The Vena Venaret Camera

While the Netherlands is renowned for its windmills, tulips, canals, and bike riding, it's not often associated with camera manufacturing. However, it's home to some unique camera companies, including the popular Cambo. In fact, there were around 20 camera manufacturers in the country, such as Philips, which I've previously featured in a blog post, and other lesser-known companies like Tahbes, Foka, and a few smaller ones.

 My connection to these cameras is quite recent, as I was drawn to them by their vibrant colors. As I've shared in previous posts, I have a fondness for colored cameras, a fascination that still holds true today. Whether it's a blue, green, rose, or any other uniquely colored camera, I'm immediately captivated and feel a strong desire to own it. In this case, I was fortunate to acquire two cameras-a striking green one with a black faceplate, and a brown version with a matching faceplate. 

 After doing a little digging on the camera and company, I found that the two I purchased were also different models. The brown camera is the Vena Venaret due to the accessory shoe on the top of the camera, while the green is the Vena Venaret Jr., the same model but without the accessory shoe. The good news is that the Venaret Jr. I purchased has a leather fitted case that was in excellent condition, and it is the model I shot in the blog post.

The Company:

Vena Optical Devices was founded in Amsterdam in  1940 by Evert Verlegh and Samuel Naarden. The company's name is a mixture of the starting letter from each founder's last name: VE from Verlegh and NA from Naarden. It was a difficult time to start a company due to the war, as Samuel was making optical lenses for Old Delft Company. While many of the company's Jewish employees were deported, it was difficult for them to do anything regarding the cameras made until after WWII ended.

 In 1948, Vena came out with the Venaret camera. According to the instruction manual, the camera was designed by F. Kochman, the former manufacturer of the Reflex-Korelle camera. Mr. Kochman was living in The Netherlands for a few years, was an employee of Vena, and designed the Venaret camera; according to the manual, "His long experience in the field of camera construction is already a guarantee for the good health of the newborn." With this knowledge, the Venaret looks similar to the Reflex-Korelle camera, although a much simpler version.

 The Venaret had a few different versions. The camera was produced with a black faceplate and black covering, a white faceplate with black covering, or a brown faceplate and brown covering, which is the model I recently received.

 The Venaret Jr. camera has a white faceplate with a black covering, a black faceplate with a black covering, and a white faceplate with a green covering, and the model I recently received has a black faceplate with a green covering. 

 In 1949, Vena produced a couple of straightforward box cameras, the Vena Box and Sport Box. It's estimated that Vena produced between 20,000 and 30,000 cameras before it went bankrupt and closed its doors in 1951. This was a very short-lived camera company, but it produced some brightly colored and very simply designed cameras.

My Camera:

My camera is 5.25" wide by 3.5" tall, including the viewfinder, 3 3/8" deep, and weighs 14.9 oz. and has a very cube shape. There are two shutter speeds on the camera, 1/25 and 1/50, along with "T" for timed exposures. The camera has a 75mm f7.7 Meniscus lens with four aperture settings, F7.7, F9, F11, and F16. The shutter speeds are set with a toggle switch above the lens with the "T" setting in the middle. The aperture settings are on the side of the lens. The shutter release is on the right side of the camera. There is no cocking of the shutter. Pressing down the shutter lever to take the photo is very simple.

To open the camera to load the film is easy once you figure it out. On top of the camera is a sliding lever. Slide it to the "O" or open position. Grab the lens protruding area and pull up from the back of the camera. There is a small channel that the front of the camera slides into that allows the front of the camera to slide out of, which exposes the film camera where you can load or unload the film, depending on if all photos are taken. Once the film is loaded or unloaded, put the ridge of the back of the camera into the channel on the front and slide down until the top fits snuggly into the back, then slide the lever on the top to the right to lock the camera while taking photos.

There is no lens focusing, and the minimum focus is approx. 3 meters, about 10'. I found this out when I processed the negatives after taking the camera out and shot with it on a sometimes sunny afternoon, which was rare in the Portland area in November. Looking at the photos, I initially thought 3' was the minimum focus, but those images are blurry while the background is sharp. After I thought about it, I realized that many cameras that don't have focus ability have a "close up" filter or lens when you want to take photos from 1-3 meters, so that mistake was on me.

 

Note the shutter speed and aperture settings.

This is a very simple camera without many bells or whistles, but I wanted to shoot with it to see how it performed. In today's cameras, this would be considered a "point and shoot" style, with minimal settings and no focus ability.

My Results:

After putting in a roll of film, walking through the neighborhood, and taking simple, composed images, I went to my darkroom to process the negatives and see the results. 

 Here are a few of the images I took with this colorful gem of a camera:

Conclusion:

Except for my thinking the camera would focus closer than 10', the images are relatively sharp and clean. I didn't purchase these cameras, but I wanted to see how sharp they could produce, and they were pretty decent.

 Thank you for taking the time to delve into the history of this short-lived camera company from a country not typically associated with camera manufacturing. Despite its brief existence, Vena Optical Devices managed to create a truly beautiful and functional camera.

 Until next week, please be safe.

SportShot Senior Twenty Camera

One of the first memories I have of the SportShot Senior Twenty camera was looking through McKeown's camera (bible), collecting cameras, and noticing the odd shape of the camera as I thumbed through the pages. Then, upon doing a little more digging into what made this camera special to me, a company in Australia made it, and it only existed for a couple of years. These are the cameras I desire, and these it's these items separate cameras in my collection. 

My ACMA Sport Shot Senior Twenty camera.

 Whenever I travel alone for business or when my wife and I travel internationally, I always try to find the local flea market to see if I can find items that are rare in my part of the world. There are thousands of extremely popular Kodak box-style cameras, whether made from cardboard and leatherette covered or the bakelite cameras you see in every corner of the world. When I first started collecting, I would snatch up any camera because they were a "camera." But as time goes on and I see more of the odd and unusual items, I increasingly appreciate them.

I traded the SportShot Senior Twenty camera about a year ago for some items I had from a dealer who frequents the US occasionally from Australia. The trade happened at a camera show near to me. I got the SportShot Senior Twenty camera. I picked up a few other cameras from Australia, like the red Swiftshot and the Lexa box camera with an excellent metal faceplate. I believe he was happy getting tradeable items he could return to Australia, as it was hard to find items here in the United States.

The Company:

The SportShot Senior Twenty camera maker was the very short-lived ACMA, which stands for Australasian Camera Manufacturers Australia. They were based in Sydney, NSW, Australia, and existed from 1948 to 1950. I've looked at many different commerce sites in Australia and cannot find anything new about the ACMA company. They were one of Australia's only post-WWII camera manufacturers producing cameras. Inside the logo on the camera where the wording Australasian Camera Manufacturers Australia is located, the words British Make are there. There must have been British backing in the company to produce the cameras. 

My best guess is that while the camera is somewhat awkward to hold and use, it wasn't very popular, and sales never caught on, so the company folded, and what was made are the only examples available today.

 Since a large part of my collection is colored cameras or cameras other than black, I like the fact that this camera came in red and green as well and had a matching plastic strap to match the camera itself. These are now on my radar for future purchases. 

My Camera:

The SportShot Senior Twenty camera is triangular or trapezoidal in shape with what appear to be wings in the back to hold onto when taking a photo. The camera measures 5.5" wide in the back and 2.25" in the front. The camera is 4.5" deep, including the lens, and is 3.5" tall with the viewfinder closed but including the winding knob. The camera weighs 13.2 oz without the strap, which I don't have for this camera. The camera has a single red window on the back and shoots 6x9 format, producing eight exposures on either 120 or 620 film.

The camera is comprised of two separate parts. The top comes off with an effortless latch on the back that is somewhat spring tensioned with a hole that fits into a small knob holding the top to the bottom of the camera. On the top portion of the Sport Shot Twenty camera is also a pop-up viewfinder, along with a very odd winding knob. The winding portion of the film advance that fits into the film roll has a triangular shape; it will fit both 120 and 620 films. 

 Because the camera can shoot both 120 and 620 films, the useability is a bit more interesting as this opens the camera's film up to different types. The downside of having the winding portion shaped as it is is that the film advance is more difficult to use, which is what I experienced when I shot a roll of film through the camera. On the top of the camera adjacent to the film advance knob is stamped ACMA S20.

The camera loading is also not the easiest thing to do. Once you have the top off, you can take the empty roll from the right side and put t on the left side where the advance knob is. When loading the film, the tricky part was the channel it slid into to keep it flat for exposure. You can't just put in the roll, slide it over the shutter, and attach it to the empty spool like you do on the majority of cameras. The SportShot Senior Twenty has a thin slot the film needs to go into to keep the film flat, as you can see in the photos.

To load the film, I put the leader into the take-up spool and rolled out a bit of film to slide it into the thin channel. It took me a few times to get it in because the channel was so thin the film paper packing would crinkle and fold a bit, along with the curvature of the channel. It wasn't an easy load, but eventually, It slid in, and I got the camera loaded. How you load the camera was another factor against it when trying to sell to the masses. You don't want to make things more complicated than they need to be.

Note the thin slot film needs to be slid into to load film.

When I went to shoot the film, I loaded it into the camera, and I went to clean the lens. When cleaning it, one of the sides pressed in. I thought, "This wouldn't work with one side of the lens, not in the right position." I turned the lens, and it unscrewed from the camera body. I pressed the lens back into place, then re-screwed it back onto the camera.

 There are only two settings for the shutter. "T" for time, where the shutter stays open as long as you keep the shutter button depressed, and "I" for an instant for everyday shooting. The lens is a 13.5cm or 135mm lenticular lens f3.5 aperture. The lever above the lens is the shutter release, and you press it down towards the lens to take the photos. The viewfinder is a simple pop-up style and closes when not in use. There are no other settings to choose a different aperture, which makes this an extremely simple-to-operate camera.

My Results:

After struggling to load the camera, I had put a roll of Ilford FP-4 in the camera and walked out in front of my house to see how it did, and here's the results.

Conclusion:

Other than struggling to load the film into the camera, along with advancing the film. Due to the shape of the advanced knob that fits into the take-up spool, it didn't grab very well, and there were several times when the knob turned, and the film didn't move, but as long as I took my time, it did advance. Maybe it would do better with 620 film since the slot on the spool is thinner, and the advance knob would fit and hold into the spool better. I'm not going to say the camera was hard to use, but it wasn't the easiest, and I can understand why people would get frustrated using it. None of the images are sharp, but some are better than others. This may have been caused by removing the lens.

 Thank you for taking a few minutes from your day to look over this review. I realize it's not a sophisticated camera, but it definitely has an unusual shape.

 I have an odd camera set for next week's post and hope to hear your thoughts on it or other cameras I've written about.

 Until next week, please be safe.

Zeh Zeca-Flex Camera

This camera combines the compactness of a folding camera with the quality and handling of a twin-lens reflex camera. The Zeh Zeca-Flex is just the camera mentioned above, and I've had my eye on it for many years. However, the rareness and price have always eluded me until I went into a great used camera store in Salt Lake City, UT, Acme Camera.

 The first time I went into Acme Camera, they were in their older location, and the store was filled with photo knickknacks. I struck up a conversation with the people there who were selling used gear, servicing cameras, and renting for the local photo community. On my second visit, back in one of the cases was the Zeca-Flex I currently have. The camera was in excellent condition, with clean optics and a working shutter. I offered a trade for the camera, and they accepted. I was elated to have the camera so I could do a blog article on my Zeca-Flex.

History:

In the early 1900s, around 1901-1902, Paul Zeh produced camera parts like shutters in his workshop in Dresden for some of the other local camera companies in Germany. In 1913, he started producing cameras, and by 1922, the company Paul Zeh Kamerawerk was started. In the early years, the company mainly produced folding plate cameras or cameras that took images on glass plates, which was very common at that time period.

During the 1920s, the company did very well. At this time in photo history, roll film was starting to become more popular. The photographer or photo enthusiast didn't need to carry bulky film holders. All the photographer needed to do was put in a roll of film and get 8, 10, 12, or 16 different photos on the same roll of film without the hassle or inconvenience of loading and carrying the film holders. 

The Pilot Reflex camera, produced in 1931 by Kamera-Werkstätten Guthe & Thorsch in Dresden, has a very similar style and appearance to the Perfekta and the Super Perfekta; you can see a review by Mike Eckman of the Pilot.

 During the late 1920s and 1930s, the company expanded production into folding roll film cameras. These cameras were more compact and allowed the photographer to travel with less equipment, so their popularity grew.

 By 1937, Zeh produced the Zeca-Flex, a folding, twin-lens reflex camera. Its design is very similar to that of the Welta Perfekta, which was produced in the 1933-34 timeframe, and the more robust Super Perfekta introduced in 1935. The Perfekta and Super Perfekta were made by Welta Kamera Werk, which was in Freital, a very close town to Dresden. 

I'm confident Zeh wanted to compete with Welta on this camera style. Unfortunately, this camera style didn't catch on with consumers. Hence, with all three cameras, the Perfekta, Super Perfekta, and Zeca-Flex were the only cameras made and are rare and somewhat expensive.

 WWII took a toll on Dresden as the Allies leveled the city due to its large manufacturing capabilities. By 1948, the Zeh plant closed, and the company went out of business. My guess is that some of the Russian companies took some of the camera manufacturing machines to produce some of the after-war cameras. This is just my guess, though.

 

My Camera: 

The condition of my Zeca-Flex is unusually excellent for a camera that is almost 90 years old. The metal is still shiny, and all the functions move like when the camera was first purchased in the late 1930s.

 The camera measures 7.5" long without the light hood open. When the light hood is open, it measures 9.25" tall. The Zeca-Flex is 3.75" wide and closed; it's 2.5" from the front of the viewing lens to the rear of the camera. When the camera is open, it measures 4.75". The Zeca-Flex weighs 2lb—5.2 oz.

The lens on my Zeca-Flex is a Schneider Xenar 7.5cm (75mm) f 3.5 in an F. Deckel Compur Rapid shutter. The shutter speeds go from 1/400 to 1 sec with both "T" and "B" settings. Since I don't have a proper shutter tester, all the shutter speeds sound accurate to my trained ear. The viewing lens is a Sucher Anistigmat f2.9 lens.

To open the camera, there is a small button on the left side as you hold it to take a photo. Press that small button in, and the lens door unlocks. On my camera, you need to pull out the lens to put it into the taking position. There are knurled grips on the sides of the lens door to pull the lens out. Also on the lens door is a flip-out stand that allows you to stand the camera up, which is very common in folding cameras.

Note the small button on the side of the camera used to open the lens.

To close the lens, there are two buttons on either side of the backdoor. You press in towards the camera body, then slide the lens back into it and close it until you hear the locking "click" sound, which means the lens is back and locked in the camera body.

 On the back of the light hood, there is a sliding bar you slide over to open the light hood for viewing purposes, and on the side of the light hood is a switch you can flip up or down the magnifying glass for critical focusing.

There is a latch at the top of the back door, which you slide up to open the film door to load and unload film. In my camera, there is a roll film holder you put the roll of film into before putting it into the camera. The film holder is something I've never seen before, and on the first roll, I needed to figure out which way the film rolled across the shutter, but it was easy to figure out. Now that I've done it, it makes sense, and I won't have difficulty in the future.

 The frame counter resets to number 1 when I close the back of my camera, or at least it was there when I put film in it. There is a button on top of the frame counter. When I slide that button over, the frame counter goes to number 5, so my guess is that isn't correct. I can't find an instruction manual for this camera online, so I'm not 100% sure of the correct way to get maximum frames from the camera. 

There is a red window on the back, which I'll use in the future, as I did miss a few frames at the beginning of the roll when I shot with it. The film advance is on the bottom of the camera and is directly tied into the frame counter, whether you have film in it or not. The frame spacing on my camera was good once I got to the first frame and used the frame counter to find the next frame.

 To focus the lens, as you hold the camera to take photos, there is a wheel next to the viewing lens. I rolled my finger across it one way or the other to achieve proper focus, which was the easiest and made the most sense to me.

This is the focusing wheel. I used my finger to slide back and forth to focus.

Results:

Now that I had a roll of film in the camera, I took it out and walked around the neighborhood to get some photos.  Here are some pictures I took on my walk with the stunning Zeca-Flex camera.

 

Conclusion:

The viewfinder wasn't the brightest, and achieving good focus was difficult even with the magnifying glass up. Another negative about using the camera is where the shutter release is placed. There is no shutter release button, so you need to cock the shutter and then release it with the shutter release button, which is in an awkward place and thought my finger would be in the photo, but it wasn't.

Besides these two items, the camera was a joy to shoot with, and I feel lucky that my camera is in such good condition. I will use it again, but I'm putting it back on the shelf and trying something different for next week's blog post.

 Thank you for taking a few minutes to review some of the cameras in my collection.

 Please be safe, and I hope to hear from you soon.

Primarflex II by Bentzin

I have been excited to do a blog post on this camera since I acquired it a couple of years ago as part of a group of cameras from an auction. The camera came as a kit with the case, extension tubes, lens hood, and film holders. When it arrived in excellent condition with a working shutter and clean lens, I was anxious to put some film in it and take a walk around my yard snapping photos.

History:

Bentzin has always been known as an innovator and a company that excelled in quality cameras like Primar, Primarette, and Primarflex. Carl Bentzin was born in Görlitz on February 8, 1862, died on May 23, 1932, and is buried in grave number 260, Old Görlitz Cemetery. He opened his first factory in 1989, located at Rauschwalder Strasse 28 in Görlitz, Saxony. He changed it in 1893.

 

In 1899, Bentzin entered into negotiations with Carl Zeiss regarding a collaboration with Dr. Paul Rudolph, who had developed their anastigmats: Planar, Protar, and Ulnar lenses. Zeiss was looking to build cameras so they could put these lenses on them, and Bentzin had the expertise of the time to do so.

 The "Aktiengesellschaft Camerawerk Palmos" was founded in 1900. They produced cameras at the Zeiss factory in Jena and the Bentzin factory in Görlitz. In late 1900, the "Film-Palmos 6x9" camera was produced at the factory. In 1901, the bank ran into financial difficulties, and Zeiss took over production in Jena. Bentzin ran their own company, run by Carl Bentzin, in Görlitz.

 In the following years, the Carl Bentzin Company produced many high-caliber SLR cameras and even cameras for companies like Voigtlander, Emil Busch, and other German camera companies.

Soon after WWI, Carl started having his son Ludwig take over more of the day-to-day operations of the company, where he honed his manufacturing and business skills. In 1928, Carl turned the company over to his son Ludwig, his daughter Helene, and Helene's husband.

 Carl Bentzin died in 1932 at the age of 70. From 1928, Helene and Ludwig ran the company together until Ludwig's death in 1945. After Ludwig's death, the company went through several different reorganizations as part of the state-owned system, ending as VEB Feinoptisches Werk Görlitz.

The Camera:

Upon my first encounter with the camera, I was immediately drawn to its unique layout. All the controls and settings are conveniently located on the right side, including the film advance, shutter speed control, shutter release, frame counter, self-timer, and flash sync terminals. This thoughtful design, detailed in the manual, makes it easy to navigate the camera's functions.

The camera exudes a sense of robustness and reliability. It's more compact than a Hasselblad and larger than a Twin Lens reflex, striking a perfect balance. As an SLR camera, it offers the unique experience of focusing and observing the depth of field through the lens, a feature I particularly appreciate.

To open the back, just behind the viewfinder is a knob that has duo functions. To open the finder, you slide the knob back towards the rear of the camera. Then, open the back to load the film. While the knob is back, you press it down, and the back door opens, revealing the film cassette, which is removable to load the film. To remove the film cassette, you'll need to pull out the winding lever just a bit like you would any film advancing knob to release the gear from the body and the film cassette is easily removable by holding the center handle and pulling it away from the body of the camera.

Loading the film onto the cassette is straightforward for any medium-format camera. Put the empty spool onto the top area where the gear for the film advance is located. Load the new film onto the other area and bring the leader over the pressure plate so the black paper backing is facing out or towards the shutter when you put the film cassette back into the camera body. Put the end tab into the spool slot and wind it a bit until you know the film won't pop off the spool and is starting to take up on the take-up spool. I like to advance the film until I see the arrows of the paper backing, and then I put the film cassette back into the camera. The manual says to reset the frame counter, turn the counterclockwise until it stops, and lift it. DO NOT FORCE IT. A red "zero" appears in the window, then advance the film until the number one appears, then you're ready to go. Unfortunately, my camera reset on the frame counter didn't work, so I advanced until I thought I was at number 1 and started shooting.

Now that I have the film loaded, the viewfinder or light hood, as they call it in the manuals, has a couple of different variations. You can remove it for cleaning. It does have a magnifying glass folded down on the rear of the hood if needed for fine focus. Just lift the magnifying lens into position and focus. It also has a "sports" type finder, which many medium format cameras have, where you can lift a portion on the hood and look through the rear opening through the front opening to get a general sense of composition for quick action photos. If you're going to use this, be sure to pre-focus the camera and use a smaller aperture to allow the depth of focus to compensate for any missed focus.

Focusing the lens and setting the aperture is straightforward. The lens doesn't have an automatic aperture, so you need to open the lens to focus and then manually stop the lens down to the desired and needed setting for proper exposure. A "locking" mechanism for the aperture is used to help with this. You pull back the collar with the red dot and turn it to the desired aperture setting. Releasing the collar "locks" the lens into that setting, which means you cannot go past that setting when you turn the collar back and forth. This lock allows the photographer to open the aperture for brighter focusing, then quickly turn the dial back to the "locked" aperture setting to take your photo. It's easy, and the benefit is that when the lens stops down, you'll see the actual depth of field you'll get in your photograph. When I turned the advance lever, the mirror returned as it should, and to cock the shutter; there was a little extra turn needed to get the shutter cocked again. Having the additional amount to turn is standard, as It did the same function every time I advanced to the next frame.

When I received the "camera lot," it included a set of 4 extension tubes for the camera and three separate cut film holders. I'm very familiar with extension tubes and love shooting with them, but what would you ever use 6x6 film holders for when using this camera? I've never heard of a 6x6 cut film ever produced, so I'm curious how you'd even use them. Doing a bit of fussing around with the camera, the only mention I found was the availability of the cut film holders, but nowhere in the manual does it say how to load them. 

You'll need to open the back of the camera to use the film holders and take out the cassette. A silver clip is at the back of the light hood (Viewfinder). When you slide that clip back towards the back of the camera, you can slide up an insert with a couple of tabs on the top and a couple of small rollers within the insert. At that point, you can slide the film holders into that slot and take out the dark slide, exposing the film to the shutter and, eventually, the light when the shutter opens/closes. After using the film holders, you can put the roller insert back and slide the silver tab towards the lens, locking the insert into place so the film cassette works as it should within the camera.

The lens is a Carl Zeiss Jena 105mm T f3.5 lens, and it has threads on the back, which you use when using the extension tubes, but to put the lens onto the body, there is a red dot on the front of the camera at the 10 o'clock position. All you need to do is line up the red dot on the lens and turn it to the right or clockwise, and the lens locks into place by pressure. To remove, grab the lens and turn counterclockwise; the lens comes off after about a quarter of a turn.

The fitted case is exceptionally well-built. When you open it, the right side of the case folds down so you can access the different operation dials, which is very handy. While my strap is broken, I do see where it's attachable in several places to hold and distribute the weight evenly. The case can be held tightly in the case by a hook on the front and looping into the rear of the case.

Results:

I walked around my front and back yards using my light meter to get the proper exposure for each shot. The shutter works great, and as mentioned above, the aperture and focus move smoothly, so taking the photos was relatively easy.

 Here are the results from the camera.

Overview:

WOW, what a fun camera to shoot with. When I looked through the finder, the images were bright and clear. The focus was sharp, and using the "locking" mechanism on the lens was intuitive and straightforward. I didn't use the extension tubes on this shoot, but I plan on trying them out on an upcoming post for my blog, so keep tuned for that experience.

 Thank you for taking a few minutes to review this posting on a wonderful, well-built camera that should rival any medium-format SLR camera. 

 Until next time, please be safe and well.

Bolsey-Flex Trio Camera

As I was sitting at my desk a few weeks back as I was figuring out what camera to write about next, I looked down at a box of cameras I have in my office, and on top was the Bolsey Flex Trio, which is in the box and complete with the instructions. As I started putting together my thoughts about the camera, I had to pull out the camera, and many different ideas came into my mind.

My Bolsey-Flex Camera & Instructions

My Bolsey-Flex Camera & Instructions

The camera for its age isn't in great shape but does work. The camera uses 120 size film, which is a HUGE benefit to me since the film is so readily available. I decided to load a roll of Black and White film in it to shoot as I walked through my neighborhood. I processed the film and was somewhat impressed by the Bolsey-Flex. It's a Pseudo Twin Lens Reflex camera, which means it looks and feels like a TLR camera but works more like a Box Camera due to its simplicity.

Camera Research

I was researching the camera, only to find that a friend of mine, a brilliant writer and camera collecting blogger, Mike Eckman did a blog post on the same camera just a few months ago, which you can read here. With that said, Mike has quite a bit of information on the designer, Jacques Bogopolsky, and camera companies he worked for. The famous movie camera, Bolex, was named after Jacques Bogopolsky, and he also designed cameras for Pignons S.A., the original company that made Alpa Cameras.

For my blog post, I want to concentrate on the experience of using the camera, the image quality, and my overall thoughts on how such a beautifully designed camera handles out in a natural shooting environment. I want to offer a few facts on the camera in general. The camera is an all-aluminum cast body with beautiful light green coverings. In the box comes all you need to take the camera out into the world to take photos.

The Camera

The camera measures 4.75" tall without the viewfinder in the closed position and 6" with the finder in the "up" position. The camera is 3.75" wide, which includes the width of the knobs. It is 3.75" deep, including the lens in the focused to the closest focused position, and 3.5 with the lens focused to infinity. The Bolsey-Flex incorporates an elementary zone focusing lens which can focus from 5 feet to infinity. The focus on the camera is strictly a "guess focus" style. While this is a Psuedo TLR camera, the top lens does nothing more than frame the photo in the camera. There is no focusing capability when looking through the viewfinder.

On the Bolsey-Flex shutter, you have the capability of "I" for an instant, which shoots the shutter at 1/50th of a second shutter speed, and "T" for a time exposure. The camera does have a synchronized shutter which couples with the flash attachment. The camera also has an 80mm lens with three aperture settings, F7.7, f11, and f16. 

The flashgun takes 2-"AA" batteries to power the Type No.5 flashbulbs that fit the top. You unscrew the bottom of the flashgun to put the batteries into it. It would be best if you took the camera case off the camera to use the flash. The flashgun fits into the camera synchro port, which is below the lens and held by the screw that holds the case into place. When you trip the shutter, the camera sends a signal to the flashgun, which fires the flashbulb. 

My unit seems to be in good working condition. Unfortunately, I didn't have bulbs when I loaded the camera with film and did all my shots outdoors. It would have been fun to shoot with bulbs. I'll need to test another camera that uses a flashbulb in a future post, not that I have some bulbs to try.

To load film into the camera, there is a knob on the left side of the camera with "Open," Close" on it. Turn the knob to "open," and the top of the back swings down open to load the film into the camera. Nothing special here as the. Put the empty spool on the top and film onto the bottom area. The shutter won't fire until the winding lever is turned to advance the film. On the back of the camera is the red window with a sliding cover to see when the film is advanced to the following frame number.

 Images

Here are some of the images I took with the Bolsey-Flex camera.

Rocks

Rocks

Backyard Aspen

Backyard Aspen

Evergreen Tree

Evergreen Tree

Dogwood

Dogwood

Conclusion

I thought the camera did a very excellent job for a pseudo-TLR camera. It's not much more than a glorified box camera. The camera was easy to hold, the exposures were good, thanks to my sunny 16 rule when exposing to sunlight. The lens vignettes a bit, but I enjoy that. The ease of operation and see the frames in the red window when advancing were spot on. I'd recommend this very well-built camera to anyone.

 Thank you for taking some time to look over this post. Until next time, please be safe.

Mamiya Six II, Early Version

For the past few years, I've enjoyed shooting with older folding medium format cameras. These cameras are generally smaller and something I can fit into my pocket for easy transportation. They also use larger than 35mm film, so the ability to enlarge or crop the image gives more flexibility. Their lenses are somewhat flat in contrast, but I can change that after processing and digitizing the images. The Mamiya Six camera I have is one of the cameras I like to use often. There are some exciting features built into this camera that make the camera fun to use. The Mamiya Six was the first camera manufactured by Mamiya, and the camera I have, I believe, is the second version.

My opened Mamiya Six camera.

The Company

Mamiya was started in May of 1940 by Mamiya Seiichi and Sugawara Tsunejirō in Toyko, Japan. The first and only camera they produced for eight years was the Mamiya Six, which incorporates a coupled rangefinder on a 6x6 camera that moves the film plane for focusing instead of the lens. Even though they only made one camera, Mamiya managed to grow and gain success throughout the wartime. By February 1944, Mamiya had up to 150 employees and had moved their manufacturing to a new facility. In March 1944, they also opened a second manufacturing facility that made and assembled their lenses. In October 1945, just a month after Japan's surrender, Mamiya was the first company to receive a substantial order, bringing them back to full production.

In 1947, Mamiya started to produce Stamina shutters and Neocon lenses. In 1950, the Setagaya plant became the company Setagaya Kōki K.K. making their shutters and lenses. The name Sekor that appears on most Mamiya lenses comes from Setagaya Kōki, with the r most likely for Renzu meaning lens. 

I should mention one item I have a real fondness for Mamiya cameras as I was an employee for Mamiya America for about six years during the early 2000s. Some of my fondest memories are working with the wonderful people at MAC Group (Mamiya America Corp.). Phase One purchased a 45% stake of Mamiya in 2009 that changed its dynamic, but they still make cameras and lenses under the Phase One name.

The Camera

Over the years the Mamiya Six was manufactured there have been many changes and modifications. To see some of the changes, you can look here. This is also not to be confused with the Mamiya 6 which was introduced in 1989. I believe the version I have is the Mamiya Six II because the strap eyelets are no longer on the camera as they were on the original models.  Looking at the camera, the first thing I noticed when I bought it was the camera has both a waist-level finder and an incorporated rangefinder, which you can see from the window on top of the camera. Just to the left of the waist level finder window is a small button to open the camera. Depress the button, and the lens extends downward. To me, it resembles the Zeiss Ikon Super Ikonta 530/16 in size and weight. The Mamiya Six I have is 4" tall by 5.5" wide and 2" deep unopened or 4.5" deep opened, and weighs 1lb 12.5 oz without the case or film.

The Mamiya Six I have has a 7.5cm (75mm) f3.5 K.O.L. Sola Special Anastigmat lens in an NKS-TOKIO shutter with speed from 1-200 & "B." The aperture setting range from f3.5-32. To change shutter speeds, you move the knurled ring on the outside of the lens to the desired shutter speed. There is also a knurled ring on the back of the lens are on the right side that allows you to change aperture settings. It's somewhat hidden and took me a minute to find it, but it's easy to change once found. The pin on the top of the shutter cocks the shutter. There is a self-timer on the bottom of the shutter, which has a red dot. On the top of the camera at the far right are the focus distance and a depth of field scale. My scale only goes to F8, which is standard on the early cameras. The Mamiya Six I have also arrived with a Mamiya Six Y-2 filter.

On the back of the Mamiya Six is the viewfinder window. To the right of that is a thumbwheel that focuses the camera. Looking through the viewfinder is the typical rangefinder for focusing the camera. Once the shutter is cocked and you depress the shutter button on top of the camera, a red window appears in the viewfinder letting the photographer they have taken a photo. Under the viewfinder and to the left is a switch with an arrow pointing to the left. Moving that switch to the left allows you to wind the film to the next frame and also takes the red warning out of the viewfinder. The frame counter is at the top of the camera. It's a small round window next to the film advance knob. On the back of the Mamiya Six is also a red window and cover, which you can see the film advance and stop at the next frame, which is automatic. 

 

Close-up of lens & shutter on Mamiya Six camera.

Loading the film is a bit tricky. I always make sure my film counter is at number 1 before loading. Since the film plane moves for focusing, the pressure plate is a removable plate that slides into the film plane. You slide out the pressure plate. Load the film on the right side of the camera. Drag the leader through the slots where the pressure plate goes and wind onto the take-up spool. Slide back the pressure plate into place, and turn the advance knob until you see the starting arrow on the film leader. Close the back and with the rear window open, advance the film to number 1. Now the frame counter and the film frame number coincided with each other. Once you take a photo, slide the switch to remove the red warning label, unlocks the film advance, and wind to the next frame.

Photos

Here are a few quick shots I took walking around my neighborhood.

Conclusion

I enjoy using the Mamiya Six I have. I like the waist level finder, especially when I want to get the camera low to the ground. It's small for a medium format camera, the optics are good, and the aperture goes to F32, which I utilize when in the day time. The Mamiya Six is, in my opinion, a real keeper, especially when I want to put something in my pocket and shoot medium format.

 I appreciate you taking a few minutes to read this week's blog post. I enjoy hearing from you about your experiences with this or any other camera you have in your collection. Feel free to comment if you have a question or concerns regarding this or any other posts I've done.

 Until next week, be safe.