I just bought a Welti on the bay...

FallisPhoto

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...that needs some help, and I plan to restore it, but can't seem to find much info on it anywhere online. Does anyone here know anything about it that they'd like to share?
 
Which one did you buy? I think they are all fine cameras. I own a 35 folder, the Welti, the TLR Reflecta, and a 6x6/645 folder, a Pearl as I recall. I also have a Weltini, a 35mm rangefinder folder that needs some help. That is the clue that I can't tell you anybody that repairs them. Hopefully someone of the forums will come up with someone's name.
 
I got a Welti, with Xenon and Compur. Far as I can tell from looking at photos of it and asking questions, it needs a good cleaning and some of the leatherette is missing (I've got some black 0.3mm cordovan leather waiting for it). I'm wondering what else it might need (does it use light seals, any tricks to getting the shutter apart, and so on). Any idea on whether a Retina bellows would fit it (just in case the bellows are shot -- I know where I can get "new old stock" Retina bellows @ 3 for $12).
 
oftheherd, which Pearl do you own? do you use it much? post a sample picture from it, maybe? :)
 
It's done!

It's done!

New leather, flushed shutter, cleaned, lubed and adjusted and ready to take photos. One bit of customization: it had some kind of corrosion on top of the winding and rewinding knobs, and wouldn't polish out without going all the way through the chrome, so I fit discs of leather into the recesses on top of them.
 
I bought a nice little Welti last week. It has a Xenon 3.5 in a Compur shutter. It needed just a tiny bit of cleaning and a small adjustment. I took 12 shots with cheap color film and was pleased with the results.
I like the cluttered gadgety look to this camera.
 
literiter said:
I bought a nice little Welti last week. It has a Xenon 3.5 in a Compur shutter. It needed just a tiny bit of cleaning and a small adjustment. I took 12 shots with cheap color film and was pleased with the results.
I like the cluttered gadgety look to this camera.

It does have a sort of industrial art look to it, doesn't it?
 
Welti 1

Welti 1

Here is my little Welti I. My wife thinks its cute.

I kinda like the little tad myself. I've got some Ilford XP2 in it for a second run.

The lens in it is actually a coated Tessar (I said Xenon) and seems quite sharp.
 

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Oh, this is a 35mm camera? I was thinking it was a 120 camera.

That's a very sharp-looking camera. I bet you'll get some nice photos with it.
 
Well it looks like you have a nice lens on the thing. A Schneider f2 will be quite useful. Mine has a measly f3.5 and I haven't been able to find a lens hood nor a red filter to fit it yet.

I've just run a roll of XP-2 through it, however, and am quite pleased with the results. I think these are great little cameras.
 
I'd have to agree. The technology hasn't changed much for these kinds of lenses since the Welti was made (except for baked lens coatings). If you use a lens hood, a new lens isn't going to give you anything better -- and you might get a plastic lens barrel with a new lens.
 
My little Welti and of course some of the old Baldas, Retinas etc., offer little in the way of features. I don't know about others but mine doesn't even have a menu, or even one of those viewing screen. Just a little depth of field scale on the back.

When the wife and I got our first and only digital camera we spent many confused hours, her reading the manual, and directing me to make sense of the interminable menus and redundancies on the thing. Then the battery went dead. Just lovely!

My little Welti is not, nor ever will be my only camera. Using it occasionally does allow me a different perspective on recording an image.
 
LOL!

My Welti is FAR from being my only camera. At last count, I had nearly 100. I collect and restore them. I admit my hobby has sort of gotten out of hand and has taken on a life of its own.

Here are some of my latest acquisitions, that I just finished with:
 

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Probably should mention that those are an Ansco Speedex Special R, with an Agfa Apotar lens and Prontor SV-S shutter, a Balda Super Baldina, wtih Meyer Trioplan lens, and an FED3, with an Industar 50mm.

Oh yeah, I got a couple of Retinas too. Here's a Retina II with a Schneider Krusenach Xenon lens, and a Retina 1a, with a Xenar:
 

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Super Ikontas

Super Ikontas

I like the Super Ikonta "B" series of cameras. They are good cameras to use. These two have Zeiss Opton lenses. They required very minor work when received. Remove old grease from film winding mechanism, relube, clean lenses and shutter. I have used these two cameras extensively over the last year and they work very well. I'm trying not to be a collector, just a user, but I'm losing.
 

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Now I'm going to have to start keeping my eye out for a deal on a B. My Super Ikonta is a C, not a B. The Moskva 2 I got a couple of months ago is supposed to be made mostly with seized Zeiss parts, but I'm not sure what model; doesn't look like a B though. Both are good cameras, if you are very careful not to bump the rangefinder's swing arm. Once that gets loose and wobbly, you might as well toss it. Another problem with most Zeiss cameras is that they sure didn't make it easy to change bellows. Agfas are easy, but Zeiss isn't (I think that's why nearly all of those Jurgen cameras with the odd-colored new bellows are Agfas).
 
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