Werra with ASA dial

[laptoprob]

Hey, I got a Werra this week. The one with interchangeable lenses, a rangefinder, without lightmeter. Very, very cute camera. One thing puzzles me though: Why does this version have the ASA/ISO dial setting ring? It has no automatics or autoexposure.

 

[dexdog]

I am pretty sure that the Werra you are discussing has a selenium meter built into the front of the body. It sounds like the Werra-matic. See link that has camera manual, scrolling through until you find the section with your camera

http://yandr.50megs.com/carl/werra/page20-21.htm

 

[dazedgonebye]

I believe the Werra III came with interchangeable lenses and no meter. I've not seen one in person though.
For cameras without a light meter, the ASA dial would be used as a reminder of what kind of film you had loaded.

 

[laptoprob]

Thanks steve, may be it is just a reminder. Maybe the same parts were used for models with or without meter. Maybe it is the part that is used to link aperture and speed. If that would be coupled to the meter it all makes sense.
Mine sure doesn't have a meter, just like I was looking for.
Everything seems well-thought over on these cameras though. I would expect some direct use for the ASA setting ring on this model.

 

[dazedgonebye]

Where is the ASO setting located?
On werras with meters, the setting is on the bottom of the shutter assembly.

 

[FrankS]

Lots of old meterless cameras have film speed/type reminder dials.

 

[laptoprob]

True, Frank, only this one is directly connected to the speed/aperture combo. Will make some pics soon. The dial is on thee bottom of the camera, between the speed and aperture dial.

 

[laptoprob]

Here is a pic that shows the ASA/DIN dial. Somewhat at lease, so hard to make a decent pic with a little digicam.

 

[dazedgonebye]

Well, at least I was right about the werra 3 bit....

That's the same location as the asa control on my WerraMatic, which does have a selenium meter.

I can only speculate that the same assembly was being used on other models, like the werra 2, with meters. Perhaps it was simply cheaper/easier to use the same assembly even though there was no meter on that camera.

 

[pshinkaw]

This website has a free user manual for the Werra series.

http://www.yandr.50megs.com/index5.htm

According to the section on the Werra 3, it has an exposure meter and a rangefinder. There is a specific reference to setting the ASA on the calculator dial. I wonder where the exposure meter cell is hidden?

-Paul

-Paul

 

[dazedgonebye]

The meter cell would be in the upper left hand corner, behind those stripes. I thought that the metered versions did not have stripes going all the way across.
See the first camera on this link: http://cameras.alfredklomp.com/werramatic/
Also, looking at that first picture, you'll see a little translucent window on the top near the shutter button. That lets in light for the meter indicator in the viewfinder. This is also missing on Rob's camera.

 

[dazedgonebye]

This website has a free user manual for the Werra series.

http://www.yandr.50megs.com/index5.htm

According to the section on the Werra 3, it has an exposure meter and a rangefinder. There is a specific reference to setting the ASA on the calculator dial. I wonder where the exposure meter cell is hidden?

-Paul

-Paul

There were actually 3 series of Werra cameras. Differences between the series' were primarily cosmetic. Across the series, the "3's" do not look to have meters.
The manual you reference is for all of the cameras of the 2nd series. Some with meters, some without.
In the manual here: http://www.yandr.50megs.com/carl/werra/page18-19.htm you'll see a picture of the Werra 3, without the standard Werra meter cell.

Overall, I'll stick to my guess that, with all other parts in common, they just left the ASA dial on the camera, perhaps for the reminder function, even though there is no meter.

 

[jlw]

My old Hove Foto Blue Book says the Werra 3 (or III) did not have a built-in meter; the Werra IV, V and Werramatic did. (Incidentally, yours looks to be what the Hove book calls a Werra IIIE, distinguished from the earlier plain Werra III by its rounded body style and striated black body covering.)

I'm pretty sure all those scales on the bottom relate to the EVS system, a somewhat irritating "simplification" scheme of the late '50s that combined equivalent aperture/shutter speed combinations into a single value. If you've got a meter that reads out in EV numbers, you can set any aperture/shutter combination that corresponds to the same EV number.

Most EVS systems didn't include a film-speed scale (the EV number just refers to an aperture/shutter speed combination, with no reference to film speed) so I'm guessing that Werra might have offered a clip-on accessory meter for your camera that would simply have read out an EV number assuming a particular film speed; the scale on the camera would have allowed conversion of this value for other speeds. And, as someone else said, doing it this way would have allowed parts sharing with the metered versions of the camera.