Aka Akarelle

AkA Akarelle with Schneider-Kreuznach 3.5/50 Xenar

AkA is Apparate & Kamerabau (apparatus & camera construction)

 

Not exactly the same name, but clearly an update of the Akarette II. As far as I know, it was Agfa who claimed the ending "-ette" for its cameras (from the small AkA, not from the big Kodak. Later, in 1956, Aka introduced the Arette, so Agfa's lawsuit couldn't be really successful). So in 1954 the Akarette has become the Akarelle.

 

List of changes compared to the Akarette II. Some of them took place during the production, so there are some variants. I try to mention them in the according item.

 

* A lever for the film advance instead of a wheel. The film reminder moved from the advance wheel to the rewind wheel.

* The second viewfinder was dropped. Now the left window is for the bright frames, for 50, 75 and 90 mm. You see all of them at the same time, not simple to look through. The complete viewer should cover 35 mm. (Early Akarelles has still the switchable viewer, first for 50 and 75 mm, then for 50 and 90 mm. On later Akarelles with bright frames the frame for 75 mm was dropped.)

* The shutter is a Prontor-SVS now, on Akarettes it is often not specified, but I think it is a Prontor-SV. So it's also just an update, the difference is that you can switch on and off the self-timer at any time on the SVS, on the SV is a lever for tensioning the self-timer. Furthermore, the SVS-shutter has an M-synchronisation in addition to the X-sync. (Early Akarelles were provided still with Prontor-SV)

* The strap eyelets moved from the top to the front.

* There are tiny feet now, so the bottom won't get scratched so quickly.

* With the new shutter the PC-socket moved from the shutter speed ring to the front beside the lens.

 

The lens mount was not modified. Lenses are available from 35 to 135 mm, mostly made by Schneider-Kreuznach, but also from Enna and Isco.

 

I had a special problem with my Akarelle: if you fired the shutter immediately after cocking it, the shutter blades opened very slowly and closed in the expected way. With the lens removed, you have quick access to the shutter, so I started my investigation there. The shutter itself seemed to be okay, but I could observe a part inside the camera retracting very slowly, which transmits the movement from the advance lever to the shutter for tensioning. So I had to open the camera, starting with the shells on top and bottom of the body (not of the back). These shells were added to the Akarette II, former Akarettes are "naked". So the Akarette II and Akarelle are somewhat nested like a matryoshka. The main problem is to remove the advance lever, because you have to unscrew the disk in its center. I had the same task on an Arette before, so I have some experience: I made a special tool, known as "flexiclamp" (needed for expensive cameras, so it itself expensive to buy). I cut a strip from a very hard foam (3 mm thick) and drilled a hole in one end, which has the diameter of the disk in the advance lever (10 mm). Then I made a slit along the strip from the hole to the other end, so I could clamp that disk and turn it counterclockwise. Inside the advance lever is a spring, which certainly jumps off. Then you have to remove 3 screws on top and the pin in front of the accessory shoe (by unscrewing). Now you can lift up the top shell; the bottom shell should be no problem. Remove the chromed front plates (2 parts), four screws will appear. Remove the wheel of the frame counter (screw in the center). After removing the four screws at the front side, you can pull out the core of the camera. Now you have access to the tensioning mechanism and the viewfinder. The fault of my exemplar was a wheel/lever under the viewfinder which jammed due to sticky grease. After cleaning the camera run perfectly again.

 

Good sites:

www.cjs-classic-cameras.co.uk/arette/arette.html#aka

and

www.3d-historisch.de/AkA/AkA-Kameramodelle.htm

(German)

Done