Welta Belmira 35mm camera from East Germany

[Stephen]

Coming via ebay from Dresden, a Welta Belmira 35mm rangefinder camera fitted with a Tessar 50mm F2.8 lens.

Orginally made by Belca, in Frietal, during the amalgamations by the Communist East German Government, the Belmira  camera production was transferred to Welta, who ended as part of VEB Pentacon, in Dresden. Production may have remained at Freital

The camera was introduced in 1953, and was well specified for the period, having a long base, 8cm, rangefinder, and a very large viewfinder, with parralax correction. The lens fitted was a Tessar from Carl Zeiss Jena, in a Vebor shutter. Early Belmiras from Belca also came with a Meyer 50mm F2.8 Triopan lens.

The Welta poduction started in 1957, and ran into the mid 1960's.

The viewfinder is considered to be on the wrong end!, but is a handy arrangement. The Belmira is heavily built, and delivers good results, with a notably quiet shutter from Vebor, which is a Compur clone. The shutter release is rather like the Practica L series, an angled front mounted type, which predated the Practica by 10 years and must have been copied by Pentacon for the Praktica.



It will be interesting to compare with the West German Diax, but there is not much point in comparing with the Werra from East Germany, as the lenses are identical.

Stephen

[Stephen]

Apparently the Meyer Triopan option on the lens remained available from Welta throughout the later production period.

[julio1fer]

Interesting. That lens look similar to the Industar-50.

[Stephen]

Jun 5, 2015 21:26:17 GMT -5 julio1fer said:

Interesting. That lens look similar to the Industar-50.

I hear the sound of Zeiss enthusiasts choking..........the Industar is a good four element lens in it's various guises, but the Tessar was differently arranged, with diaphragm in different plane, and even Carl Zeiss Jena under communist control made them to a superior finish to the USSR. The grind and surface finish was finer, and the mounting and collimation was very much better.

Tessar lenses in this modern period were no longer patented, and widely used on the Altix, Practica, Werra, Welta, etc., the results show, the Tessar was sharp and had few problems optically. At F5.6 and F8 it is unlikely you would fine a sharper lens, and they offered good colour balance as well.

The styling of the Belca Belmira was about the same period as the major supply of the Industar, and both had a typical early 1950's look to them in Aluminium.

Stephen.

[philbirch]

Jun 5, 2015 21:26:17 GMT -5 julio1fer said:

Interesting. That lens look similar to the Industar-50.

I thought the same thing at first, but then I noticed the big differences...

[Stephen]

The Welta Belmira came in the post today, from a Camera shop in Dresden, then it was carefully unpacked, and then came a big problem, despite being quoted on Ebay "as working", the Vebor leaf shutter was not firing on any speed, even B, with the shutter blades "hanging", partially open,  although on winding on, they snapped closed.

But after persisting with "working" the shutter, it has burst back into life, so far without resorting to servicing the shutter. The speeds check out as accurate, with 1 sec a fraction slow. The Vebor shutter is a copy of a Compur/Prontor type shutter, made in East Germany. There is no delayed action fitted. Shutter speeds from 1sec to 1/250th.



The Tessar lens is quite clean and fungus free, no marks etc. The focus is smooth and accurately connects with the built in rangefinder. Unusually, the Vebor shutter is part of the lens structure and moves with the lens elements, and aperture, as the camera is focused. The lens is a Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 4 element lens, 50mm F2.8, No 5209746. The body is serial numbered 37455.

Nice condition anodised aluminium on the lens etc., and clear depth of  field scales. The lens does not turn as it is focused.

The camera dates from the Welta production period after the formation of Pentacon, so early 1960's. The original Belca Belmira was introduced in 1951, before changing to Welta Belmira in 1960.

Presumably this camera has never left Germany till now, produced under the East German regime, and remained at Dresden.

The rangefinder is accurate, and has a large 8cm base, although the viewfinder centre is very small. The whole viewfinder is heavily tinted.

The interior is pretty much as new, and features the same idea as the French made Foca Cameras, it has a raising guard with a roller, over the spocket, to keep the film in place. The film gate is unusaul in that, although the gate is flat, the approaches are tapered, which was meant to flex the film towards the pressure plate, to keep the film dead flat. Zeiss and Adox did this the same way on some models.



The camera back is totally removable, no hinges, and has a more complex than usual pressure plate and springs.

The reason that the film transport is a bit complex is the rapid winding system, there is no convential lever wind, it is a tab that is moved sideways to pull the film forward, and cock the shutter, via a pull rack gear. It uses the same ideas as the Werra does, but the Werra wraps the action into a rotary form.

Now it's working again, it is well worth a colour test film, and if the Tessar lens is in good order, then the picture results should be good.

Stephen.

[philbirch]

Looks good and with the viewfinder where it is it would be great for me as I'm left eyed.

[Stephen]

Finished a test film and away to the processors. The shutter seems to have remained in full working order. Only downside is the large size of the camera. It is shorter than a Leica, but is tall and quite heavy. The sliding wind on system works fine, if a bit stiffer than a lever winder.

Stephen.

[Stephen]

Test film OK, but I did strip the shutter, as I could see grit or sand in the bottom of the camera chassis after opening the base. The Vebor, (Prontor type), shutter proved clean, but needed a bit of oil removed from the blades. The speeds are a bit more accurate now. The speed was out far enough to cause a slight over exposure, but within what the film could handle, about 30% slow.
It had got worse after the shutter burst back into life, must have been the oil creeping into the blade gaps as I tested and used the shutter. At first it was accurate, but slowly got slower.
The first shots show a sharp lens, quite usable, but I will repeat the film again now it is serviced.

Stephen.