Looking at my Werra 1

ph

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The Werra was made in a purpose-built factory in a Jena offshoot in Eisfeld by the captured Zeiss engineers who returned from builidng up the Kiev camera works after the war (reputedly to give the East Germans an inexpensive (below 100DM) quality camera after the demonstrations against new work targets in 1953 according to the Werra history by Hartmut Thiele). The East German shutters were faster than the compurs sinvce they had rotating shutter blades rather than open-and shutting ones. The Zeiss calculated Flektogon 35/2,8 and Cardinar 100/4 in addition to the normal Tessar all performed reasonably well. it was produced in various models until 1968.

p.
 

choiliefan

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Dec 27, 2013
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Interesting history.
Do all the models share the same "Prestor" shutter?
 

GRHazelton

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BTW, should my fellow Werra owners need service, Zack's repair service did a nice job on my Werra. Does anyone know which everready case fits which Werra?
 

ph

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again relyimg on mr Thieles detailed description, there were some Werra prototypes with the Cludor shutter, then Vebur or for export, Compur rapid, later Synchro compur and once the Prestor was invented, from 1957 that was used. from 1961 with the 1/750s speed. I assume that since Zeiss West had to be paid in foreign currency, Compurs from Deckel would be avoided.

p.
 

tonylathes

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In 1963 I bought a second-hand Werra - I think it was branded a 1A? I used it, hard, for 3 years at university taking thousands of photographs of groups, sports, art displays, etc. It never went wrong - and made me quite a bit of cash - the college providing a free-of-all-costs developing and print darkroom. It was replaced by a used Practica reflex that came with a selection of Pentax and other lenses; it was used for a good 5 years photographing motorsport events - again a good money earner and dead reliable.
 
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