Aka
Akarette 2

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Germany 1950 – Compact – 35 mm – Infrequent.

The Akarette is a 35mm viewfinder camera with interchangeable lenses, made by Apparate & Kamerabau (AkA, after 1957 akw )  in Germany.

The Akarette was first developed just after WWII by brothers Eugene and Max Armbruster and featured an interchangeable lens mount as well as a shutter that was cocked automatically when winding the film. Those were rather advanced features at the time, otherwise only found on the likes of Leica and Contax.

The Akarette II was introduced in 1950 as a natural continuation from the previous models and was later renamed Akarelle when a winding lever was introduced. After this came the Arette series, a long-lived range of cameras from simple viewfinders to rangefinders with light meters and eventually semi automatic exposure.

In the end, however, the brand lost its edge and stopped making cameras around 1960.

The Akarettes are pretty well known and appreciated collectibles.

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