defects in focus. When moved fully forward, the lens is focused at three feet. To focus the lens closer than infinity, there is a radial lever on the front right of the baseboard. When pulling the lens out, it locates on a further stud, putting the lens in the infinity focus position. So, when opening the camera, the shutter needs to be relocated onto the guide rails. The problem here is that the shutter/lens assembly comes away from the guide rails when the camera is closed. This locates the lens when the camera is folded up. A further problem with my camera is a missing stud on the baseboard behind the lens. One of the lugs is spring loaded and presses in towards the centre to free the lens. These are missing on my camera (there is a price too pay for being 105 years old!) but the lugs the studs fit in are still there. Usually, this is done by pulling two chrome studs under the lens. The lens now needs to be pulled out to its working position. The baseboard is held in place by two chrome struts. There are no springs involved so the user has to pull the baseboard down by hand. To open the camera, you press a small stud on the top. To focus the lens closer than infinity, there is a radial lever on the front right of the baseboardĪs was usual 100 years ago, the camera folds up when not in use. The camera measures 130 by 72 by 25 mm when closed and by 90 mm when open for use. The insides of the camera is painted matt black. The lens door is aluminium painted gloss black. After 105 years, the leather has deteriorated somewhat and the steels exposed and a bit rusty. The body is made from steel as far as I can see, covered with black leather. I think that Butcher’s used the name “Carbine” to indicate that their cameras were smaller than their competitors’ cameras. So, what is a carbine? It is a rifle with a rather short barrel – a smaller gun (or so Wikipedia tells me!). The “Carbine” part? The quotation marks tell us that it is not really a carbine. The camera is certainly very small – yet Butcher’s also sold 6x 9 cm cameras as Watch Pocket which were not very small. The Watch Pocket part presumably indicates that the camera would fit into a small pocket. The full name of this camera is ‘Watch Pocket “Carbine”‘, with “Carbine” in quotation marks. On the other hand, how would you use the camera with no viewfinder? Again, there is no evidence of either the wire frame or the eyepiece ever having been attached. The second option was an Iconometer which was basically a wire frame fixed to the top of the shutter housing with two screws and an eyepiece attached to the body of the camera. The attachment was a part of the metal moulding of the shutter housing and was not removable – there are no traces of anything being attached at this point. The first option was a small Brilliant finder attached to the shutter housing. These cameras were supplied with one of two options (or both). The differences are minimal except for the viewfinder – this Butcher’s Carbine has no viewfinder and there are no indications that there ever was one. I have another Ica Icarette I which is mostly the same as this Butcher’s Carbine. Any road, I am going for a date of 1913 until such time as someone shows me different. Information from other camera collectors suggests that the “C” serial numbers date from 1913 – just a suggestion, mind, as “C” could have run from late 1912 to early 1914. This gives a date for this camera of between 1912 (date of introduction) and July 1914 (the outbreak of World War I). As a result of hostilities in WWI, Butchers were no longer allowed to trade with German companies. More useful is the fact that Ica made this camera for Butcher’s in the UK. Various revisions help to narrow the date somewhat (my camera clearly uses 117 film as 120 spools do not quite fit). The model – an Ica Icarette model 1(type 495) – was made from 1912 to 1926 and then continued by Zeiss Ikon as their Icarette 493. A lot of work has been done by enthusiasts to correlate serial numbers and dates – this is done with lens serial numbers (which have survived, not having been held in Dresden), shutter serial numbers and ancillary information such as known production dates and sales invoices. The trouble is that all Ica and Zeiss Ikon records were lost in the bombing of Dresden in WWII. There is a body serial number – C35133 – in the standard Ica (and then Zeiss Ikon) sequence.
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