Pretty Grotty Weltix

[PeterW]

Pretty Grotty Weltix.

No, it doesn't describe a girl, it describes a camera I just bought on ebay, a neat little 35mm Weltix from Welta in Freital, near Dresden.

It was another of those 'I know nothing about cameras' listings, and the seller also said he wasn't sure if it was working or not.

I'm not really surprised he wasn't sure because you have to know at least a little about old cameras to find out if it's working or not when the shutter release button's missing. His small out of focus picture was just clear enough to show that it was very sadly neglected, and that it lacked a shutter button.

Anyway, no-one was interested, and it was in the period and area I collect. I got it for a very low price, including postage. It turned up yesterday and, as you can see from the picture, it's pretty grotty.


The Retina influence is obvious. As you can see, it's filthy dirty, the nickel plating is tarnished to a delicate yellow and the paintwork is chipped and rusting.

But it opened smartly when I pressed the button, which was reassuring and, when I used a small drill bit in lieu of a shutter release rod, the Compur operated happily on all its speeds, even the slow ones - old Compurs never die!! The shutter serial number puts it at about 1935-36.

The back opens easily, it's quite clean inside, and the bellows look in good condition. It's got an uncoated f/2.9 Steinheil Cassar that, after I cleaned the outside of the front element, looks clean and clear. It focuses down to 1.2 metres, and a nice little touch is that when you move a lever at the back of the top plate the whole viewfinder tilts forward for parallax correction.

The leatherette is dirty but should clean up nicely. I began to think "Better and better".

The workmanship and general build quality seems very good, but I shall know more when I take the top plate off and look inside. It will have to come off for repainting and to make a new shutter button and rod which ought not to be too difficult a job.

I'm rather glad I haven't got to take the shutter and lens out because it's too cramped inside the back to wield my adjustable lens wrench. I would have to make up a special tubular tool.

It was cramped enough inside the Agfa 127 which I finished this morning. The aperture lever was stuck because one of the steel shims behind the shutter had started to corrode and this had jammed the lever and aperture operating ring. The diaphragm blades themselves were fine. Once the corrosion was cleaned off it worked OK.

Now the Agfa's finished I can start on this one, but I expect it to take a little longer. I'll keep you posted on progress.

PeterW

[mickeyobe]

Peter,

I would love to see the "after" pictures once you have finished administering to its needs and ungrottyed it.
And step by step would be considered a privilege and a treat.

Mickey

[PeterW]

Mickey: Your wish etc. Provided I don't get too engrossed in what I'm doing I'll stop and take pictures along the way.

PeterW

[Andrew]

Peter you have got one of my favourite brand of camera! i have these little guys as well with the cassar and xenar.
no doubt you already have a clear understandng of these but if i may, i can add my thoughts, for perhaps someone else.

of course you are correct with the weltix having simular styling to the retina, no doubt welta saw the writing on the wall that a camera using a 35mm in a cassette would be popular. ..Welta didn't produce as far as i know a camera to be loaded with 35mm such as leica & ziess before this.

i tend to think of the Weltix.. hmm more in comparison to the retinette or perhaps half way between the retinette and retina if one is to compare what was on offer in 1938--as far as i know so far from my catologues and books this is when the weltix was first released. at the time (1938) Welta had four 35mm cameras in production;

the (1) Watson a very basic camera looks almost identical to yours but didnt have a shutter button (just like yours now hehe) but did have an acessory shoe, usually in prontor shutter and Welta lens; which i am still yet to learn if they made their own lenses or it was rebadged from another firm (but did offer prontor II and c/rapid and tessar amazingly which i havn't yet seen). i have heard this camera discribed as a poor mans retina, perhaps the weltix could be discribed the same!?

(2) next step up in the line up is the Weltix. it has obviously the shutter button and front cell focusing. i believe Welta made this camera available because the Welti had developed to be a higher end camera (more expensive) and they needed something to offer something in the cheaper price range. as did kodak in this year with the retinette. it was available in xenar and cassar lenses. interstingly they moved the paralax finder to a more central postion which did not allow a shoe to be attatched, perhaps they were second guessing the people that may consider adding one themselves thus making it closer to a Welti!! the shoe on the original welti (1935) as i understand was origonaly conceived to take the leica rangefinda

(3)the Welti which by 1938 had developed into a good quality camera with sturdy helical focusing (first intro. 1935, a year after the first retina, it had helical focusing (a bit more flimsy) but the first in 1935 were also available with front cell only). these i think are comparable in offering (on a year by year basis) to the retina--probably like canon V nikon or here in Oz Holden V Ford with probably the retina in front, but both are good and the welti has some advantages

(4) the Weltini; arguably this camera compared to what any maker had to offer in my view was the best 35mm fixed lens camera available in that year and finaly exceeded what the retinas had to offer. ..actually i think the year (1937) before they acheived this with the first weltini as the kodak released the type II with seperate windows for veiwing and rangefinda where the weltini is single + more..

you may find it interesting that in 1939 a price catalouge will show (approx because of adjustments and notations) a Weltix w/cassar RM56- w/xenar RM72- ,, a Welti w/xenar RM109- w/tessar RM121- and Weltini, well there are a few options but w/tessar RM185-
i only can find the Watson in american & Australian catologues so it is hard to compare and probably was an an export only camera?


i would look forward to what you can do with restoring this little guy as well! i have a few that need some simular work. i was considering going to a auto paint supply place (a big one here that makes it own (Profix) and can match colours, and getting them to supply me with some enamel. as understand it the cameras back then are discribed as being painted in black laquer! do you happen to know what the differance is between black laquer and black enamel?

[PeterW]

Thanks for the rundown on Welta, Andrew. Although my collecting interest is mainly pre-war and early post-war German cameras I must admit I haven't yet gone very deeply into the Welta company, but the more I learn about Weltas the more interested I'm getting.

PeterW

[PeterW]

Sorry, Andrew, I forgot to answer your question about paints.

To be honest I'm unsure about the distinction between enamel and lacquer. It seems that paint makers use both terms somewhat indisciminately.

I've used various brands of paint on cameras but my favourite at the moment is an acrylic paint made for modellers by Tamiya. It's more expensive than most auto paints, but you don't use a lot on a camera. In fact in the tiny jars it works out very expensive, but you can get larger tins. It comes in matt, semi-matt and gloss. Most pre-war cameras I've found have the painted parts finished in quite a high gloss.

Being acrylic based it will thin down for spraying with water, but I find the Tamiya thinners is better. The thinned paint flows better in an airbrush. For the thin edgings on a camera I generally use it straight from the tin with a small soft artist's brush. It dries fairly quickly but slowly enough to let brush marks flow out. I wash the brushes and the airbrush in warm water and washing-up detergent.

Even when it's dry it isn't hard. With air drying hardening takes at least three to four days but a gentle heat speeds things up a lot. I find that standing the painted part under a desk lamp with a 60 watt bulb (about 5 or 6 inches away) hardens it in about four to six hours, depending on how thick the coat is. I used to use a heat box 'drying oven', a plywood box with two 60 watt lamps inside, and still do if I've got a lot of bits to paint, but for one-off small jobs I find the desk lamp works OK.

I do this only on parts that come off the camera. For the edging I don't like to subject the whole camera to heat so I usually paint it and leave it a day to see if it needs a second coat, and then put it by for about a week to harden naturally. I paint the edgings after I've given the body a good clean, polished any brightwork that needs doing and repaired any leatherette that needs doing, but before I give the leatherette its final wax polish.

Other people may have different methods, but that's the one I've settled on at the moment.

PeterW

[mickeyobe]

I am not positive but I think enamels are turpentine based whereas lacquers are alcohol based.

Mickey

[Andrew]

Hi Peter & Mickey...
it got me to thinking so i have spent more time than i should have investigating about Lacquer and if its still available

and i have found a place that may make/sell it here....i dont know how good it is yet or how close it is to what was used until the 50s but i am going to make further inquiries.



interesting stuff by the sounds of it, nitrocellulose based stuff invented around the early 20s from a resin of nitrate of cotton and other things, the solvents are toxic, volitile and flameable (so no need for a protective breathing mask and smoking is fine around this stuff ) .also the grade of nitrocellulose used to make the lacquer is much the same as nitrocliceran (spelling) used to make explosives. i guess for some reason the wimps nowadays prefer to make paint that is boring to produce and denigh the workers excitment and oppotunity to claim workers compensation!!!sheeze whats the world comming to haha

i find it interesting but whatever works and looks good of course is fine