what is the smallest mechanical SLR that you know of?

[Theo Sulphate]

...
Tessina
...

Those are amazing in design and ability. They'll never make anything like that again.

 

[68degrees]

Tessina! Thats insane. its a horizontal TLR.

 

[spark]

Tessina! Thats insane. its a horizontal TLR.

They were insane, didn’t they use a special 35mm cartridge that you needed to load from a standard one?

 

[ciniframe]

The Olympus Pen has adapters for practically every lens mount. Here I am using a Nikon adapter which may be of interest to the OP.

Yes, of course, with a 28.95mm register the Pen could adapt almost any SLR lens. I have adapters for OM and M42 and 'T' mount. But adapted lenses can be quite large while the made for Pen F Zuikos are very compact, if you don't mind them being slow. I have the 20mm f3.5, 25mm f4, 38mm f1.8, 100mm f3.5 and a very ratty 150mm f4. I also have the large and heavy (but constant aperture) 50~90 f3.5. The zoom isn't used unless I cannot stand in the place I want for the composition I want.
OEM lens adapters can be more rare and expensive than the lenses. And how do you search for them now that STUPID Olympus named a digital camera 'Pen F'. When I saw that, although not being a violent man normally, wanted to take a baseball bat to the Olympus marketing team who came up with that tomfoolery.
OK, I've got a IPA in my mitt now and calmed down a bit....but really, only film half frames by Olympus should have the 'Pen' name.

 

[Sirius Glass]

They were insane, didn’t they use a special 35mm cartridge that you needed to load from a standard one?

The Tessina uses an easily available custom cartridge that can be loaded by hand or using a readily available daylight loader. A 36 exposure roll fills three 20+ negative cartridges.

 

[guangong]

Almost all of the Tessinas that I see offered for sale have non working slow speeds...and even then they are not cheap. Used Tessina became more expensive after Watergate. Also, many folks in the subminiature crowd believe that despite larger negative that results are significantly better than from a Minox. Never having used a Tessina, I an just reporting comments that I have read.
However, it seemed to me that carrying a Tessina on the wrist would be more obvious than a Dick Tracy wrist radio.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Almost all of the Tessinas that I see offered for sale have non working slow speeds...and even then they are not cheap. Used Tessina became more expensive after Watergate. Also, many folks in the subminiature crowd believe that despite larger negative that results are significantly better than from a Minox. Never having used a Tessina, I an just reporting comments that I have read.
However, it seemed to me that carrying a Tessina on the wrist would be more obvious than a Dick Tracy wrist radio.

Mine works at all shutter speeds. I just do not use it much.

 

[KN4SMF]

Let's re-ask the question another way. What 35mm SLR is the smallest that gives a 100% viewfinder representation of the actual film area?

 

[ciniframe]

Let's re-ask the question another way. What 35mm SLR is the smallest that gives a 100% viewfinder representation of the actual film area?

That is a short list. I would say a Nikon F or F2 with a non-metered plain eye level prism.
There just was not that many 35mm SLR's that had a 100% viewfinder. I think my OM-1 has a 96% VF area. You know it is hard to print full frame unless you have an oversize neg carrier. Not sure about scanning, but I suppose you could capture 100% of the negative.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Let's re-ask the question another way. What 35mm SLR is the smallest that gives a 100% viewfinder representation of the actual film area?

The you are talking about full frame which is also called double frame 35mm cameras. The smallest SLR would be the Olympus Pen F.

 

[trendland]

Let's re-ask the question another way. What 35mm SLR is the smallest that gives a 100% viewfinder representation of the actual film area?

Good point - concerning 100% vievfinder I just remember some colleagues who play the play
with digital the beginning of digital = APS - C sensors!
After a while I hear them whimper - about digital, about pricing, about Megapixel, Full Frame they can't afford a.s.o.!
I came along to job with my brand New Pentax67 (allways not whimper about) and was wondering?
They can't belive that bright viefinder window? I disembled the pentaprism viewfinder to show
the real brightness.........
Next I did not understand = they stated they can't look at and were afraid to go
B L I N D from...!
Whats up with these fellows - yes it is real bright but also normal!
And it is soo big - they stated.....?? Hmm - it is normal - it is the same with 35mm?
100% from film space! Whats up with your Megapixel Heros I asked!
The they let me have a look through their pros. Nikons......!
What have they paied for... APS C is showing 110 pocket window!

with regards

 

[trendland]

That is a short list. I would say a Nikon F or F2 with a non-metered plain eye level prism.
There just was not that many 35mm SLR's that had a 100% viewfinder. I think my OM-1 has a 96% VF area. You know it is hard to print full frame unless you have an oversize neg carrier. Not sure about scanning, but I suppose you could capture 100% of the negative.

100% is OK, 97,475 % is also OK!
But no photographer has a remind of 106%??? Because that would had been a real problem!

with regards

PS : Understand?
PPS : from viewfinder of couurse = viewfinder would show more than negative!
PPPS : Just posible with viewfinder camera - not with SLR's

 

[trendland]

Game over!!!

Tessina

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tessina
http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Tessina

Is Tessina a real S L R ?
May be I am wrong but S L R should indicate Mirrow Reflex (S piege L R eflex )
don't tell me that is wrong pls.!

with regards

PS : Aged 7 ..perhaps Aged 8 or 9 I had the idea this is standing for SLR?
TILL TODAY.......let me not google I will hold with my illusions (the possible last illusion )

 

[trendland]

Pentax also made the world's smallest interchangeable-lens SLR system camera: the Pentax Auto-110. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentax_Auto_110

tih - how much money is in the.......
Jackpot now? :

Guess (because of your previous restraint) it will not come more money!

with regards

PS : 50/50 = each of us the half?

 

[Sirius Glass]

 

[trendland]

View attachment 221791

- very nice

with greetings

PS : I have NO L A P T O P....

PPS : A Tablet = a size like a Monster big I-phone

 

[John Koehrer]

Kinda gets away from the 35mm and 100%viewfinder though doesn't it.

troll, troll, troll your boat, gently down the stream.

 

[Les Sarile]

Let's re-ask the question another way. What 35mm SLR is the smallest that gives a 100% viewfinder representation of the actual film area?

As far as I know, only the Nikon F series (F - F6) all have 100% viewfinder coverage. So I guess the plain prism F and F2 would be the smallest SLR with 100% coverage. If you want a metered prism then that would have to be the F3.

I believe Canon may be the the only other company that provided 100% coverage which started with their EOS1 series.

 

[KN4SMF]

According to my research, all of the Nikon F and F2 finders gave a 100% coverage.

 

[alanrockwood]

Olympus Pen F series.

I think Matt wins the Jackpot with Olympus Pen F.

For full frame, I'll bet the old Exa might be a contender. Olympus OM series was famous for being small. Kowa SET/SETR series was pretty small, and cute too.

By the way, both the Pen F and the Kowa could synchronize electronic flash at a high shutter speed, the Pen F because of its unique rotary shutter and the Kowa because it was a leaf shutter SLR.

 

[AgX]

The you are talking about full frame which is also called double frame 35mm cameras. The smallest SLR would be the Olympus Pen F.

Full frame or half frame has nothing to do with 100% representation of the actual film area, the OP was asking about.

For different reasons camera designers reduced the visible image area. One reason was to be on the safe side with prints, as the printing frame standard is/was 23x35mm, the same for slides photography.

 

[AgX]

May be I am wrong but S L R should indicate Mirrow Reflex (S piege L R eflex )
don't tell me that is wrong pls.!

You are wrong.

SLR means Single Lens Reflex

There is no equivalent abbreviation in German.

 

[etn]

View attachment 221791

When I saw the title of the thread I thought, well, Hasselblad of course. Until I realized it was posted in the 35mm forum.
So I am red-handed trolling here too...

 

[trendland]

You are wrong.

SLR means Single Lens Reflex

There is no equivalent abbreviation in German.

- I remind it from the first thoughts at it wrong - but it was clear yesterday that it can't be right! During the 70th Single Lens Reflex came popular and at about 1973it was clear for me

that must indicate S piege l Reflex till Y E S T E R D A Y !!!!

 

[Pentode]

There’s an awful lot of speculation and/or poor reading comprehension going on in this thread.

The OP has only specified:
A) small
B) mechanical
C) SLR
And, later,
D) 35mm

He has said nothing about frame size. He has said nothing about % of viewfinder representation.

I am pretty entertained, however, that this many people are so passionate to prove that theirs is smallest!

If 1/2-frame is allowed, I can’t think of much smaller than a Pen F off the top of my head. Someone else might, but I can’t.

Full frame offers a lot of choices that may be hard to compare exactly (height? width? weight? volume?) but that all could be considered pretty small.
The Nikons mentioned earlier, Olympus OM series, the original Minolta Sr-1,2 and 3, Pentax MX and much earlier SV and H1a/S1a, even the Pentacon F.... these are all pretty small cameras. The difference in size between them is pretty small. Short of dropping them in a bowl of water and measuring displacement I’m not sure if we’re looking at any really significant differences here. At least, not in terms of user experience.

But hey, if you all want to keep arguing about who’s got the littlest, I’ll keep reading!