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Post by majicman on Mar 15, 2007 21:31:35 GMT -5
Found this today at an antique store. The guy wanted $10 and I got him down to $6.00 has anybody here ever had one of these? If so what did you think about it? www.vintagephoto.tv/univexaf.shtml
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PeterW
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Post by PeterW on Mar 15, 2007 22:27:00 GMT -5
Sorry, mate, but the pic's a bit dark. What is it?
PeterW
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Post by Just Plain Curt on Mar 15, 2007 22:51:06 GMT -5
Hi majikman, Cool, a Univex Model AF-5 Minicam. Don't see many of those except the Univex I believe Mickey posted a few days back. I have a Univex Mercury but not a Minicam. Thanks for sharing this with us.
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mickeyobe
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Post by mickeyobe on Mar 16, 2007 0:16:49 GMT -5
Hey majicman,
I do have one of them and like all Univex cameras it has a certain je ne sais quoi appeal to me. It is a Univex Minicam Model AF-5. Instant and Time shutter. 60mm Ilex Achromar lens. It used a Belgian made ( possibly Gevaert ) #00 film giving 6 exposures. Body is of cast metal with black crinkle finish. The lens panel appears to be copper or bronze. A wire frame finder pulls out from the side and a foot swings down from the other side. I also have the Model AF-2 which is similar but the lens panel is of Art Deco red, silver and black and it has a cheaper lens. It only has the wire frame finder, not the cast finder on the body as does the AF-5. Universal Camera Company (Corp.?) made 9 or more variations of the AF. The AF-5 is from 1936. Size folded, 2-1/2" x 4" x 3/4". I am very fond of the Univex cameras. They are simple, honest, not very beautiful, inovative devices that should last for a long time. I guess their most famous cameras were the remarkable and unconventional Mercury models.
Mickey
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Post by Randy on Mar 16, 2007 6:57:03 GMT -5
I dressed it up a little for you Majik...talk about a rustic camera....pretty cool.
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Post by herron on Mar 16, 2007 10:06:07 GMT -5
........I am very fond of the Univex cameras. They are simple, honest, not very beautiful, inovative devices that should last for a long time. I guess their most famous cameras were the remarkable and unconventional Mercury models. Mickey The lightbulb didn't go on for me until you mentioned this, Mickey. I have a Mercury IICX (c.1945). I have never shot any film with it, but I picked it up for its unique, rotating shutter design.
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Post by majicman on Mar 16, 2007 16:09:56 GMT -5
thanks Mickey for the info. and Thanks Randy for fixing it up I used a flash when taking the picture I still came out dark.
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Post by Randy on Mar 16, 2007 19:05:51 GMT -5
That Mercury IICX looks like a cross between a camera, an old radio, and a parking meter. LOLOLOLOLOL!!!! ;D
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PeterW
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Post by PeterW on Mar 16, 2007 19:17:30 GMT -5
Ah!, Now Randy's lightened the picture I can see what it is, plus Mickey's info on it brings back memories even though I think I've seen only one of these little folding AF Univex cameras in the metal, and that was just after the war in Brunnings, in London - a wonderful emporium of several rooms crammed to the ceilings with shelves full of used cameras and equipment of every age. I used to spend hours there.
It reminded me of an early pre-war Agfa Karat except that it didn't use 35mm film. It used, as Mickey pointed out, a rather obscure size 00 film. If I recall rightly, the film aperture was slightly larger than the 24 x 36mm of 35mm, something like 28 x 38mm. And there's a vague feeling somewhere in the back of my mind that the bellows were made of paper.
If you could get a couple of spools and some backing paper you could load a length of 35mm and try it out, but if I'm right the sprocket holes would intrude slightly into the top and bottom of the picture, rather like using perforated 16mm cine film in a sub-min. Be fun to try though.
I've never owned a Univex camera, though Brunnings had several Mercury models on their shelves about that time. I always thought that the rotary shutter made it unecessarily big and clumsy for a half-frame 35mm camera. Looked a bit like a miniature radio.
I can understand your liking for Univex, Mickey, even though I believe they were fairly cheap and cheerful cameras, made to sell in a depression. Rather like Arguses (Argi??) in that respect.
I mentioned Agfa's Karat; I've got an example of every Karat made, bar one, and though they're certainly not in the Leica/Contax class, or even up to Agfa's Silettes in precision, I love 'em. They've got a certain something. I suspect Univex cameras could have the same attraction.
I haven't seen a Univex camera around for years. I don't think all that many found their way over here.
PeterW
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