Baldix

[Rachel]

I found this in the back of a cupboard. It uses 120 roll film and has an uncoupled rangfinder and an Ennagon f3.5 75mm lens. Once you wind to the first frame you can close the red window and it has it's own system for winding to susequent frames. I do recall putting a film through it a long time ago. Perhaps it's time to put another one through

[PeterW]

Nice looking 6x6 folder, Rachel. Look forward to seing some shots from it.

PeterW

[John Parry]

The top of the camera reminds me very much of an Agfa. Was there a little back-street factory churning out components for the post-war Federal Republic camera manufacturers?

Lovely condition anyway Rachel

Regards - John

[Andrew]

it does look like its in lovely condition, poor little folder sitting in the back of cupboard hehe, it should definaley come out of the closet and take some pictures, they are fun to use and take nice pictures using modern film, i like the square format too.

the tops are simular to the agfa in as much as they are constructed of simular light materials but imo are a much different shape, the viewfinders are a little bigger too perhaps, which probably gives it an avantage of brightness i suppose. i am not sure about this Mess-Baldix but the next model up, the Super Baldax, that has the coupled rangfinder, uses more easily obtainable 40.5 filter from memory, as compared to smaller push on sizes of most other folding camera of this type. Also this Mess-Baldix was sold by the photographic distributing company Porst, under the name of Happo 66-E, both Mess and E were used as indicators that it has a rangefinder, i cant remember how to spell the word that the 'e' signified ;D

also as a side note, i forget, what side of the wall did agfa end up on? for some reason i thought they were west german, perhaps because of the Ansco connection. i know agfa sold thier products from germany through American PX stores just after the war, but i dont recall any with 'made in Germany occupied USSR' written on them

[PeterW]

Andrew,

as a side note, i forget, what side of the wall did agfa end up on? for some reason i thought they were west german, perhaps because of the Ansco connection.

Agfa has alwys been in Western Germany. The company started 1867 with the formation of a dyestuffs chemical company Aktien Gesellschaft für Analin-Fabrikation, or AGFA for short. In 1925, Agfa decided it wanted to get into camera making, and bought the lens and camera maker A. Heinrich Rietzschell GmbH Optische Fabrik in Munich.

In 1928, Agfa's subsidiary in the US joined with Ansco to form Agfa-Ansco, and some Agfa cameras built in Germany can be found in the US under the Agfa-Ansco, Ansco, and later GAF names. During the 1930s Agfa expanded in Germany with film factories in Leverkusen and Wolfen, but after world war 2 the Wolfen factory found itself behind the iron curtain in the DDR and changed its name to Orwo, short for ORiginal WOlfen.

In Western Germany, Agfa got back in production after the war with two companies, Agfa AG fur Photofabrikation, making film in Leverkusen, and Agfa Kamerawerk AG at the original Rietzschell plant in Munich. Later, these were merged to become just Agfa AG which acquired the film maker Perutz and various other companies before merging with Gevaert of Belgium to become Agfa-Gevaert.

PeterW

[Andrew]

Thanks Peter, for the detailed info,
i thought so, but something in the post earlier made me question myself, the rams ok and the cache seems to work but the hard drive needs backing up every now and again LOL.

i quite admire Balda for being able to produce this camera in the climate they were in, which was competive with, if not better than what was available from zeiss, voigtlander, agfa and ensign in this catergory

i sometimes wonder if they had plans for it previously, before the ww2, because generaly speaking not many advancements were produced by camera companies that fell under the russian govenment rule at the time of this Balda Mess-Baldix or Super Baldax camera manufacture.

Welta for instance whom i have an interest in were a smaller company than Balda but produced more inovating camera and supplied better lens overall on thier higher end cameras before the war, but they did very little in advancement after the war, even though they still produced a large amount of product and in the later years took over some production from Balda

[Just Plain Curt]

Funny I never find any cameras in gorgeous shape like this in my cupboards. Definitely one that should see some use.

[Andrew]

yeah, i am jealous Curt, so i am going to hide a nice camera in my cupboard and pretent to find in a couple of weeks....i love surprises, i plan on geting very excited lol...

[Reiska]

On March 18, 2009 Rachel sent a picture of her Mess Baldix (Mess comes from an Entfernungsmesser , which means a rangefinder.
I have not seen many Baldas on this forum, so I decided to ad some more.

The first is similar to Rachel's Baldix, except it is re-branded as Hapo 66 and the Haponar / Pronto lens / shutter combination is more modest.
I think, that this camera has been here somewhere some time ago but "repetatio ist mater..."



Two 35mm Balda folding cameras:

Balda Baldinette fitted with Schneider Kreuznach Radionar 1:2,9 /50mm coated lens in a Prontor-S shutter



Balda Baldini, Schneider Kreuznach Radionar 1:3,5 /50mm and Prontor-S shutter.



All three are very well made "antique" cameras. You will find them on my camera site : www.thecamerasite.net/09_General/Pages/cameraindex.htm