Braun Paxette SuperIII Automatic and King Regula IIId

[yefeihe]

Hi, Friends,

Has anybody had experience with both cameras? They are both interchangeable lens rangefinders with a bayonet mount. I think I have read they are similar. I wonder if they are interchangeable, sort of like the Bessamatic and Retina Reflex kind of way. Braun was really into something, churning out three different mounts for their rangefinders -- the screw mount for the original Paxette, this bayonet mount, and then a variation of the Retina mount for the Colorette (and Paxette Reflex). Only Mamiya could offer more varieties in lens mounts🙂

Cheers,

Yefei

 

[yefeihe]

I just noticed that both cameras use a Prontor SVS shutter. I wonder if this was actually Prontor's attempt to compete against Compur's interchangeable lens mount used on Retina, Bessamatic etc. The lenses all seem to be marked with "SLK".

Yefei

 

[KnipsOmat]

Braun Paxette SuperIII Automatic and King Regula IIId

I just noticed that both cameras use a Prontor SVS shutter. I wonder if this was actually Prontor's attempt to compete against Compur's interchangeable lens mount used on Retina, Bessamatic etc. The lenses all seem to be marked with "SLK".

Yefei

Nor sure if anybody is still interested after all these years, but anyway...

It was. The Prontor SLK bayonet was made available to various camera manufacturers to provide interchangeable lens mounts.

Most important ones were Braun, King and Bolta, using the SLK mount for a variety of their camera models. But even though it was very, very similar between Braun Paxette, King Regula and Bolta Photvit 36 cameras, the lenses are not interchangeable. The SLR mount has been deliberately made incompatible by placing pins for rangefinder actuation and levers for aperture actuation in different locations for Braun, King and Bolta.

So you cannot use a lens intended for a Braun Paxette on a King Regula or vice versa. Between models of the same manufacturer, the lenses should be interchangeable, however. It definitely works for various models of King Regula, I can use any Regula lens on any King SLK bayonet body (IIIc, IIId/IIId Automatic and Super / Super Automatic).

Cheers,
Andreas

 

[yefeihe]

Thanks, Andreas. I have never heard of Bolta. I did, however, discover Franka Solida 35, another interchangeable lens camera using the Prontor SLK bayonet mount.

 

[radi(c)al_cam]

Nor sure if anybody is still interested after all these years, but anyway... […]

Thanks, Andreas. I have never heard of Bolta. I did, however, discover Franka Solida 35, another interchangeable lens camera using the Prontor SLK bayonet mount.

See:
http://www.cjs-classic-cameras.co.uk/paxette/paxette.html

 

[yefeihe]

Interesting. I wonder how the Franka Solida 35 mount compares to those three.

 

[yefeihe]

Interesting. I wonder how the Franka Solida 35 mount compares to those three.

I just found some images of the Franka Solida 35 mount on the web. In fact it looks to be a screw mount, more like the Diax interchangeable cameras' mount.

 

[radi(c)al_cam]

I just found some images of the Franka Solida 35 mount on the web. In fact it looks to be a screw mount, more like the Diax interchangeable cameras' mount.

Yes, and additionally, the Solida 35 apparently doesn't have the «Prontor SLK» (meant here: shutter), but a Prontor-SVS shutter, see: http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Solida_35