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Richard Gould
3rd June 2011, 06:19 PM
Last week I got what must be the Bargain of the year for me, at a local car boot I bought a Carl Zeiss Werra 3, with the tesser lens, complete with the lens hood and cap, together with the 35mm Flektagon and 100mm cardinar lens for the grand sum of £2.50p, The seller wanted £10.00 for the kit, but when I tried the camera the shutter wasn't working, and so he said make me an offer, I offered £2.50, after all,the lenses were no good without the Werra,and he accepted, so after a quick trip to Newton and Ellis and £60 I now have a Werra 3 that is near mint and working perfectly and the to extra lenses, that are very hard to find, and even harder in near mint condition, as these are, Got the camera back today and I am now just waiting to get out and start using my Rangefinder Bargain,
Richard:D

B&W Neil
3rd June 2011, 07:18 PM
Congratulations Richard; that is indeed a bargain :D

I an remember lusting after a Werra + lenses back in the 60s but never having the money to buy them :(

I look forward to seeing some images from your new camera and lenses.

Neil.

Richard Gould
3rd June 2011, 08:18 PM
Neil,
When I get some images from this outfit I will post some, I have also long lusted after an outfit like this but they just never seem to turn up, Newton Ellis told me that this is the rarest of the Werras, they come up once in a blue moon, and a complete set of lenses are even rarer,so I am going to hopefully have some fun over the next few days,
Richard

DavidH
3rd June 2011, 09:13 PM
I have had a Werramatic for some years but have never been able to find the other lenses at a price I can afford. A few weeks back I gave in to temptation at a second hand camera stall and bought a Werra 1 for £15. The tessar lenses on each give lovely results. In addition, I find that there is no error between the rangefinder and lens focus on the Werramatic and none on the Werra 1 (which has no rangefinder and a fixed lens) between lens focus and the distance scale. I had read somewhere in the dim and distant past that the quality control on the Werra range was exemplary.
I'm sure you'll enjoy using your excellent bargain.

cliveh
3rd June 2011, 09:23 PM
Richard, a bargain indeed. I have always wanted a Werra with a rangefinder (mine doesn't have one) and as David points out the Tessar is an outstanding lens, particularly with the mother of all lens hoods.

Richard Gould
4th June 2011, 06:19 AM
I have had a Werramat for a while now, a beautiful fixed lens camera, and the Tessar lens is outstanding, and have been looking for a Werra 3 or Werramatic for a couple of years now, but at the but haven't been able to find one,and as for the lenses, they seem to be almost as rare as hen's teeth, and just as expensive, so for £2.50 plus a lens service for an near mint outfit, well,I am over the moon, and cannot wait to get out with the outfit and try it, And David, the people who built the Werras not only designed a camera way ahead of it's time, but they had something to prove to Carl Zeiss for having faith in them, so Quality Control was all important,
Richard

pentaxpete
8th June 2011, 07:18 PM
I was GIVEN a 1966 Werramatic a couple of years ago and enjoy taking it out with some of my outdated film -- one shot I enlarged to 16x12" RA4 colour and put it into my Club Monthly Print ( but it didn't get anywhere! )

Richard Gould
8th June 2011, 07:49 PM
PentaxPete,
That sounds a real bargain,Did you also get the extra lenses,? They are terrific lenses, but as they are Carl Zeiss Glass you shouldn't expect anything else,
Richard

WillShade
10th June 2011, 07:00 PM
So Richard,
How about a portrait of the camera + lenses in the mean time.
I'd like to see what those look like.

pentaxpete
12th June 2011, 12:38 PM
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/25850987@N03/3800767150/" title="Werramatic by pentaxpete, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3552/3800767150_a6946f266a_m.jpg" width="240" height="168" alt="Werramatic"></a>
Hope this 'link' works a sit is my 1966 free gift Werramatic !

Xpres
12th June 2011, 01:02 PM
Here it is...

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3552/3800767150_a6946f266a_m.jpg

Richard Gould
12th June 2011, 02:09 PM
Here it is...

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3552/3800767150_a6946f266a_m.jpg

Wrong one, mine is the earlier flat top one, and also mine is the Werra 3, and yours is a werrramatic,(I don't have a Exposure meter just a rangefinder), I will try and post a picture,together with the lenses, but I will have to take one first as I don't have one of those digital things, too modern for me,
Richard

Xpres
12th June 2011, 04:18 PM
Apologies Richard, the pic is from Pete's link - I just thought I'd show it in the thread but unfortunately omitted to say so. :o

Richard Gould
12th June 2011, 04:27 PM
Thats Fine, Werras are all great cameras, and later versions of the 3 had the same look as the werramatic after a cosmetic re design towards the end of production, and the werramatic also used the same lenses as thje 3, I think they were the only 2 that had changeable lenses, they main difference between the two cameras is the Werramatic had both range finder and exposure meter built in, I also have a werra mat, a fixed lens model with built in exposure meter, which still works well today, but no rangefinder, again an earlier flat top version,As soon as I get time I will take and post a pic of my werra 3 and the lenses, at the moment I am busy printing my entry for Fadu 2011,
Richard
Richard

pentaxpete
13th June 2011, 08:51 AM
Mr Xpres : Thanks for getting the actual PHOTO in to show -- I must have done something wrong as when I tried it didn't show as the photo!

Richard Gould
15th June 2011, 04:47 PM
This is my Werra 3 bargain, Camera,pretty well mint, the 2 lenses,35mm Flektogon and 100mm cardinar, both pretty well mint, and both cased,all for the grand sum of £2.50.Sorry about the lousy picture but for this I used the camera in my mobile phone, for the first, and possibly last, time,
Cardiner lens is on left, flektagon on right,
Richard

cliveh
15th June 2011, 08:35 PM
Richard, what has always surprised me about the Werra, is that it must be one of the most minimalist cameras ever designed, but in East Germany if I have my facts correct. It is a design that you might well expect to originate from Italy, but with perhaps less emphasis on functionality. This alone makes it quite unique.

Richard Gould
15th June 2011, 08:53 PM
Clive,
The werras were certainly different, certainly from anything made in either East or West Germany at the time, The story is that the folks that were charged by Carl Zeiss to design and build the camera wanted to prove that they could not only build a functional camera but a beautiful and different camera, and they certainly suceded very well, a beautiful and functional camera, very well built, and with Zeiss Glass, Probably the finest camera of it,s type to come out of East Germany at that time, certainly better built than most from there
Richard

Miha
16th June 2011, 06:08 AM
Richard, the story I heard is that at the time Zeiss Jena in DDR had too many engineers and too little work. The Werra Project came as a salvation plan to make them busy.

Richard Gould
16th June 2011, 06:31 AM
Miha,
The story I have always been told is that after the war many of the Zeiss engineers were taken to Russia together with most of the old Contax machinery to set up the Kiev line, but after the job was done they drifted back,but CZ had no work for them, but didn't want to lose them, so gave them an old factory and told them to design a camera,and the werra is what they came up with, beautifully designed and engineed camera, and ahead of it's time but so well built because they felt they had to prove their worth to CZ for having faith in them,Whatever is the truth, they certainly came up with a pretty awesome camera, and a great shooter,
Richard

Miha
16th June 2011, 06:40 AM
Your version of the story is certainly more romantic than mine.:p

Richard Gould
16th June 2011, 09:58 AM
Miha, just repeating the story I have read on a few sites, I guess we will never know the truth, probably somewhere between the two,
Richard

CarlGarner
26th June 2011, 10:17 PM
Hi all, as i can see from this thread there is quite a bit of interest in Werra's, my dad gave me my grandads old werra some years ago but alas it is not working, cant remember why, think it s the leaf shutter, not sure what model it is! If anyone can breathe new life into it i would be happy to part with it f.o.c. Maybe i'm old school but i hate throwing anything away, its at my mums at moment so i'll pick it up tomorrow and post relavant details!!

MartyNL
26th June 2011, 10:19 PM
Hi all, as i can see from this thread there is quite a bit of interest in Werra's, my dad gave me my grandads old werra some years ago but alas it is not working, cant remember why, think it s the leaf shutter, not sure what model it is! If anyone can breathe new life into it i would be happy to part with it f.o.c. Maybe i'm old school but i hate throwing anything away, its at my mums at moment so i'll pick it up tomorrow and post relavant details!!

Someone's going to be happy!

Alternatively, you could get it fixed quite cheaply I should think and use it yourself?

Richard Gould
27th June 2011, 05:13 AM
Carl,
Why not get a shutter service at http://newtonellis.co.ukfor around £60 and get a huge amount of pleasure out of using the camera yourself,? I have 2, a werramat as well as the bargain, and they are awesome shooters,
Richard

CarlGarner
27th June 2011, 07:53 AM
Thanks for the replies, and it's an idea to get it serviced but unfortuneately probably like most of you out there my resources are limited at the moment. Probably 80% of my childhood images were taken with the Werra back in the sixties and early seventies by my grandad, and it's a shame that it sits in the cupboard non functional. If any body can get any pleasure from it and restore it to it's former glory my offer still stands. It would give me a nice warm feeling knowing it has gone to someone who would appreciate it and use it>

Terry S
30th September 2012, 12:25 PM
Having only recently come across a picture of these beautifully designed Werra cameras, (I saw the green version and just fell in love with it) I just HAD to have one to add to my collection! :-)

After much searching and watching, I have finally purchased one. It's in the post and I can't wait to hold it and run a film through it. :-) :-) :-)

Terry S

Terry S

Richard Gould
30th September 2012, 02:19 PM
Terry, You won't be diassapointed with the results, although the film wind system takes a bit of getting used to, but works fine, I think they were a camera ahead of their time, I love using the 2 I have, so have fun with it
Richard

Steve Smith
30th September 2012, 05:48 PM
The Werra was the first camera my father bought many years ago. More recently he bought one on Ebay and this started him collecting cameras - all of which I have now inherited.

The Werra has some clever design features like the lens hood which reveses and fits in place over the lens and the round the lens wind on mechanism.

And the rounded off flush shutter release wouldn't look out of place on a modern camera.


Steve.