Nicht immer nur Kaviar ... (English Version)

[UliWer]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

Now I finished the film which was still in my father's Super Baldina. I found out how to rewind it: draw out the button for winding the film, then rewind it with the toggle on the camera's left side. 

But now I am at a loss: how to open the camera? Obviously there is a slide with an arrow on it on the camera's right side under the leather strap. I can move it, but nothing happens. Can anybody tell me whether I have it push or draw other buttons at the same time, or what else I could do to open the camera?

[Guest]

Here is my little contribution to this thread: a Linhof Studienkamera 70 with a Schneider-Kreuznach Symmar-S 100mm lens and a Linhof Super-Rollex roll film back in Idealformat. This is basically a 6x9 Super-Technika V without rangefinder. The camera is from 1970, I have owned it since 2000. I have been using it since then. When I bought it, I went to the factory to have it serviced (I lived around the corner at that time). I also asked Linhof to add a fresnel screen and to install a remote release adapter on the lens board. Everything still works smoothly today. Visiting the factory and talking to the staff was a great experience, it felt like a time jump. No one was in a rush to get rid of me and the service was perfect. I later returned for a large format photography course with Walter E. Schoen, another unforgettable experience.

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

The Idealformat provides a 56x72mm film format. I mix the slides from my Studienkamera 70 with the slides from my Pentax 67II (55x70mm). The slight difference in the film format disappears once the slides are mounted. I project my 6x7 slides with a Gotschmann 6x7 projector. Very enjoyable.

[Pyrogallol]

More Linhof, part of a collection I have been looking after for a friend.

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

[Pyrogallol]

I am posting things in this thread, but what does the title actually mean in English? for us non German speakers.

[zeitz]

23 minutes ago, Pyrogallol said:

what does the title actually mean in English

"Not always just caviar".  I don't speak German either, but Google Translate is a marvelous tool.

[willeica]

18 hours ago, UliWer said:

But now I am at a loss: how to open the camera? Obviously there is a slide with an arrow on it on the camera's right side under the leather strap. I can move it, but nothing happens. Can anybody tell me whether I have it push or draw other buttons at the same time, or what else I could do to open the camera?

You move the slide in the direction of the arrow and then you push the edge at the back and it will open. This is awkward, particularly if the handstrap is still on the camera, but it is designed to prevent accidental opening.

William

[Pecole]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

Too much "Kaviar"? Let's try some herring coming from Soviet Union/Russia.

First js a FED 2 with Industar-26 f2.8/50mm lens. It is followed by another, earlier FED, supposed to be a "perfect" copy of the Leica II. So "perfect" that it was sometimes engraved like a genuine Wetzlar product!

Fourth photograph illustrates a KIEV serialled 5511121, as testified by the engraving in the accessory shoe;  the most interesting part of the set was the nice ever ready case.

Then comes a ZORKI 4K with a Jupiter-8 f2/50mm lens, and two other Zorki's : an earlier model, very similar to the FED/Leica II above, sarial 182882 with Industar-22 lens nº5252715; and the intermediate model ZORKI S, serial  56131234 with a lens "curiously" resembling an Elmar but marked (in cyrillic) Industar-22 1:3,5 F=5cm Nº6253712.

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

 

[Bobitybob]

Please excuse the iphone image but here's my Rolleiflex 3003 ..

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

 

[thomas_schertel]

vor 23 Stunden schrieb UliWer:

Now I finished the film which was still in my father's Super Baldina. I found out how to rewind it: draw out the button for winding the film, then rewind it with the toggle on the camera's left side. 

But now I am at a loss: how to open the camera? Obviously there is a slide with an arrow on it on the camera's right side under the leather strap. I can move it, but nothing happens. Can anybody tell me whether I have it push or draw other buttons at the same time, or what else I could do to open the camera?

It might be a little hard. Pull on direction of the arrow, keep it and open the back door. Maybe help with a pocket knife or so

[UliWer]

40 minutes ago, thomas_schertel said:

Pull on direction of the arrow, keep it and open the back door. Maybe help with a pocket knife or so

That's what I tried but the backdoor does not move the fracture of a millimeter. It seems like  glued together. I'll try the "knife solution" - though I am afraid I'll ruin something.

P.S.: With some levering I was successful at least. My impression that the backdoor was "glued" was not so wrong: there was a horrible amount of verdigris at the inner parts of the backdoor release. 

Edited April 24, 2021 by UliWer

[wlaidlaw]

2 hours ago, Bobitybob said:

Please excuse the iphone image but here's my Rolleiflex 3003 ..

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

 

I also have one of those, it is currently at the menders trying to get the diaphragm on the otherwise excellent 28-105 Rolleinar unstuck. It is an amazing camera if somewhat ergonomically challenged. I left the camera so he could test the lens after repair. It was the most expensive 35mm camera in the market along with the Hasselblad XPAN when it was available. Zeiss and Franke and Heidecke between them designed an amazing (and ridiculous) 33 lens range for this camera and in effect it bankrupted F&H after they bought the old Voigtlander plant in Braunschweig to make the camera and some of the lenses. 

Wilson

[UliWer]

I was sure that my Super Baldina was a rather mundane early 35mm rangefinder camera.

Though looking closer at the lens raises some questions:

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

Serial No. 1305467 (the "0" is a little bit wiped out, but I cannot interpret it otherwise; if the second last digit is really a "6" is not so clear, but it doesn't matter as much). 

Looking into "Thiele, Fabrikationsbuch Photooptik II Carl Zeiss Jena 1927-1991, Munich 2020" I find an entry for 1500 lenses 1:2.8/5cm Tessar from No. 1305001 - 1305500 from 1931. Only 3 examples (nos. 129697 and 1297658, 659) for this variant of the Tessar have lower numbers than this batch of lenses. The well known Tessar for the Contax comes later beginning with 1309001 in 1932.

So if Thiele is right and I am not misreading the number on my lens, this might be one of the earliest 1:2.8/5cm Tessars ever produced.

But: The Super Baldina (my camera is named as Super Baldina and has the rangefinder) was only introduced in 1938. http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Baldina. So they used seven years old lenses for their cameras? Yes, something like this happened: If you compare the production dates of Rolleiflexes with those for their Zeiss lenses, you might find  that the lenses were produced much earlier than the cameras, a time span of seven years was not unusual. Zeiss produced large batches of lenses, sold them to other camera producers where they were stocked until they found their proper camera bodies at least.

Thiele names the recipient for which the batch of 1500 early 1:2.8/5cm Tessars were produced as "C 24". "C" stands for "Compur" "24" indicates the shutter's size. According to Thiele  the earliest 1:2.8 Tessars produced expressively for the Baldina date from 1938. 

So my mundane Super Baldina sheds some light on the situation of camera production in the 30s: Zeiss Jena produced a new lens for F.Deckel in Munich (at this time a Zeiss subsidary) who add their Compur shutter. Years later Deckel sells the lenses with shutters to other producers of cameras - in this case Balda in Dresden.

 

 

 

Edited April 24, 2021 by UliWer

[willeica]

2 hours ago, UliWer said:

That's what I tried but the backdoor does not move the fracture of a millimeter. It seems like  glued together. I'll try the "knife solution" - though I am afraid I'll ruin something.

P.S.: With some levering I was successful at least. My impression that the backdoor was "glued" was not so wrong: there was a horrible amount of verdigris at the inner parts of the backdoor release. 

When my CLA guy worked on my father's camera, a lot of sand from various beaches which we had been brought to as children fell out of the camera. He also made a new mirror for the rangefinder as the one inside the camera was beyond repair. Hopefully you had the film fully rewound before you managed to open the door. You may have seen this article which I wrote about my father's camera.

https://www.macfilos.com/2015/02/23/2015-2-20-the-1940-super-baldina-for-nine-guineas-and-red-sails-in-the-sunset/

I wrote another article about the camera ( and a Leica which I mentioned in another post today) after my CLA man had done his magic on the camera.

https://www.macfilos.com/2018/10/02/2018-9-28-looking-back-with-a-1926-leica-and-a-1930s-super-baldina/

That Tessar looks like quite a find. I have a Leitz Elmar which ended up on a Welta camera many years (at least 5) after it had been produced in Wetzlar and, as I mentioned  the other day, my father's Super Baldina is now carrying a Leitz Elmar which is about 7 years older than the camera. I must post a photo of my other Super Baldina with a Schneider Kreuznach f2 lens and also show the lovely ever ready case, which came with the camera and which looks a bit like the rare Leica ESMIT case.

William

Edited April 24, 2021 by willeica

[UliWer]

Did you ever find a serial number on your Super Baldina? I searched outwards and inwards but without success.

P.S.: I liked your story of the Irish coast and the photos especially of the sail boats very much. Reminds me that I have been dreaming about gong to Ireland once for almost 50 years now, but I never got farther than books by James Joyce. I am sure in post-covid times it will become true. 

[Michael Geschlecht]

Hello UliWer,

I read: 1305447.

The "0" looks pretty much like an "0" because no other number has the shape of what is clearly there.

"4" because the parts that are visible match the "4" just next to it.

Best Regards,

Michael

 

[willeica]

17 hours ago, UliWer said:

Did you ever find a serial number on your Super Baldina? I searched outwards and inwards but without success.

P.S.: I liked your story of the Irish coast and the photos especially of the sail boats very much. Reminds me that I have been dreaming about gong to Ireland once for almost 50 years now, but I never got farther than books by James Joyce. I am sure in post-covid times it will become true. 

The serial number put on the bill of sale for my father's Super Baldina in January 1940 was the number on the side of the Compur Shutter - you should be able to see this in the article I linked above. You may recall that we had a discussion on this issue recently and I found that my Contessas had two numbers on their Zeiss lenses, one a number for the lens and another which was the patent number. In addition the cameras had a third number on the side of the Compur Shutter which I assumed to be the number for the shutter. It may have been the case that manufacturers and Deckel came to some kind of arrangement. That number might either have been the number of the shutter or it might have been a number provided by the manufacturer to Deckel. It is very difficult to get hard facts about what were some very common practices in the German camera industry in the 1920s and 1930s.

Below are my father's Super Baldina on the left (with a Leitz Elmar in place of the original Meyer Gorling ) and on the right is another Super Baldina, which I own, with a Schneider Kreuznach f2 Xenon. There are other differences, the camera on the right has a Compur Rapid Shutter with 1/500th top speed in place of 1/300th, a sync socket and a bump on the front cover to take the larger lens.

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

The Schneider Super Baldina came in a case resembling the rare Leica Esmit case with a 'bra strap' (see second photo) to hold the camera in. The case had been repaired, by whoever had it before me, with some bandage between the leather case and the metal base. In the third photo you will see that the case has a little flap at the back to allow viewing of the depth of field table.

William

 

[UliWer]

Yes, I found the number on the shutter:

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

So it seems it has a much higher number than your example - though I think mine is older (very early lens and the camera still has the leatherette on the rangefinder's front while the later ones were in chrome.)

As long as we don't know the numbering system for Compur shutters it won't make much sense to speculate about this. 

Mine also has a leather bag, though it is simpler without the stamping of the camera's name on the front, but it also has the funny "safety belt" on the left side and the flap door for the dof scale.

[Pyrogallol]

Compur shutter serial numbers here

http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Compur_serial_numbers

[willeica]

28 minutes ago, Pyrogallol said:

Compur shutter serial numbers here

http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Compur_serial_numbers

Thanks. I have some Compur shutters to go through. I might post a table here to see what picture emerges. I would not be surprised if some 'illogical numbers' emerge. My father's Super Baldina bought new in January 1940 carries the number 0036073 on the side of the Compur which does not fit with anything on the linked table. Bill of sale from 31.01.1940 is below. Looking at this again, the writing in blue ink looks something like my father's writing, so he may have written that himself.

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

William 

[Advertisement]

Hallo,

Look here: Interesting Leica gear

[pgk]

1 hour ago, willeica said:

Bill of sale from 31.01.1940

What a fabulous list of cameras to have been able to supply!