The Camera Site

Belfoca

Once again a hit from a flea market. You may notice that I collect cameras, not collectibles.

This camera was born behind the Iron Curtain about fifty years ago (~1952) It is fitted with fairly good lens E. Ludwig Meritar (triplet) 1:4,5/105mm. Also the shutter is not bad at all, it is Prontor S with a self timer and a flash contact. Shutter speeds are 1 - 1/250sec.

View finder is the simplest possible and you may occasionally take exiting double exposures with this Belfoca before than you learn to wind the next frame immediately after the shutter release. The waist level view finder has to have been optional because it is not very common on these more modern folding cameras.
The Belfoca is more or less a copy of the Zeiss Nettar (515/2) but in spite of rather similar specifications the results are slightly inferior compared to the original.

The background of Belfoca

Again a camera manufacturer with very long history. The story beguns when Max Baldeweg founded a camera factory in 1908. The production was busy until WW II changed all. Max Baldeweg lost his company to the state but he founded a new company under the Balda name in Western Germany.
As usual the models and manufacturing prosesses and machines and even the names were stolen. The East German company continued to produce cameras under the Balda name until 1951, when the name changed to "Optik Belca Werke". 1957 this company formed part of the new "VEB Kamerawerk Niedersedlitz"

Photography Related Junk Nr.1
(A Lighter "Camcorder" Combo)

If You Wish Nr.2

Junk might be a bit too hard expression. You might also consider these items as cute and interesting camera related collectibles for enthusiastic photographers or camera collectors.