Paxette Super II L

[nikkortorokkor]

There are plenty of dire warnings out there about trying to work on Braun Paxettes: claims that even lifting the top plate to clean the viewfinder is courting disaster.

I decided to venture in anywhere and found that the job is not that difficult after all, though winding the film advance spring does require a little dexterity.

Here is a Super Paxette II L and the rangefinder unit that I replaced.

This Super II L is slightly odd in that it has a 1 to 300 and B Prontor SVS shutter, where as every other Super II L I've had has an SVS 1 to 500 and B shutter. Other, more minor construction details include an aluminium tripod thread (versus brass) and detail differences in the rangefinder.

[Randy]

Never been into a Rangefinder...my hat is off to you, nice job! Nice looking camera also.

[Michael Fraley]

Nice work, Michael. I was looking at these for a while, very compact, right? And it seems there are several models of Paxette. Do you favor one type?

[nikkortorokkor]

Bob, the Paxette's rangefinder is surprisingly simple and robust, with a minimum of moving parts. Much easier than the 60s Japanese fare, though they are, admittedly superior in performance.

Michael, Be careful, Dr Braun's products can be habit forming!



As a user, I think that the Paxette Super II L (that is how it is written on the instruction manual cover, though I've also seen the camera referred to as the Super Paxette II L) pictured in my original post is probably the best bet. The earlier Paxettes and Super Paxettes are arguably prettier, but the Super II L has enough features to make it a more slick performer. All the Paxettes and Super Paxettes are admirably compact; they don't give up much to the 70s compact rangefinders such as the Ricoh G. The shutter release on the front takes a little getting used to, but it is light and quiet.

Decoding the Braun nomelclature:

Super = coupled rangefinder
II = Interchangable lenses (35mm to 200mm - rare - were produced by a variety of manufacturers)
L = lever film advance.

The Super II L also has permanent 50mm, 90mm & 135 brighlines. For 35mm you use the whole viewfinder.

My own 'main' body, is the Super Paxette II B L (pictured below, on the right).

The B stands for Belichtungsmesser or, lightmeter. The II B L is fitted with an uncoupled selenium meter from Bewi. Mine is still plenty accurate enough for prints an maybe even slides. The only reason I don't reccommend it unhesitatingly is the risk of getting a sluggish meter. But if it has been kept dry and dark, the Bewi Selenium still does its job 50 years on!

My favourite lens, so far, is the Color Ultralit 2.8/50 pictured above. The 135 lenses look gorgeous, but honestly, even my ROKKOR 4/135 preselect is a dream handler compared to a squinty 50s rangefinder and 135 lens!

For NZ$90 I got the II L pictured above, another for spares, the Staeble Telexon 3.8/135 (fungussed) pictured below - it's the big black beauty, a nice clean Staeble Lineogon 3.5/35 - which is actually what I was after and a whole bunch of filters. All up, my 3 working Paxettes and 5 lenses have cost less than NZ$230, and I feel I've bid quite high to get some of it.

If the Lineogon proves useable, it'll be the lens I carry, together with the Color Ultalit. The long lenses are where an SLR makes sense, for me anyway.

There is a lot of bull about how bad Paxette lenses are. They ARE budget lenses, but so far every one I've owned out performs the Tri Lauser that was typically found on budget Japanese rangefinders of the same era. The best bet is to 'suck it & see' which is the fun part anyway, right? All the same, I wouldn't pay big bucks for a Paxette lens, they just aren't that popular.



L to R, Tele-Enalyt 3.5/135, Paxette Super II L with Lineogon 3.5/35 and Waltz skylight filter, Telexon 3.8/135, Staeble Katagon 2.8/50, Super Paxette II B L with Staeble Color-Ultralit 2.8/50

Here endeth my Paxette Rant.

[PeterW]

Michael:

There is a lot of bull about how bad Paxette lenses are. They ARE budget lenses, but so far every one I've owned out performs the Tri Lauser that was typically found on budget Japanese rangefinders of the same era.

I agree that Paxettes were one of the better-built medium-priced German cameras of the 1950s and 1960s. IMHO they were better built than the roughly equivalent non-folding Vitos.

The Vitos were advertised in the UK with the slogan 'Voigtländer, the cameras with the wonderful lenses'. There's no denying that the Color Skopar and the Ultron were better than the lenses normally fitted to the Paxettes, though the Cassarit was quite highly rated at the time. Voigtländer's slogan started quite a hot debate in the Readers' Letters column of one UK magazine when an exasperated Vito user commented 'What a pity the bodies aren't as wonderful'.

However, I think I'm right in saying that one of the Super Paxette II models was listed with a 50mm Xenar lens as an option, possibly the best lens offered on a Paxette, and equal to the Skopar.

There was also a Super Paxette IIBL imported into the US in the 1960s by Associated Marketing Corporation and badged as an AMC M235. I think it was sold only in department stores.

Carl Braun Camerawerk was founded in 1906 as an optical and precision engineering company, but I haven't come across any Braun cameras made before the 1940s (which doesn't, of course, mean that there weren't any!). Apart from the Paxettes, all the other Braun cameras I know of were quite down-market 'made for the masses' affairs. I think the company saw the way the European camera industry was going and concentrated more on its slide projectors which meant that it survived when most other German camera makers folded. It eventually closed about 8 years ago.

It wasn't the same company as the one which made consumer electrical goods - razors, hair driers and so on - which I think is now part of Gillette.

PeterW

[nikonbob]

Micheal

My hat is off to you in the job you did replacing the RF unit Super Paxette II L having suffered through merely trying to adjust an RF unit on the Vitomatic. Looks like the Paxette RFs are interesting enough to try and find one here.

Bob

[nikkortorokkor]

Peter, There was, indeed a tessar type Xenar in Paxette Screw Mount (PSM) and also a genuine Zeiss Tessar. The interesting thing is that one internet pundit says that his Paxette-mounted Tessar is far inferior in performance to his Tessar meant for less humble bodies. This seems a common and interesting phenomenon with post-war German lens werks.

I see I'll have to put my money where my mouth is and shoot some more with the Color-Ultralit and my 'new' lineogon (which is reputed to be the best of the PSM wides) to demonstrate their performance, good or otherwise.

Bob, I have to reiterate, the skill was Dr Braun's not mine. The rangefinder on the Paxette II is admirably simple. Three easily identified screws and it's off. The linkage is a simple pressure plate affair (it benifits from a light lube) and the only shortcoming is that when mounted, one of the mirror alignment screws is inaccessible.

In all I think the Paxette's reputation for fragility might be poorly justified. The archilles heel is supposed to be the lever-advance spring, but none I've seen are broken and if they do, I'd guess that an antique watch/clock maker would be a good bet for making a replacement. The chrome on Voigtlanders is better, but all that glistens is not gold!