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View Full Version : Latest Acquisition - Balda Pontina


Roy_H
23rd May 2009, 06:34 PM
A friend of mine gave me this during the week as a gift for helping him with his house move, he found it whilst clearing out some old stuff.

It's a Balda, of which there were an awful lot of different models, and this has no other identifying name. I think it's a Pontina, circa 1936-38 is my guess. It's 6x9 or 6x4.5, but unfortunately the film plane mask is missing (so it's 6x9 only).

Posting it here in case anyone more knowledgeable about this brand is in the group. I'm guessing it's a continental model, focussing scale is in metres, and it has the f-stop range 4.5-6.3-9-12.5-18-25, everything shifted up by 1/3 stop to keep the range in sync with the widest aperture I guess.

Shutter speeds are from 1 second to 1/150, plus B and T, quite respectable.

A bit of digging suggests that this was probably a 'middle-of-the-range' model. The 105mm Rodenstock Trinar it has is only a triplet, but possible better than the Meyer-Gorlitz Trioplan fitted to some models - and not as good as the Schneider Rarionar (top of the range and to all accounts a top-notch lens). (info from The Blue Book).

Anyway, first roll of HP5 has just gone through it - results awaited.

Sandeha Lynch
23rd May 2009, 07:08 PM
The body is almost identical to a 6x9 Certo Certix I picked up last year to salvage the shutter - and one of the easiest shutters to work on since there's lots of elbow room inside. Both companies were in Dresden.

Nothing wrong with a good triplet !! The Trioplan on my Dolly Super Sport is a cracker, though they naturally tend to show themselves at their best when using the smaller format (pity about the mask, but they can be found sometimes) and well stopped down.

http://www.camerapedia.org/wiki/Balda

If the struts are straight and the bellows light-tight, you may have a nice surprise when your negs come out. :)

Richard Gould
24th May 2009, 08:09 AM
Balda is indeed german,the first balda factory was in what became east germany after the war, but the owner saw what was coming and moved to ,I think,Dresdan and set up a new factory at the end of the war,and indeed made some very good cameras,many of which are now becoming very collectable and had to find in reasonable condition,I have a Balda super baldax rangefinder folder,6x6, around 1954, in very good condition,with a trimar 80mm lens, and whenstopped down a couple of stops is very good indeed,I recently some 16x12 prints from the balda and they are very sharp indeed, and even wide open the lens is'nt bad, certainly capable of good 9xs12,Richard

Dave miller
24th May 2009, 08:30 AM
I too have a Balda Super Baldax like Richard, although mine is fitted with a Baltar f2.9 80mm lens which is of good quality. Both the body and lens are stamped made in Bunde, West Germany. The shutter is a Prontor-svs speeded to 1/300th. The speed and aperature are mechanically interconnected through an EV scale.

Roy_H
25th May 2009, 09:24 AM
Here are some scans of the negatives from the first roll through this camera.

I'm reasonably impressed by the quality the Trinar lens produces; there is some noticeable fall-off on the left hand side of the full 6x9 image area (these were shot at either f18 and f25), which would not be a problem if only using the centre of the lens coverage (third image) or the 6x4.5 masked option (if I had the mask).
Quite usable though, within its limitations.

Film was HP5+, rated 320 ISO, processed in Rodinal 1+50 for 10 minutes at 20C.

Dave miller
25th May 2009, 09:26 AM
Here are some scans of the negatives from the first roll through this camera.

I'm reasonably impressed by the quality the Trinar lens produces; there is some noticeable fall-off on the left hand side of the full 6x9 image area (these were shot at either f18 and f25), which would not be a problem if only using the centre of the lens coverage (third image) or the 6x4.5 masked option (if I had the mask).
Quite usable though, within its limitations.

Film was HP5+, rated 320 ISO, processed in Rodinal 1+50 for 10 minutes at 20C.

I think the fall off points to a lens alignment problem.

Roy_H
25th May 2009, 09:50 AM
Good point Dave; I can't see any obvious damage or slackness that may have caused misalignment, but it could be that it was never that accurate from manufacture.