New to me Makina II

[Dkirk]

Emailed R J Lam of Dead Link Removed - He's got an early Makina I, 2 IIIRs and interestingly a fixed lens III. Hopefully I'll hear back shortly about their serials. Though apparently the I has no serial and dates from 1929 (according to the person he bought it from).
Still waiting on the film back winging it's way from Germany. . . DHL website still not updating the tracking info, still not on their system apparently. . . Once it comes, think it'll be time to populate this thread with some images from it

Another thought about the scale in feet on one of your IIIRs could be that it was done by the importer under licence from Plaubel, or as you said done in the factory for export and that's why the scales are not in any public catalogue. . .

 

[jnoir]

Looks nicely kept, a good example. Did it took you long to find it ? Or was just a casual finding ?

I also got in touch with RJ and got a similar answer. I am starting to believe in the same you have found, that Plaubels older than the Makina II had no body serial number. Hopefully RJ will be able to thoroughly check his cameras and locate it if in another position, or not find it at all which could hint this no-serial theory.

It's odd that some people rejects to share their serials on the grounds that they can be misused e.g. on eBay. Such has been the case of Mr. Jani Heikkinen, which declined to provide data about his Makina III even after linking this thread which would allow "misusing" with or without his single number... Pity, but perfectly respectable! Luckily there are other, friendlier owners and sellers which are participating.

To try to have increased visibility, and a more ordered way to present the data, I have created a little "table" at the discussion page on the Makina article from camera-wiki:

http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Talk:Plaubel_Makina

A local friend has shared the serial of his chromed IIS with me: 1H476. It is actually the first one we find starting on "1", so it may seem that for other serials, the first character is a zero and not a capital 'o'. But, based on the data collected so far, looks intriguingly different...

As for the export models, I can't say for sure. In my experience with folders, I don't think so. Distances in feet are common in the UK for example, so there are Agfa's with distances in feet and the same cameras branded as Ansco - Agfa's importer on the US - also in feet. It could be that batches were made taking into account its destination. Who knows ! Maybe the actual Plaubel, if they keep something from the last century...

 

[Dkirk]

I've been looking on and off for a while, but this was a rather casual find. Still waiting on the roll film back from Germany via DHL - still no tracking information (and I thought Royal Mail were bad. . . ) Due to arrive today however is are a couple of rolls of Rollie IR film, so once the back makes an appearance, I'll be able to put to bed the query about using IR film in mine. Trying to trace down some other odds and ends - watching a Makina for repairs in the US, hope to pick that up fairly cheaply.

 

[Dkirk]

Film back arrived today Typically the weather has turned to grey wet and horrible, but hope to put a couple of films through it and see how they stand up. Then once I've got the hang of it, I'll give it a go with IR film.

 

[Dkirk]

Slowly making a little progress with the Makina II - It really feels so SLOW to work with, missed a few shots because of that Though I am getting more used to it, the main problem still is the vertical misalignment in the rangefinder. . .

On a second note I've now got a copy of "Das Buch Der Makina" and slowly making my way through attempting to translate it.

 

[Marc Akemann]

A friend is allowing me to borrow her Plaubel Makina II. Everything seems to work just fine with it, short of using it with film, which I will do soon. The camera came with 5 Plaubel sheet film holders and I'm on the hunt for a roll film holder. The serial number on the body is S330 and the 10 cm f2.9 Plaubel Anticomar lens serial number is 96440. I love how the camera works and the smoothness of the mechanics. I'll add some photos a little later.

 

[Marc Akemann]

Here are the photos of my friend's Plaubel Makina II including one with the body serial number.

 

[mshchem]

Very Very cool!
Mike