It’s a claim I often make when discussing my hobbies and (numerous) specialist interests. Yes, of course I like to acquire things, quite a lot of things in truth, but that doesn’t in fact make me a collector, no-no!*. Just the right number of things to satisfy an interest, and no more. A 'roundabout' figure that leaves plenty of room for casual acquisition, but precludes the mission creep of actual collecting.
I will claim, if asked…
So how many film cameras does a level-headed chap need to adequately indulge his passion? One of everything? Several iterations of a particular model? One example of each format?… Well for me, it's one slightly difficult one, and an easier one as a spare, but ask me again in (say) 12 months time and we’ll see where we are eh!
The trouble is that temptation lies around every corner, particularly if you’re no stranger to Flea Markets, Car Boots, and the multiverse of High Street Charity Shops. And of course many vintage film cameras are quite cheap, often ridiculously so, which is hardly fair!
I acquired my 'spare' from an eye-catching window display in a nearby charity shop. First choice was a smart looking minimalist
Minolta that proved too lightweight and plasticky for my taste. It also required batteries, I don’t do batteries. A big old clunky
Zenit SLR, some
Instamatics, a couple of
Box Brownies, several uninspiring 80’s
Point and Shoots, none of which hit the spot. A curvy
German Rangefinder for just £20 however...
There's already a fair bit of discussion online about the
Balda ‘Baldessa’ series of cameras, for the most part it’s all quite positive. Like me they find the curved body of the camera attractive and nice to hold, and whilst the layout is undeniably quirky, it's also regarded as being surprisingly intuitive in use, a rare example of good original design. The lens and photographic quality are apparently quite decent, helped along by a
45mm Fixed Lens which achieves focus by moving the whole lens and shutter mechanism as a single unit, rather than adjusting separate elements of the optics. This one is a
Baldessa 1a, the mid-point between the original
Zone Focussing camera introduced in 1957, and the
1b which comes with a
Selenium Light Meter. The combined
Rangefinder and viewing window on the 1a is big and bright, and given that I use a
Light Meter app for setting exposure I'm happy to have this particular model.
10 minutes of fiddling and firing the camera in the shop confirmed that everything seemed to be working well. I can confirm that if you ever get a chance to play with a Baldessa yourself, you too will surely want to own one, they really are a fun camera to use.
So, what else can I say about this lovely little camera that hasn't already been said before? The Leather Case?… I’m left with telling you about the leather case. Yes, it really has come to this. An absolute clunker of solid German engineering. Hard brown leather, soft velvet lining, a crash-proof strip of Aluminium around the edge. A proper Volvo of a camera case. Ugly, functional, safe as houses, and I absolutely hate it and all cases like it!
Nobody seems to have mentioned the little
Three Leaf Shutter logo on the
Shutter Speed ring of the lens, so I'll mention it. This is the logo for the
Gauthier company which designed the
Prontor-SVS Shutter that these cameras use to good effect,
AGC being the abbreviation for
Alfred Gauthier, founder of the company in
Calmbach,
Germany.
Of course the only way to be sure a vintage camera works as it should do is to load it up with film, and shoot it off. Shoot like crazy as it happens because I need to trial the camera ahead of a music festival I'm going to this week. So I took it out for a long walk in tandem with the
FED, a
Fujiclolour 200 for the German camera, a
Kentmere Pan 100 for the Soviet model. Needless to say the Baldessa takes a roll of film without any of the fiddle, faff, and pliers of the FED, a strong factor in deciding which camera I end up taking to the festival, although in truth I may just take them both.
[*I am of course, most men are to be fair]
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