Nagel-74 camera 6x9

The name on the leather strap attached to the camera says Nagel-74, nothing else can be found by me on this via yahoo or google ? came up with a listing but no foto or information for this camera, This camera, the film back slides off to load the film like some 35mm do, also there is an unusual focus set up on it see foto #2 not great but should help understand what I am trying to say and ask! When I slide out the lens out to the end of the edge of the
slide and lock it there now its at Infinity and the little handle alows me to focus down to 1.2 meters I hope I am doing that right?

Thank a Lot ran a roll of Plus-x thru it today, The lens is a Dr.Aug.Nagel Suttgart a Nagel-Anastigmatic F4.5 105mm lens on a compur shutter !

I am going to guess that this is before Nagel started to work for Kodak ???

Yes, this is likely a pre-Kodak Nagel camera. Dr. August Nagel worked for Zeiss Ikon for a time before leaving on poor terms, as I recall reading. You can see some of Dr. Nagel's work in the Zeiss Ikon Ikonta -- the strut design is similar to what you'll see in some of the Nagel cameras.

You are focusing the camera correctly.

This style of camera was representative of those around 1920. I don't know enough about this model, but it's likely one of the early roll film cameras. It still has the frame finders that are found on cameras from that era.

Lenses on rails were used with plate cameras, and that's why I think this was an early roll-film camera.

Dr. Nagel was affiliated with several camera companies, some bearing his name: Drexler & Nagel; Contessa Industrie Werke August Nagel, Contessa-Nettel Werke A. Nagel and then Nagel Camera Werke (after he left Zeiss Ikon). The last company is the one that Kodak bought and renamed Kodak AG.

Dr. Nagel, of course, designed the Kodak Retina -- one of photography's great cameras. With it, Kodak introduced the daylight-loading 35mm cartridge, which we continue to use today. The daylight loading cartridge brought photography to the masses (always a Kodak goal) and out of the dark -- literally, because before this, Leica and Contax photographers had to preload lengths of cine film into proprietary film cartridges.

Mike: I thank you for your help , I went back to yahoo and look under Nagel and found a little more, But so far nothing really on the model 74 which is a Librette ?
Now the question how well will it stack up against Tessar, also found an ad the cost of a the camera for nagel camera was 2pounds,7shilling and 6 pence and you need to add a little extra for F4.5 105mm lens and shutter, The surprise i got is the shutter goes to 1/250 sec , this camera had to a better one ,I think !
The red bubble is in great shape and still works, have not checked the bellows for light leaks but ran a roll of plus-x thru it a ISO100 will be use-ing ID-11 for developer we will see what comes out,shot at f-8and F-11

The "Nagel" logo is definitely the same as used by Nagel-Werk, the company that was later assimilated into Kodak. From what I can tell, they tended to use Vario or similar three-speed shutters on their lower-end cameras, and Compurs on the higher-end versions---1/250 sounds like a slow top speed to us now, but in ~1930 it was pretty good (and anyway films were generally slower).

I agree with elekm about the sliding standard---this is a sign of an early rollfilm camera based on a plate-camera design. (The Voigtlaender Rollfilmkamera is the same way.) I expect this is basically an adaptation of the Fornidar 18 to rollfilm. It should be a well-made camera---Nagel was serious about getting the little details right, and both my Nagel cameras just have a certain "feels right, works right" character about them in use.

I've read, I think in the Vade Mecum, that Nagel never made lenses and a "Nagel-Anastigmat" is always a relabelled lens from another German manufacturer---probably a triplet, considering the era and the "Anastigmat" name.

-NT

Mike E : Some thing is not right all of the frame of the plus-x film shot thru the Nagel Librette 74 are all out of focus badly ? Any thoughts :