What is Your Favorite 6x6 Folder?

Jürgen - My mistake. It definitely looks that the East Germans move the assembly of the Weltax from VEB Welta-Kamera-Werke Freital to Rheinmetall-Werk in Sömmerda.

The Weltax is still one of the better 6x6 folders. The cast alloy construction of the body versus stamp metal - unique parallax adjustment for the viewfinder and East German optics that surpass many Western counterparts - make this a desireable shooter.

Winfried Buechsenschuetz swears that the Meyer-Trioplan and the CZJ Tessar are a couple of the best examples of a Cooke-triplet and Tessar that he has ever tested.
 
jotloob said:
The WELTA WELTAX was produced after WW2 for a short time under the brand RHEINMETALL .
The shutter was then called TEMPOR and the nice little release button was of a slightly different design . But still very nice .
Please have a look here :
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Hi Jurgen,

yes the Welta Weltax was also produced by the company Rheinmetall. i misunderstood you to say that Welta (the company name) had changed its name to Welta Rheinmetall.

it occured when Welta could not meet production numbers, having taken over the Richter companys production of the TLR's ect,,,, after the owners of Richter-kamera-werke moved to West Germany, whom incidently had ties with people at Welta. (not to mention that Charlotte Richter, the female owner of Richter, had gotten the company from Merkle to begin with...where the blokes that started the Welta company first worked with their uncle Ferdinand Merkle.)

Welta before the war had a thriving export market and post war it was no doubt an aim to keep that going so Rhienmetall built the Weltax for Welta (or the state if you prefer, less and less individulism in east germany as time went on!) ..they were built to the same specifacation as the Welta Weltax and no doubt with the help of Welta staff and management, the ONLY difference is the name engraved on the bottom. the shutter button is an upgrade from the pre-war model (but the same as is on the Welta Weltax post war, it allows a cable release to be atatched there instead of the shutter). the front door release mechanism is also a very small difference from pre-war models.

the later shutters such as the Junior and Tempor are not a result of the engineering factory or company of Rhienmetall or the Weltax, but actually a guy (Brier) that originaly worked for Ferinand Merkle many years before, along with Weber and Waurich of the Welta company. these shutters were used progresivly more often on east german cameras in general so that they did not have to buy Prontor shutters from West Germany. on occasion you can find a Rheinmetall Weltax (its still considered a Welta camera although it is branded rhienmetall) with a Prontor shutter still and many Welta Weltax branded cameras with east german shutters.


Jurgen if you have a look in the film loading chamber (nearest the hinge) there should be a serial number? it would be interesting to know what number you have?

cheers
Andrew
 
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chippy said:
hmm by the way....how does one type those umulets, the U with dots over the top ect
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Chippy - it requires a special tool. After you type the letter u, you have to poke the sharpened end of the tool on the screen, carefully I might add, to prevent damage. The blunt end of the tool is used to ...

Actually there is a character map from which individual letter can be typed by holding down the Alt key and typing the three numbers for the letter you want on the keypad. I will find where the list is and let you know if someone else doesn't jump in sooner. I haven't used it in so long I forget. CRS you know.
 
Andrew in OZ - on a Windows computer it is best to just cut and paste. - Holding the alt key while typing in a three number code using the numeric pad for foreign characters is just too mind boggling for me.
 
hmm..i didnt know there was a code i could use..i just pressed a heap of different numbers to try but didnt stumble across it, a bunch of other wierd shapes tho LOL

it would be handy for me if i could type directly in german as i am slowly typing out german books to translate and the way i do it now is very slow going
 
I think that I've answered this, but my list, in no particular order:

-- Agfa Isolette III with Solinar. Very easy to use. Great lens. Not too heavy. Lens is sharp. Ergonomics are very good. I love the focus-by-dial. This is a camera that is fun to use.

-- Mess Ikonta with Tessar. Another focus-by-dial, but slightly less convenient than the Isolette III. Still, you can't argue with the Tessar and excellent build of a Zeiss Ikon.

-- Super Ikonta III with Tessar -- OK, I wish it were the IV with the meter, but after you use lots of cameras without a meter, you get used to it. Great coupled rangefinder that is very usable in low light. Plus, you get 12 on 120 and autoframing, which means there's no need to try to wind on slowly until the next frame number appears under a dark red overlay.

-- Super Ikonta B 532/16 with coated Tessar -- This model is an improvement over the original, because it unified the viewfinder and rangefinder windows. The quality of construction is outstanding, and you don't mind giving up one frame (11 on 120), if you get autoframing in its place. It's a very simple camera to use.
 
chippy said:
Jurgen if you have a look in the film loading chamber (nearest the hinge) there should be a serial number? it would be interesting to know what number you have?

cheers
Andrew
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Thanks Andrew for the interesting excerpt of the WELTA history .
I love that camera .
If I open the camera , near the film loading chamber , directly on the 6x6 frame , I can find the number 2728 . No other number can be found anywhere .😕

Jürgen
 
jotloob said:
Thanks Andrew for the interesting excerpt of the WELTA history .
I love that camera .


If I open the camera , near the film loading chamber , directly on the 6x6 frame , I can find the number 2728 . No other number can be found anywhere .😕

Jürgen
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no problem Jurgen...i find all the asociated history surrounding the cameras and the makers quite interesting and i appreaciate/enjoy using and having the camera a great deal more when i have an understanding of the heritage and culture surrounding it. Welta is by far one of the difficult brands of camera to dig up history on considering it moderatly large size in market share at the time and compared to the other makers. its an ongoing effort for me to find out a little more as time passes,, a bit at a time. i have exhusted all interent avenues and now read (after translating) any small peice of information i can dig up.

i still have some more work to do researching some post war material as i have concentrated largly on pre-war so far, but it accures to me that at a certain point (i can only estimate the exact date now) Welta post-war started using serial numbers for the cameras. i have been slowly catalogueing the 35mm Welti lately to try and establish some dates but have not done much with the numbers from the Weltax..

but my reasonably educated hunch is that yours may be (for lack of a better term atm) a middle camera in terms of serial numbers of post war weltax...e.g. imediately after the war no serial number issued, then quite possibly they placed the early ones (like yours) on the frame (could you post a picture Jurgen of the serial number location?) ,although i have some that are a fraction newer than yours without any serial number...however at a later date it seems routine to have the serial number in the film loading chamber
 
Iskra...

This is only the second folder I had. The other was an Agfa Ventura 66 Deluxe. It has a nice Solinar lens, took great pics. I gave it to Certo6 as payment to fix a small problem with the Iskra. Worth every "penny". I do like a certain level of automation in a camera, which while I really like folders, would pass on most of them. Auto film counter is nice (not liken' the red window...), a means to focus other than to guess is also something I like... not a fan of scale focus.

... so, I gave up the Agfa for the Iskra, which - now that it's working perfectly (thanks to the members of this forum who pointed out a way to fix a common to this camera intermittent light leak that I never would have guessed...) you'd have to pry it from my cold dead hands.

- Great lens
- Rangefinder focusing
- Working film counter
- No light leaks
- Everything working perfectly

What more can you ask? What more can you want out of a folder?
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I remember reading the interesting posts Nick, where there were some people that had a great deal of knowledge, re what to look for and how to fix your light leak. great that it worked out for you.
fantastic name ISKRA and a striking red emblem! i have never held one myself but i would be curious to see how they are, particularly since they are ment to based on the Super Isolette. is it as heavy as a S/Isolette? how many grams is it Nick?...i'll wiegh my S/isolette for comparison
 
I have only one folder, Iskra, so it's probably favourite 🙂
I was really surprised by sharpness of pictures, and fantastic colors on Ektachrome film, from 45+ year old camera with single coated lens
 
I have owned 3 6x6 folders.
A zeiss nettar with a novar coated lens. Nice camera and well built, but the lens is not sharp enough (IMHO).

Iskra: the lens is excellent, the viewfinder great, the rangefinder very accurate, it has auto detect and autostop film, extremely soft shutter release, but it is big and heavy. I don't like the bokeh of the lens. My favorite nowadays.

Bessa 66. Sharp uncoated heliar lens, automatic frame space that works very well, very compact and light (lighter than a retina II and about the same size). Not very good ergonomics, it is difficult to handhold. For some reason I can not get sharp negs from it. If I could, this one would be my favorite.

Javier
 
chippy said:
I remember reading the interesting posts Nick, where there were some people that had a great deal of knowledge, re what to look for and how to fix your light leak. great that it worked out for you.
fantastic name ISKRA and a striking red emblem! i have never held one myself but i would be curious to see how they are, particularly since they are ment to based on the Super Isolette. is it as heavy as a S/Isolette? how many grams is it Nick?...i'll wiegh my S/isolette for comparison
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If I remember correctly, it is about 940 gr. Regards

Javier
 
Another workhorse is the Zeiss Ikon 532/16. Also good if you want to break a car window. SOLID construction. Also has the nicest leather case I have seen to date in terms of quality.
 
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