Hi all
from where are the Mentor cameras? (FSU, DDR, Tjechoslovakia?)
I have seen a lot of them on German E-bay both as flatbed and reflextype but always in 13X18. looks a lot like Graflex copies but these seems to weigh a ton.
Best regards
Im not going to buy one, I'm just curious to where thay are from etc.
Ok that one didn't last till March At least when we get to June it will be easier
That article of Camerapedia is wrong in that it states the life of Mentor cameraworks to have come to an end by the end of the war.
But the small company lived on, designed new models, became a state enterprise in 1972 and finally was cancelled in 1980. However small scale production of Mentor cameras has gone through in the same workshop which now made part VEB Pentacon Dresden.
The Mentor range were the only GDR LF cameras.
I'm being serious it's easy to join and edit the articles. There are always gaps in knowledge and unless people make the corrections no-one will know better.
I have one of them - Mentor panorama 18x24 cm. Two years ago price was about 230 $ with 5 DDS.
And yes, it`s a GDR/DDR monorail camera with Zeiss barrel lenses (4,5/300) and behind the lens shutter(1/125 - 2 s).
Mentor has full movements, but it`s quite heavy (11 kg), so I made some modifications and now it weights only 7 kg, so I can take it with me outside in my pocket