Help ID this old folder?

[xtolsniffer]

View attachment 150523 View attachment 150524 Hello all,
I found this camera in a charity shop for £5. I can never resist anything this beautiful, so took it home. The bellows are fine, and the lens is clear, iris not sticky and shutter speeds about right, well, within reason anyway. It also takes 120 film. It's been a bit bashed in places, but nothing a little TLC won't be able to fix. The only thing is, I can't find out anything about it. There are no markings on the camera body at all. The shutter is a Vario with marked speeds of 25, 50, 200, B and T, and around the lens it says 'Spezial-Aplanet 1:8 F=10,5cm' Apertures are 8, 11, 16, 22 and 32. It has a rather peculiar way of setting focus in that you move the lens assembly back and forth on a set of rails.

From comparing images on the web, the closest I get is something from Orionwerks, but there seems to be a fair few of these style cameras around in the period of the late 1920s. I'm looking forward to cleaning it up and putting a film through it. Actually, while I think about it, what's the best way to restore the leather on the body and the bellows? It's in a pretty good state but I'm sure something to put the oils back in wouldn't be a bad idea.

 

[Ian Grant]

You need a side view as the struts vary between manufacturers and their shape can be quite characteristic, there were a lot of different manufacturers many quite short lived so ID can be difficult. It's a bottom end model though with a cheap lens and shutter. There's what appears to be a similar camera on Ebay claiming to be a Zeiss Ikon, but it would have a model number pressed into the leather and a makers name somewhere.

Ian

 

[xtolsniffer]

Thanks Ian, are these any better?

I love the idea of it being a bottom end model, and I'm sure during that period, any camera would have been a luxury item! I can't find any makers name on it anywhere, so I'm assuming it's from a lesser manufacturer.

 

[Ian Grant]

Looking at Zeiss adverts they used a Dominar or Novar on budget models also a Derval shutter, so I think you're right an unknown maker. many cameras were re-badged anyway which makes it harder.

Ian

 

[Andy38]

Hello,
It looks like a Welta Sport.
Welta made many no-named cameras before WWII.

 

[AgX]

In general many german manufacturers made cameras unbranded/customer-branded.

 

[xtolsniffer]

Welta sport looks like a possibility! The issue I have found is that a lot of the images come from ebay, where the camera is called a 'xxx-whatever' so the tendency is to assume they have it right, yet when you go back to scans of the original catalogues it isn't the case. I'm assuming that most of these German no-name cameras are from the 1920's? Do any of this style make it into the 1930's? Things seem to have advanced a bit more technically by then.

This looks like the chap, although with a different lens assembly.

http://www.collection-appareils.fr/x/html/camera-5243-Welta_Sport.html