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Klimax plate camera
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 05, 2012 7:30 pm    Post subject: Klimax plate camera Reply with quote

I've got myself a nice old folder with ground glass.
The camera is a Klimax ( i guess an English made or maybe rebranded?) with Compur shutter and a Leonar Werk Doppel Anastigmat 5.4/120mm lens.
There are 2 film holders and it looks like the size is close to 9x12 (but looks less).

Except with the obvious 9x12 plan film can i use it with with instant film and what should be the appropriate size?


PostPosted: Wed Sep 05, 2012 8:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Try to find more film holders for it, so you have a spare if this goes wrong.
Adapt a film holder to take a Polaroid filmpack back from one of the cheap Polas made by the million and no great loss. You'd have to adjust the new focal settings on the front rails, but that's no biggie.
If you reckon it's smaller than 9x12, it might be the British quarter-plate, so good luck trying to find holder for that - back then there wasn't any real standardisation of holders and each maker tried to capture the market of users of their cameras.


PostPosted: Wed Sep 05, 2012 8:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The Compur shutter and the German lens tells me it was most likely made in Germany.

If it is an English brand, or even if its made in Germany and rebadged for sale in Britain, it could be using a slightly different film and film holder size than 9x12.

I have run across this problem before.
I have a Butcher (a British brand) Popular Pressman SLR (still waiting for shutter repairs) that was actually made by Ica (Dresden) - but which has film holder rails slightly narrower than the German 9x12. I think this was made specifically for the British market to a British standard. I believe I have seen my camera listed in an old Ica catalog as an 8x10cm.

The British standard for this intermediate size was called quarter-plate, or 3 1/4 x 4 1/4", same name as the American standard intermediate size, though I don't know if the British films were actually exactly the American size.

If they are, you can still get 3 1/4 x 4 1/4" US-style film.

As for Instant film -

Technically thats the same size as current smaller size (3 1/4x4 1/4, like Fuji FP100C) of instant film packs, though you would have to make or adapt a film holder for them, and also a groundglass back with the same register, as its unlikely you can adapt a holder to put the film precisely where the current groundglass back is.


PostPosted: Thu Sep 06, 2012 9:02 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks guys for the information.
I'm really new into this and i can't say if it is 9x12 or less.
But i think Luis is right about the German origin and 8x10 film size.

So here it is:

The spirit lever is working, the bellows can be extended a lot making minimum focus distance about 20 cm. and it also has a front rise movement.
Shutter is good and it has a top speed of 1/250.
I only need to give it for lens cleaning as it has some dust inside.

There are some modifications (look at the f-stops scale on the lens) and there are some holes here and there. It is possible that this is not the original lens at all.


I'm not sure what is the purpose of the knob on the pic above. It moves the lens further by 1cm but then the distance scale is not correct.




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Last edited by std on Thu Aug 14, 2014 12:59 pm; edited 1 time in total


PostPosted: Thu Sep 06, 2012 6:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

It turns out that "Klimax" was a brand name used by Houghton Butcher for several models of camera over several decades, some of which may have been imported from Germany, and some of which may have been made in Britain.

Yours looks very much like a 1920's German import, and a high quality one too.

Butcher was also known to modify their imported cameras, like putting other lenses on them, such as Ross lenses on Ica SLR's and other such bespoke changes.

It seems to me thats what Butcher did with this one - the lens and shutter were probably mated by Butcher, who may have engraved the aperture scale and the focus scale as well, when they added them to the camera body. A professional job, but not a "factory" product.

BTW, your camera also has a shift movement, just not geared. It stays in place by friction. Try it. This is common on German plate cameras, such as the Voigtlander Vag.