Altissa Altix V 35mm Cameras

[Stephen]

New from ebay, here today in the post.....

The East German made, Dresden based, Altissa Altix V, 1954 vintage, the small 35mm Altix cameras acquired interchangeable lenses, via a breech lock Bayonet in early 1954. Introduced in 1938 in 24x24 format, then they changed to 24x35 standard format and the design was developed throughout the 40's and 50's, the German makers Altissa went into VEB Pentacon at the end of independent operation.



Well built cameras, mainly cast aluminium and brass, shutter speed range 1 sec to 1/250th sec. +b, but a separate shutter cocking, via the lever on the body, the film sprocket only spaced the negatives, not pulling the film. The frame counter surrounds the shutter release stem. Over all size is surprisingly small, the Meyer-Optik Primagon 35mm Lens is large and heavy.



The body was oddly loaded, rather like a Leica M, and with an opening back in Edixa style, to aid loading, the outline of the body style resembles Exakta shape. It also helps checking the focus with a ground glass, via the opening flap back.




Needs a good all round clean up, slight brassing wear on the front, no rangefinder fitted on this Altix model. A very substantial camera lens mount , breech mount type, twisting bayonet, three claw. Tempur Shutter built into the body. A very small viewfinder, but it is a clear view.



The lens supplied with this particular camera body is the 35mm F4.5 wide angle Meyer-Optik Primagon lens, an early type of retrofocus 4 element lens. They are renown for sharpness, but this one has a deep problem, somebody has taken the focus screw front off the body, and placed it back 180 degrees out, it should be repairable, I suspect that they got fed up trying to re-engage the multi start thread in the right place. At the moment infinity is at the bottom, and it does not turn full scale.

The lens will need a very comprehensive re-assemble and a good test etc., micro 4/3 adaptors are done for Altissa Altix, but are £100+ custom made European ones, so it will need a home made version made in the workshop.

A wide range of lenses were made for the Altissa Altix, far more than the West German Paxette, it's nearest 35mm rival in type and size. Most lenses were Meyer-Optik made, and there Zeiss alternatives in faster apertures. Accessory  viewfinders fitted the flash shoe, and an Altix rangefinder to match the camera was also made.

Stephen.

[Stephen]

The red button on the front is the delayed action, not the release, but is pressed to set the delay action before the Tempor shutter is cocked, it works fine on this example. Just tested the Shutter, and mainly it is quite accurate, the 1 sec is a bit slow, the high speeds spot on. Not bad for 60 years old next year.

The lens is another matter, it focusses to infinity, but little else, due to a ham fisted effort to repair it, possibly jammed focus, in the past. It is simply on the wrong multi start helicoid screw groove, at 180 degrees out.

On the lookout for a standard lens etc., now, but prices are high for these. They did a 28, 35, 50, 90, and a 135 all relatively small aperture Meyer lenses, due to the shutter throat size, with F2.8 versions of the 35, 50 and 90 from Carl Zeiss Jena.

Stephen.

[Stephen]

Cleaned up a bit more, but can't find the way into the lens, it looks like an attack at the back mount first. The whole lens is focused as a unit within the lens body, not just a front or back group.
For once all functions on the body work 100%, it's just the lens that has been comprehensively got at.

Stephen.

[Stephen]

About to strip the Meyer-Optic Primagon lens, there is only one set screw that is visible, plus three cap screws on the back ring, not much to work with, but it must have been taken apart before, to get in this bad a state, so here goes!!!

Stephen.

[Stephen]

The Meyer lens issue is now cured, it was easier than with Japanese lenses, the parts were still all inside, whoever had opened it up had no idea how to re-set the focus to working order. I still have to test it carefully on the camera body, but a quick test with a piece of ground glass looks promising. The infinity mark is now at the top, and the lens unit moves smoothly from infinity to the extended position for close focus.

The quality of the internals on the Meyer Primagon is 100%, brass parts, all marked with Roman numerals by the assembler, which aids assembly, all parts polished and very finely machined, typical German standards, despite being East German 1950's manufacture.

Only down side is the aluminium body shell easily marks and corrodes, but is slight on this example, which I will re-polish with compounds.

The body has slight brassing wear to the satin chrome, but nothing bad, and will be left as is, the body engraving was originally painted, but some black paint had come away, so has been re-painted, along with any scratches on the body back.

Over the holiday weekend I will run off a film at the Rochester Dickens Festival to test out the camera, the 35mm Primagon will be most useful. I'll pop a Leica 35mm finder into the shoe for a viewfinder for the wide angle lens.

[Stephen]

I have found a spare length of B/W film and I will run a quick film test of the Primagon 35mm lens today, as I have some spare chemicals as well. The ground glass check shows infinity focus is correct, no further adjustment to do, thank goodnesss

There is another Altissa Altix due to arrive soon, an Altix IV, with fixed 50mm lens, hopefully no issues with it!

Stephen.

[Stephen]

I have sourced an East German Skylight filer for the Primagon, it is fortunately 49mm size, I had it aside for my Exakta cameras. It does need a new aluminium lens hood though, so searching for some bar stock today to turn one up. The Altix has a decent brown leather case. and a genuine Altissa leather storage case for the wide angle lens, both need a clean and leather treatment.

Stephen.

[Stephen]

The Altissa Altix was never widely exported in the 1950's, it was a privately run, if not State owned, company in Dresden, East Germany. After the death of the original owners it got absorbed into VEB Pentacon, where all trace of the old Altissa brand vanished.

They are quite common in Germany nowadays (EBay Germany has many), but even there, they were uncommon in the West in the 1950's as the West Germans made equivalent camera products like the Braun Paxette. I understand some were sold in the States at this period, handled by the US Exakta Importers.

They did turn up regularly on the second hand market in the 1970's in the UK, the post war import restrictions lead to many sales of camera gear generally by tourists to the UK. This was a bit illegal at the time, no import duties were paid, and the Trade should not have been involved. The East German Werra 35mm camera from Zeiss,(Pentacon), did get officially imported to the UK, and has a similar specification to the Altix, even having it's own bayonet mounted lenses on some later Werra models.

When the Altissa Altix turned up in photographic shops it was usually with a request for the take up spool....they are the "self eject variety"!! in other words, nothing at all holds them into the camera, but at least they had the common sense to use a standard Kodak film canister spool, so a spare could always be found.

A general nuisance of the Altix design is the shutter cocking, it is manual, before or after winding on, and you cannot fire the shutter without a film in placed and wound on, a very pre-war part of the design. Difficult to demonstrate in a shop.

Stephen.

[Stephen]

Butterfly bush, Buddleia.

Couple of scanned colour negative shots with the 35mm Primagon on the Altix, with fill in flash, as the weather was so dull and wet.


Laburnam Tree.

Looks like the focus problem has been cured. I have a B/W film in to test it further, but the weather is very dull so far.

Stephen.

[Stephen]

Couple of shots taken on Fuji colour negative and scanned with PM-1, using the Meyer-Optik Primagon lens on the Altix V, taken at the Rochester Dickens Festival.



Fagin at the Rochester 2013 Dickens Festival



Rochester Dickens Festival



Outside George Hotel

Stephen.

[Stephen]

And some entertainers at the festival........

[Stephen]

Managed to source a reasonably priced Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 50mm F2.8 for the camera, from Berlin via ebay. Although the Primagon is good, it is only F4.5 max so difficult to use in anything but good lighting conditions, although modern higher speed film helps overcome this.
Normally Zeiss lenses attract a premium price these days, but the Altissa Altix bayonet mount being rarer, must make these types less desirable than M42.
I'll test it out, with the wide angle as well, on some more general summer shots in the next few days.

Stephen.

[Stephen]

Coffee Break.


Alcock and Brown Entertainers.


Nancy and The Artful Dodger at the Dickens Festival.

Three more shots at the Dickens Festival, Altissa Altix with Primagon lens.

Stephen.

[Stephen]

Dickens Characters in Parade......

[Stephen]

Oh Dear... win some, lose some, .....I ordered a CZ lens for the Altissa Altix from Ebay, a shop in Berlin, and got precisely that, an Altissa Altix Carl Zeiss Jena F2.8 lens for an Altix, but the screw fit Altix 111A model.

It also has a loose mount, but that is very easily cured. It must date from prior to the Altissa 1V about 1953/4 period, No5434255, (I wonder if the last pair indicate 1955 date?). Apart from the loose screw mount in very good condition, no haze or fungus, and no marks.




I need the bayonet version, and was surprised this one was quite inexpensive, I now Know why. However all is not lost, it can have an adaptor made to fit Micro 4/3 quite easily, the existing mount is fine screw 22mm I think, I will have to check.



But the film register to mount is the same as the bayonet, and it may be possible to turned up the bayonet mount and fit into place. The flange measurement should reveal which plane in the mount is the vital one to machine the mount to.




So to get a 50mm Bayonet the search is still on, it appears the 35mm lens in good order fetch high prices and the 90mm tele lenses are the same.

I will do a quick adaptor and test out the Tessar on the Olympus PM-1 in the meantime.

Stephen.