Sonnet
The Sonnet is a range of strut-folding plate cameras made by Nettel Camerawerk from about 1908, and later by Contessa-Nettel and Zeiss Ikon until about 1930.[1] It is a wooden-bodied vertical folder, similar to the metal-bodied Kibitz. Both cameras might be seen as poor cousins to the Nettel strut-folders with focal-plane shutters. The Sonnet has a simple metal folding bed and a metal lens standard which runs out on this bed, positioned by pantograph struts (i.e. scissor-struts with a hinge half-way along). As in the Nettel cameras, the strut extension is adjustable with a focusing knob on the camera body, giving a focus control, and the end of one of the struts acts as the pointer on a focus scale on the body. In addition, the camera could be focused using a ground-glass screen.
Unlike the Nettel cameras, the Sonnet has a dial-set Ibso, Compound or later Compur in-lens shutter rather than a focal-plane one, offering a much smaller (and slower) range of speeds. Available lenses included Nettel's own Anastigmats and Rapid Aplanats, Goerz Dagors and Carl Zeiss Tessars.[1] McKeown notes that cameras sold inn France often had French lenses (by Berthiot), and Early Cameras shows an example with a Cooke Anastigmat.[2]
The Sonnet was made in several sizes: 4.5x6 cm, 6.5x9 cm, 9x12 cm and 10x15 cm. Standard black and tropical models were made.
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 McKeown, James M. and Joan C. McKeown's Price Guide to Antique and Classic Cameras, 12th Edition, 2005-2006. USA, Centennial Photo Service, 2004. ISBN 0-931838-40-1 (hardcover). ISBN 0-931838-41-X (softcover). p715 (Nettel), 216 (Contessa-Nettel) and 1058 (Zeiss Ikon).
- ↑ 6.5x9 Tropical Sonnet, about 1915 (from lens serial number), with 4-inch f/4.5 Cooke Series-II Anastigmat and Compur shutter, at Early Photography.
