Voigtländer Bessa 66

This is a medium format folder from the German firm of Voigtländer. It dates from between 1938 and 1940. This model was also made after WWII from 1946 to 1950, but my camera is a very early model - more later. There was also a cheaper version available with a folding viewfinder and no automatic framing.  It is extremely similar to the later Perkeo that replaced it in 1950.

Voigtländer Bessa 66 (C) John Margetts

This camera has a lot of 'modern' features that make it stand out from earlier folding cameras. These include a body shutter release and automatic frame advance - no need to look in the red window when advancing the film, the camera spaces the film automatically (more or less, it does not work too well on my camera. I used the red window).

First, a basic description.  The camera measures 125 mm wide by 40 mm thick and 80 mm high when folded and 95 mm thick when open. This is very much a pocket camera even if the pocket needs to be robust enough to take the weight - 524 g without a film. As standard, the top plate is uncluttered. It is made from chrome plated brass  and has a reverse-Galilean viewfinder right at the right-hand end. On the opposite end is the film advance knob. Close to the advance knob is a frame counter - one of the 'modern' features I mentioned. That should be all that is on the top plate but a previous owner has glued an accessory shoe on using a large amount of epoxy glue.  Close to the rewind knob, on both the front and back faces of the top plate are two sliders. Without an instruction manual, it is not clear what these do. The one on the front clearly advances the frame counter and seems to free the advance system to allow the film to be advanced. When the film moves through the camera, a feeler shaft rotates and this serves to measure the amount of film that has moved and the film advance locks when one frame (62 mm) has moved. There is no clear use for the rear slider but I think it might have to do with setting the start of the film once the red window has been used to line up the first frame. I would welcome advice here from anyone who has a better knowledge of this camera. This system only works sporadically with my camera and when using the test film I relied on the red window for all frames.

As this is a folding camera, the lens is hidden behind a door that must be opened before using the camera. This is achieved with a button the the base. Pressing this causes the door to spring most of the way open - it might well have opened completely when new. When open, it locks the lens/shutter firmly in place. To close the lens door again, there is a chrome bar beneath the lens which must be firmly pressed to unlock the struts holding the door in place. 

As supplied new, this camera came with a hinged yellow filter ('Moment' filter) but this has long since broken off as is usual for cameras of this age. Also as a consequence of age, the bezel around the lens has come loose and fallen off (it was glued in place). This means I have no lens name or focal length information but I can gather this from information from the interweb. The lens has a serial number (located inside the camera on the rear of the lens). The pre-war versions of this camera were supplied with either a  three element Voigtar or four element Skopar lens. Of these, only the Skopar had a serial number so mine must be a Skopar lens. It is a 75 cm focal length lens (as was the Voigtar option) with a maximum aperture of f/3.5. The shortest marked focussing distance is 1 m, but the lens will move significantly further than this so the closest focus is going to be nearer to 0.7 m at a guess. The lens is not colour corrected (that would be a Color-Skopar) and is not coated but performed well regardless.

The shutter is a Compur shutter with a serial number of 3 751 602 - my records tell me that this dates from between 1935 and 1939. The lens serial number is 2 245 637 and this dates from between 1937 and 1942. (The range of dates is so vague because both Compur and Voigtlander lost most of their records in the destruction of WWII.) I have a piece of further dating information in that the slider on the front of the top plate was removed in 1939 so my camera must be from 1938 or early 1939.

The Compur shutter has a fastest speed of 1/300 seconds (later models had a Compur-Rapid shutter with a nominal 1/500 second speed) and apertures from f/3.5 to f/16. Both of these are very usable in 2015 with modern film. What is missing from this shutter is a delay timer and any flash connectors. For my test film, I used Kodak Portra 160 ISO film in sunny weather in April and shot most of the film at either 1/100 or 1/300 and f/11 or f/16. As is usual for this date, the shutter needs cocking before use. While the primary shutter release is on the shutter housing, the actual release is a lever that protrudes through the lens door. This is strictly left-handed in use, leaving your right hand to have a firm grasp of the camera.  Exacta did things the same way.

The base plate has three items. On the left is a lever with two functions. In the closed position, it prevents the back being opened and when swung out, it acts as a foot to allow the camera to be securely placed on a flat surface for longer exposures (together with a cable release, which the shutter is threaded for). There is no delay timer, so no selfies with this camera. In the centre of this lever is a tripod boss. This is a 3/8 inch Whitworth socket with a 1/4 inch Whitworth insert.  At the other end of the top plate is a depth of field calculator. You rotate the disc to set the distance you are focussing at to the pointer and then read off the depth of field against the aperture you are using.  The third item on the base plate is the release for the lens door.

In use, this is a simple, easy camera to use. The hardest part is the viewfinder which, as was normal in its day, is rather small and not usable while wearing glasses. With the left-hand shutter release, you can get a really good grip on the camera while actuating the shutter release with your left index finger. It is easy to cock the shutter with your right hand while still gripping the camera. 

The hardest part is reading the numbers on the shutter speed, aperture and focus scales. They are rather small for my ageing eyes.

As is common of Voigtländer cameras, there are Happy Snapper settings on the lens. These are marked by a small triangle and a small circle. If you set the focus to the triangle and the aperture to f/8 then all between 2.5 m and 5 m will be in focus (ideal for portraits) and if you set the focus to the small circle, and the aperture to f/8 then all between 5 m and infinity will be in focus (ideal for landscapes).

Even though the lens is neither colour corrected nor coated, it has performed well. There is no visible colour fringing (the panchromatic films in use in the 1930s would have needed well corrected lenses) nor is there any significant flare visible in my test pictures. Where I have shot Contra Jour, there is some slight evidence of flare but it is very minor. I have much worse lenses in my collection.

The film I used for my test was Kodak Portra 160, developed and scanned by Snappy Snaps in Lincoln.  Loading the film is easy - both spool holders are hinged. The camera takes either 120 or 620 film (only 120 is currently available). The dark bar along the right-hand edge of some frames is a scanning artefact, not the camera.

Shot into the light - some flare on the right-hand edge

Enfield folding camera

This camera is a British Ensign camera - it was generously given to me by Harry Davies.  It is a folding camera of a very standard design. Visually, it is very similar to both a Zeiss Ikon Nettar 515/2  and an Agfa Billy Record. Dating it is problematic, not least because I am not sure of the model. The camera has a Gauthier Singlo shutter which was introduced in 1937 so the camera was made in either 1937, 38 or 39 - WWII got in the way of German imports so that rules out the 1940s.

Ensign, folded

It measures 160 mm by 75 mm by 32 mm. Actually, as this is an English camera, I ought to put the measurements into the old Imperial units: 6 1/4 inches by 3 inches by 1 1/2 inches. That is the metal body - the viewfinder, winder knob and catch protrude from that.

As far as I can see, the body is made from pressed steel [painted black. The flat surfaces are covered in black leatherette. the name "Ensign" in handscript is embossed on the front near the catch for the back and "Ensign. made in England" is embossed on the back. There is no model name embossed anywhere. There is the name "Singlo" on the shutter fascia and there are references on the Interweb to an "Ensign Singlo". The shutter, made by Gauthier, is a Singlo shutter and the "Singlo" refers to the shutter (the same stamping in the metal appears on other camera makes) rather than to the camera model. of course, that does not preclude Ensign from using the same name for the camera.

The top of the camera is plain black with just a folding viewfinder. This is a very basic double frame with no glass. the bottom of the camera has a chrome-plated film advance knob and a small button to release the catch on the lens door.

Ensign, open, side view

The back of the camera is also plain with a single red window for the film frame numbers. The front of the camera has the lens door. This has the usual folding leg so that the open camera can be stood on a flat surface. There is also a small (3/8 inch) screw. Undoing this leaves a 1/4 Whitworth threaded hole for a standard tripod screw.

When the door release is pressed the door opens about half-way on its springs. This camera has been stored somewhere damp and the door/lens struts have some areas of corrosion. When new, I suspect this door would have opened entirely on its own. When open, the lens/shutter housing is held very securely.

The shutter, as already mentioned a couple of times, is a Gauthier Singlo - this offers two speeds: 1/25 and 1/75 plus B and T. This shutter is an everset type - there is no cocking lever - but there is a cable release socket.

Ensign, open, front view

The lens is an Ensar - Ensign's own make - which is 105 mm focal length. It focusses down to about four feet - the last marking on the scale is six feet but the lens moves significantly past this. The aperture ranges from f/7.7 to f/32. On the left side of the shutter housing is a Brilliant viewfinder. I always find these next to useless and always use the folding frame finders.

Inside is as you would expect. The film advance knob pulls out to allow the inserting and removing of the film spool. At the other end, to ease the inserting of the film the lower locating pin falls away - quite literally. I initially thought it was broken. This pin folds in automatically and is held in place securely when the back is closed.

In use.

This camera is quite easy to use.The only difficulty I had was with the positioning of the shutter release - in landscape mode, it is slightly beneath the camera and rather awkward to reach. In portrait mode it is fine. The folding viewfinder is large enough for me to use it while wearing my glasses - something that can not be said for much more expensive cameras of the period.

Test film

In its day, the pictures taken with this camera would have been printed as contact prints. that means they would be 9 cm by 6 cm which is about 1/3 of the size I have them here.  That means the defects would also have been 1/3 as big. In terms of sharpness and distortion, the lens is producing fine results. There is, however, a lot of vignetting - darkening in the corners of the picture - clearly visible in every shot.

The pictures were significantly underexposed. partly, this is down to my setting on my (old) light meter. The film I used was Kodak Portra 160 which, surprisingly, has an ISO rating of 160. Problem is my light meter does not have a setting for 160 so there will have been a bit of error in my guessed setting. I think the shutter might have contributed as well. Usually with old shutters, they run rather slow causing over exposure but this Singlo shutter is a simple two-bladed device and if the first blade is a bit slow, the second blade will catch-up giving a too-short exposures. Without paying for an expensive electronic test of the shutter, I cannot know for sure.

These pictures are a bit 'flat' which I entirely put down to the awfully dull weather we have had in Lincoln recently.

Silver Street, Lincoln

Witham, Lincoln

Broadgate, Lincoln, with cathedral

pedestrian bridge over Broadgate, Lincoln

Stamp End, Lincoln

Marshall's Yard, gainsborough

Agilux Agifold

AGI, who made this camera, are an aeronautical instrument maker - still in business - rather than a camera maker and it shows. During WWII, AGI made military instruments and that pedigree is followed in this camera. It is large and heavy and has no small controls so easy to use with cold hands, with gloves on, when frightened . . . 

lens: Agilux anastigmat

focal length:  9 cm

apertures: f/4.5 to f/32

focus range: 3 feet to infinity

lens fitting: fixed

shutter: Agifold

speeds: 1/25, 1/50, 1/100, 1/125, B, T

flash: two pin connector

film size: 120 or 620

Outwardly it is much like any other folding camera - Kodak, Zeiss Ikon, Voigtlander, Agfa all made similar. The main physical difference is the large double viewfinder. This consists of one large housing containing both an eye-level finder and a waist-level finder. The waist-level finder is pretty much a pre-war brilliant finder. This viewfinder housing also double as the catch for the lens board - it moves to one side to open the front. This housing is central on the top of the camera. Beside it is a shutter release button. This button links, via a series of links, to the shutter release on the shutter housing - again, standard fare for a mid-twentieth century folding camera. On the other side of the shutter housing is the film advance knob. this is nice and large and easy to use. Being a 120 format camera, there is no film rewind.

The shutter is made by AGI themselves but outwardly it looks much like a Compur or Prontor shutter. The adjustments are in the same place the main difference being the shutter cocking lever which is on the underside of the housing - rather inconveniently. The shutter release is also on the underside where it nicely links to the body release. The actual shutter itself is not in the same league as Compur or Prontor - it has only two leaves and is rather reminiscent of a box camera shutter. The speed selection is non-standard as well. 1/25, 1/50 and 1/100 are much as I would expect from 1948 but the next speed is 1/125 - the increase in speed is so small as to be pointless. It is usual for the shutter speeds to double in speed from one setting to the other which is one stop reduction in exposure but this is a 25% reduction and it is hard to see a use for it.

The lens is also made by AGI themselves (at least as far as I can gather from information on the Interweb) and is a 9 cm focal length (or 90 mm in modern parlance). The negative size is 6x6 cm so a normal lens would have a focal length of 85 mm. That makes this lens slightly longer than normal for the negative format, but not seriously so. The lens is coated (not a given in 1948) but I suspect only on the front surface. This has the distinct blue cast of a coated lens but the rear element is clearly not coated - no blue cast.

Being a 120 format camera, there is a window on the back to allow the user to see the frame numbers when winding the film on. Traditionally, these are red - red because early film was orthochromatic and not sensitive to red light - but on this camera you get a choice of red or green. There is a slider to uncover one or the other of these two coloured windows. What there is not is a cover for both windows which would have gone further in preventing fogging of the film.

I have been referring to this as a 120 camera but in fact it is a dual format camera - it will take either 120 or 620 film. The only difference between the two is the spool (the actual film being the same size with the same frame number spacing) and the spool holders here will take both sizes. The camera came to me with a 620 spool in place and I have now fitted a 120 spool to check the fit.

There is no accessory shoe so no way to fit either a rangefinder or a flash gun.  However, there are flash contacts - not the industry standard PC socket but two metal posts on the side of the shutter housing. These can be seen in the photograph of the lens above on the top right of the shutter housing.

When I took delivery of this camera, it was in quite a sad state. It had obviously been in a smokers house - it was covered in a sticky brown deposit - and also stored somewhere damp. Diligent use of WD40 and cotton buds has brought the camera up nicely - not quite in showroom condition but just about presentable. The shutter is not quite as I would like. An hour or so of dry-firing the shutter has it firing reliably and it sounds to be in the right general area speed-wise. One fault it has is that when set to 1/100 seconds and fired a few times the shutter resets itself to 1/50 seconds.

I am still in two minds as to whether I am going to try a film in this camera but if I do I will post the results here in due course.

Kodak Retina I (119)

I have purposefully been avoiding Kodak cameras. There are just too many of them and they are mostly towards the bottom end of the market. Kodak seems to have had an obsession with introducing new models - both camera and film. You would think that three or four film formats would suffice but Kodak introduced 36 different film sizes in roughly a century - a new format every eight years. Most of these were only slightly different from each other - sometime only the spool differed not the film, as with 120 and 620. Kodak were the same with their cameras.

Kodak Retina I (119)

However, the Retinas are special. Firstly, they were not designed by Kodak. When Kodak wanted to break into the serious amateur market they bought a German camera manufacturer (Nagel Kamerawerk) and had the good sense to keep Dr Nagal on as the chief designer. Retinas were made from 1934 to 1969 in Germany and this model (Retina I 119) was made from 1936 to 1938. I have used serial numbers to try and get a more precise date of manufacture. The lens was made between September 1935 and May 1936 according to my Schneider serial number list and was engraved with a serial number on 8 January 1936 according to Dave Jentz of the Historical Society for Retina Cameras. The shutter was made between 1935 and 1939 and the serial number is towards the end of that five year range so mid 1938 is my best guess. This means that the camera must have been made in 1938 and so one of the last model 119 to be made. More accurate records of serial numbers are not available from German companies - mostly because records were lost in the bombing in WWII. Dave Jentz has offered to more accurately date the camera body from the body serial number and when I have that information, I will update this blog with it.

This Retina I is very similar to good folding 120 cameras of the day (mid 1930s) and surprisingly similar to Zeiss Ikon's Ikonta 35 of 15 years later (it is also very similar to Balda's Baldina of a few years later).  Hubert Nerwin of Zeiss Ikon claimed to have spent the war years thinking about the design of the Ikonta 35 but I think he just had a quick shifty at a Retina.

Retina 1938

Ikonta 1949

The camera is made from a single aluminium alloy casting. It is covered with black leather (rather than leatherette) which, on this camera, is in excellent condition. The back has the word 'Retina' embossed in the leather in italic script. The exposed parts of the aluminium are enamelled in black. Kodak produced these cameras is twin series - the 119 (this camera) was enamelled in black and the 126 was chrome plated. Otherwise they were identical.

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Blog copyright by John Margetts, 2014
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Retina I (119) back view

The controls on the camera (as opposed to the shutter housing - details later) are nickel plated as is the hinge and catch for the back. As new, this will have looked very good - the soft-blueish nickel against shiny black. Unfortunately, the previous owner stored this camera in a damp place. The nickel plating has corroded leaving a blue/green deposit and some pitting of the metal. On the hinge and catch - both of which are steel - corrosion has allowed the under-laying metal to rust. This has ended with the hinge being rather stiff although it is already getting freer. The controls have cleaned up quite well with Brasso wadding with the exception of the knurled milling on the circumference of the film advance and film rewind knobs., although even those are now much improved.

The one part I find rather strange - finish wise - is the depth of field calculator on the base of the camera. This is made from steel - I would have expected brass on a camera this well designed - and the nickel plating has completely worn off from the edge exposing the steel which is now rusty.

So much for the cosmetics. The controls are what you need on a 35 mm camera. On the right hand end of the top is the film advance knob. Just below this is a clutch lever to allow the film advance to be disconnected for film rewind. Next to the film advance knob is a recessed frame counter. This is not connected to the film advance. Rather, when you press the small button to free the film advance to turn to the next frame, this button also advances the counter by one.

Slightly to the left of centre is the very small viewfinder. This is a reverse Galilean finder and too small to use while wearing glasses. On the left hand end is the rewind knob.

On the base are two items - a tripod boss (the modern standard 1/4 inch Whitworth thread) and a depth of field calculator together with the release button for the lens door. 

Retina I (119) - base of camera showing the focusing knob and aperture knob.

There is no connection between any of these controls and the shutter, so the camera can only advance the film one frame, so no wasted film, but cannot prevent double exposures.

This is a folding camera so the lens/shutter are hidden behind a door. This is released by a button on the base. A spring will open the door about halfway and the user has to open the door fully. The lens/shutter come forward on struts to their operational position. There is a short bellows which are made of lacquered cloth rather than leather - the more durable option. In this case they seem to be light proof but the test film will show for sure.

Retina I (119) lens door open

The lens and shutter are mounted on a square nickel plated plate which is much more attractive than the system used by Zeiss Ikon and Voigtlander. To close the lens door, you have to depress two studs - one on top and one below the square nickel plate. You also need to make sure the lens is focussed on infinity as there is insufficient clearance to close the door is the lens is focussed any nearer.

The lens is a Schneider-Kreuznach Xenar - a four element Tessar copy - which is not coated. Lens coating was around when this camera was made (1938) but was only used on really high end cameras. This lens was very dirty and did not come clean using ROR lens cleaner. As the lens is not coated an was very dirty I took the extreme step of cleaning the glass with Brasso wadding. This was both the external front face of the lens and the internal back face. The glass is now as good as new.

Retina I (119) -  close up of Xenar lens and Compur-Rapid shutter

The lens is mounted on the nickel plate as already mentioned and this means that the camera can be focused by moving the whole lens and not just the front element. this bodes well for image quality. Rather than turning the lens, there is a knob at the bottom of the shutter housing which moves over about 100 degrees to focus the lens. This is easily done by feel with the left hand. Kodak have thoughtfully provided two focus scales, one in black and one in red. The black scale is easily visible when using the camera in portrait mode and the red scale in landscape mode. I have never seen this before and it is very useful. Incidentally, the focusing scale is in feet.

The aperture is also adjusted by a knob at the bottom of the shutter housing and this can be distinguished from the focusing knob by feel. This also has two scales making this camera very easy to use. The aperture range is from f3.5 to f16 - a very usable range. I do not care about having a fast lens as I usually stop down to f8 or f11 and very rarely go as wide as f5.6.

Being a Compur shutter, the cocking lever moves clockwise  (down in this case as it is on the left). As with the focus and aperture scales, there are two shutter release buttons. Kodak have managed this is a very simple and effective way - there is a very short cable release screwed into the cable release socket - by very short, I mean 1 cm in length (see the picture above). I think this is intended to give a reachable shutter release for the right hand in both portrait and landscape positions but it also means there is a convenient release for a left handed person.

The Compur-Rapid shutter offers speeds to 1/500 seconds although received wisdom is that it is nearer to 1/350 in most cases. I have no way of checking and I do not really care - the 1/500 speed is useful and usable and that is what I care about.

Inside is fairly uncluttered. The film cassette goes on the left, there is a single sprocket at the top of the sprocket shaft and there is a fixed take-up spool. The camera's serial number is stamped into the metal of the door close to the hinge.

Retina I (119) inside view.

The only other thing to describe is the depth of field calculator on the base. This is quite simple to use. You rotate the outer ring until the distance you are focused on in against the central mark and then read off the furthest and nearest in-focus distances on the inner ring against the aperture you are using. To me, this is useful to find the hyperfocal distance of the lens at various apertures. To do this, align the infinity distance against the aperture you want to use and read the hyperfocal distance off the central mark - at f16, the hyperfocal distance is 13 feet, so I would focus at 13 feet and have everything between infinity and 8 feet in focus.

Depth of field calculator

Using the Camera (16-6-2014)

I have enjoyed using this camera with the trst film. I am still waiting for the lab to finish developing the film as I managed to get the leader oily by over-enthusiastic lubrication on the film advance mechanism - they wanted permission to sacrifice the first two frames to get an oil-free piece of film to attach to the developing machine.  I should get the processed film in the morning and I will update this essay with the pictures on Thursday, all being well.

The controls are, for the most part, ergonomically placed and easy to use. The one control I found difficult  nearly impossible to use is the aperture control. basically, this is too close to the focusing knob and it is too easy to move both accidentally. In practice, I found it easier to adjust the aperture by moving the pointer on the aperture scale.

What made this camera really easy to use is the provision of two shutter releases. Dr Nagel's intention, I am sure, was to make the camera as easy to use in portrait orientation as it is in landscape orientation. I found it easiest to fire the shutter left-handed even though I am essentially right-handed. For a left-handed person it must have been the best camera around by far.

The viewfinder is very small, as I mentioned above. It is the standard size for viewfinders from all manufacturers until the mid-1950s. It seems strange to me that it should be so. The folding viewfinders on my Zeiss Ikon and Agfa cameras are larger and easier to use and my Zeiss Ikon Icarette has a relatively enormous (glassless) 'sports' finder which is a large (6 x 9 cm) wire frame positioned at the lens' node  with a large enough frame as the eye-piece of the viewfinder. this move in the mid-1930s to enclosed reverse Galilean finders made the cameras significantly harder to use than their predecessors. having said that, the viewfinder is usable once I have removed my glasses - even if I have to compose by shape and line rather than by detail. Or is that an advantage - preventing me from being carried away by the detail?

The need to advance the frame counter before advancing the film soon became second nature and moving the clutch lever from Advance to Rewind before rewinding the film was obvious enough not to cause me any problems.

As I mentioned above, the camera had been stored in a damp place which has caused the cast aluminium body to corrode. An unexpected consequence of this was that, with very little handling, the leather covering came off the body. This was not a failure of the glue (almost certainly shellac) but the disintegration of the metal surface that the leather was glued to. This is not a problem - an application of emery paper to both camera and leather has allowed me to re-glue the leather (with modern plastic glue rather than shellac).

Test photographs:

(All copyright John Margetts)

As usual, these are all from around Lincoln. All the pghotographs are a bit on the bright sie (I have Gimped the version here) which suggests that the shutter is running a bit slow. The shutter is 76 years old so some speed variation is to be expected, perhaps, but the photographs are all exposed within the film's latitude so the camera is quite usable. 

The first picture (Silver Street, Lincoln) shows the effect of using a film in a dirty camera.  I did clean the inside of the camera before loading the film, but as you wind on the film, a very small amount of static electricity is generated - enough to attract any dirt inside the camera onto the film. It is visible in this picture as dark specks. Only this frame was affected.

First frame with statically attracted dirt.

Lincoln railway station

 This next picture has needed to be adjusted for parallax faults - the verticals were converging towards the top of the picture - a lens fault.

The Strait, Lincoln

Lincoln Exchequergate

Southern African buskers in Lincoln's St Benedict's Square

This next shows one of the very few bridges left in Europe with shops on them. In the Middle Ages, this was usual.

High Bridge, Lincoln.

Balda Jubilette

This camera dates from the very late 1930s - the model was introduced in 1938.  The camera is very similar to my Balda Baldina - the Jubilette was a cheaper option but it is still well made.  The Compur shutter has a serial number that should be able to date the camera but the serial number is anomalous - '0016596.  The '00 signifies the size of the shutter - size 00 - and the next five digits are the serial number.  Usually, the number on Compur shutters will have seven digits starting with a '4' or '5' ('4' for 1938, '5' for 1939 or the war years).  Occasionally, Compur shutters are known with five digit serial numbers.  One thought is that the serial number refers to a batch of shutters specially made for Balda rather than being a part of Compur's standard serial number system.

Balda Jubilette, folded

lens:  Baldar

focal length:  5 cm

apertures: f2.8 to f16

focus range: 0.5 m to infinity

lens fitting: fixed

shutter: Compur

speeds: 1, 1/2, 1/5, 1/10, 1/25, 1/50, 1/100, 1/300

flash: not available

film size: 35 mm

The camera is a folder of a fairly standard design. The lens standard is opened by a button on the top of the camera - the lens snaps forward with some vigour into its operating position. The struts holding the lens and lens board in position are nicely chrome plated and both the lens and the lens board are held rigid.

Balda Jubilette in the open position, seen from the top.

As the shutter is a Compur, the cocking lever moves clockwise (which is upwards when holding this camera for use). This is the opposite direction to Gauthier (Prontor) shutters which cock anti-clockwise. The shutter release button is on the lens board by the hinge.  On later versions of the Jubilette, this was moved to the camera body.  This is on the left of the the camera and needs to be operated with the left hand. I prefer this arrangement as it allows more space for my right hand to hold the camera steady. Several of my folders have the lens board hinged on the right which leaves my right hand being very cramped.

Camera from the front, ready to use.

The lens is a Baltar (it was de rigueur to end a lens name with the letters '-ar' - Nettar, Novar, Elmar, Radionar, Tessar, Skopar, Frontar and so on) which was made for Balda by one of the independent lens makers.  Balda did not make their own lenses and may have used more than one manufacturer to make their 'own label' lenses for them.

The controls on the body follow the Baldina layout. In the middle of the top is a very small reverse Galilean viewfinder - it is slightly to the left of centre. On the left of the top is the rewind key - this dates the camera to an early Jubilette as later versions had a rewind knob rather than key. On the right of the top is a frame counter. This counts up - so it tells you how many pictures you have taken and needs to be set to zero when you load a new film. This counter is covered with a yellow plastic disc (probably celluloid given the age of the camera). Beside the frame counter is a small brass button which releases the lens board.

Balda Jubilette in the open position, seen from the bottom

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Blog copyright by John Margetts, 2014
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On the base of the camera is the film advance knob - it is opposite the frame counter on the camera top i.e. on the right-hand end of the base.  Beside the film advance knob is a small button which must be pressed and released in order to free the advance mechanism inside the camera. This button is not sprung (at least not with my camera) and drops down under gravity.  This is important as it means that the film must be advanced with the camera held the right way up: the button dropping down again locks the advance mechanism when one frame has been advanced, if you hold the camera upside down (which makes turning the knob easier) you can advance right to the end of the film.  Note: examining photographs of Balda Jubilettes on Google has lead me to think my camera is missing a spring and a top to the button. The button that I have is threaded inside - indicating that a screw-on cap is missing and I suspect that a coil spring used to sit between the missing cap and the camera body. On the other end of the base is a 3/8 inch tripod boss. This has a large adaptor in it with my camera reducing the boss to 1/4 inch Whitworth which is the modern tripod standard.

Balda Jubilette - rear view

The back of the camera is a hinged door. this has the maker's name embossed in the leatherette (Balda plus a small logo) and in the centre of the back is an aluminium plate printed with a depth of field table (Tiefenschärfentabelle). The catch for the back is spring loaded and a little bit too small for comfortable use with my large fingers (but a big improvement on my Voigtlander Vito II which opens itself). Fastened to either end of the catch is a small carrying handle which is a bit too small for practical use. The front of the camera has the model name embossed in the leatherette (Jubilette). In the front of the lens board is a hinged peg which acts as a leg to stand the camera on when taking self-portraits.

The body of the camera is made of steel - demonstrated by the fact that it is starting to rust in [places. Inside, the film guides and covers over the mechanics are made from brass sheet painted a semi-matt black. The take-up spool is also painted brass. 

Focussing is smooth but has the disadvantage of having the distance pointer beneath the lens. This means that you have to turn the camera to set the focus - not a major problem on an entirely manual camera. Worse is the aperture scale - the white paint in the stamped figures has almost entirely gone making the scale very hard to read. Even worse is the position of of the adjusting pointer. This is very close to the lens board. Getting your finger in there to adjust the aperture means you have no chance of reading the scale. This fault lies with Deckel (the maker of Compur shutters) as they must have known their shutters would be used on folding cameras.

The body of this camera is identical to that of the earlier and more expensive Baldina. It is the details that are cheaper: the viewfinder has no parallax adjustment (although this was available as an extra), the lens is a Baltar  triplet, the frame counter is more functional (it lacks the Baldina's cover and ornate pointer), the exposed metal is painted black rather than being chrome plated. On the plus side, it has a body shutter release (although I think the Baldina also had one by 1938) which is much easier to use than the extended lever on the shutter housing that my 1935 Baldina has.

Jubilette in use.

In many ways, this is an archetypical 35mm folder. My Voigtlander Vito II is much the same size and has a similar too-small viewfinder. The biggest problem I have with cameras of this date is the viewfinder. I just cannot use them while wearing my glasses. Without my glasses I cannot see the image through the viewfinder although I sometimes think that having to concentrate on general outlines and shapes improves my composition - perhaps looking at the details gets in the way.

I have been using cameras with self-cocking shutters lately and I keep forgetting to cock the shutter - this does nothing for hitting that 'decisive moment'! I also press the door opening button on the right hand end of the top of the camera with my right fore finger instead of the shutter release button on the left. If I was using this camera exclusively, that would soon sort itself out.

I have had two problems with camera; both are probably a result of its age. The first is the shutter release mis-locating itself when the lens door opens.  This might have been down to my slightly depressing the shutter release button when opening the door. It can certainly be cured by closing the lens door and opening it again.

The second problem is the mechanism that ensures that you wind on exactly one frame - this is exactly eight sprocket holes. The shaft with the sprockets has eight sprockets on it, so advancing one frame needs the sprocket shaft to rotate exactly one revolution. When Balda designed this camera they had to work around patents owned by Leica, Zeiss Ikon and Kodak (and probably others) so they could not use an obvious and sensible system. The system that Balda designed involves pressing a button as soon as you start to advance the film and then immediately releasing the button and allowing it to 'pop-out' again while you continue to wind-on the film. On my particular camera it is necessary to give the camera a sharp slap to get the button to 'pop-out' again. I am not sure if the button is supposed to be sprung or if the camera relies on gravity - either way, it does not work without encouragement. This is not a major problem but it does slow things down a bit.  See note in blue above.

What has surprised me is that I have found the depth of field table on the back of the camera to be quite useful. The results of using it can be seen in the close-ups of flowers below (after next Wednesday).

In conclusion, this camera is still very usable. It has no bells or whistles and requires the user to think for himself but for me that is no bad thing.

Sample pictures:

First a few pictures that show how well this 76 year-old camera still works.  Focus is good (it is a scale focus camera so I did not really know this until I saw the pictures), little distortion (the arch in the second picture is bowed itself - it is not the lens), and colour rendition is fine even though the lens design pre-dates the use of colour film.  I am very pleased with these.

Lincoln Stonebow

Coloured primroses - distance for the focus was guessed together with a small aperture.

Bright Lincoln street - no flare

Barge on the Witham in Lincoln

Musical tight-rope walker in Lincoln city centre - a small amount of flare from the white wall.

Now a few pictures that are not so good.  First, this lens will not cope with photographing into the light. The lens is not coated at all (as was usual in 1938) and is showing significant flare.  As with using all old cameras, I need to follow my father's advice when I was ten or so - "always keep the sun behind you."

Sunny day in Lincoln.

This next picture shows what often happens when you use the first film in a very old camera.  Winding the film causes a small amount of static electricity on the film's surface.  This static electricity attracts any dirt lurking inside the camera, showing here as many black specks in the sky.

Lincolnshire field with a dirty sky.

This last picture shows how difficult it can be guessing close distances.  The thing to do here would be to carry a yard-stick and accurately measure the distance but that is not how I work.  I guessed and relied on the depth of field keeping everything in focus. It did not work here!

Berberis flowers.