Braun Super II

[minoltist7]

Quite rare and unusual vintage 35mm rangefinder. I never heard about such camera, and you?
It has leaf shutter and interchangeable optics .

Lens mounted on M39 thread, but not compatible with Leica M39, becouse of bigger distance between focal plane and rear element.
I put it on my Bessa R3A, it fit physically but won't focus properly.
Camera is small but heavy, body and lens is all-metal.
Engravings on the rear cover state that it was made in Germany, Nuremberg.
Lens designation is Steinhel Quinon 50mm/2 (never heard about this too).
It has selenium uncoupled meter (doesn't work on this particular camera), so I used handheld meter with it. I shot one test roll of Ilford XP2, and discovered some things (both good and bad).

-rangefinder is off on this camera. it focuses about 1 m behing the focus position. So, I got sharp pics only with F/11 or so.

-viewfinder is small, has no brightlines and doesn't match real frame coverage. So I got wrong framing and cut off head of my lovely model . AFAIK Braun used to make hotshoe-mounted viewfinders for these cameras (revolver-type), with parallax compensation.

-shutter is VERY quiet and smooth (usual for leaf shutters). I'd like to have such quiet operation on my Bessa. Unfortunately, Prontor has only 1/300 fastest speed.

-Focus throw of the lens is unusually long between 1 and 3 m.

-Whole appearance of this little gem is very nice, solid and looks "vintage". People smiling when see this thing.

Some samples are in my member gallery:

 

[Ronald_H]

I remember reading about this on Stephen Gandy's site. Braun was/is a German make of electronics equipment and (Hi-Fi and stuff) and is also well known for their electric shavers.

Google a bit, you'll find out.

 

[Gaspar]

I have one, but the lens does not couple properly. It is now confined to the "only for show shelf"

 

[ZeissFan]

While Leica, Voigtlander and Zeiss Ikon catered to those with money, Agfa, Braun, Adox, Wirgin and others (including Voigtlander and Zeiss Ikon) offered cameras that appealed in price to the less wealthy amateur.

That doesn't mean that they weren't excellent cameras, only that they were less expensive.

That's a good-looking Braun that you have.

I read a couple of articles written by someone who had spent time at some with both the larger and the smaller camera makers, and he had some interesting observations of how the processes differed between both.

Anyway, the problems with the rangefinder should be easy to sort out. It's just a matter of getting under the top deck and recalibrating the rangefinder.

One generality about cameras that I've come to learn: Less expensive cameras often are harder to disassemble and repair than more expensive cameras.

 

[minoltist7]

I remember reading about this on Stephen Gandy's site. Braun was/is a German make of electronics equipment and (Hi-Fi and stuff) and is also well known for their electric shavers.

Google a bit, you'll find out.

I have Braun electric razor, but never thought I can make photos with it 🙂

 

[ath]

The Braun company manufacturing shavers is not the same as the photo company.

shaver: http://www.braun.com/de.html
photo: http://www.braun-phototechnik.de/

 

[NickTrop]

Braun was/is a German make of electronics equipment and (Hi-Fi and stuff) and is also well known for their electric shavers

If it's as good a camera as my Braun Freestyle 1750 shaver, which I switched to from disposables a few months ago, it's a winnah! Wouldn't it be great if Braun re-introduced a classic rangefinder that also is an electric shaver?

I think I'll shoot their CEO an email and tell him my idear! I hope he reads English.

 

[NickTrop]

Actually I think I read somewhere on the Internets that this model was both an interchangeable lens leaf shutter rangefinder and an electric shave. But, I think you had to by an accessory or something. I think.